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SUMMARY:
A mythmaker of the highest order, China Miéville has emblazoned the fantasy novel with fresh language, startling images, and stunning originality. Set in the same sprawling world of Miéville’s Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning novel, Perdido Street Station, this latest epic introduces a whole new cast of intriguing characters and dazzling creations. Aboard a vast seafaring vessel, a band of prisoners and slaves, their bodies remade into grotesque biological oddities, is being transported to the fledgling colony of New Crobuzon. But the journey is not theirs alone. They are joined by a handful of travelers, each with a reason for fleeing the city. Among them is Bellis Coldwine, a renowned linguist whose services as an interpreter grant her passage—and escape from horrific punishment. For she is linked to Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, the brilliant renegade scientist who has unwittingly unleashed a nightmare upon New Crobuzon.For Bellis, the plan is clear: live among the new frontiersmen of the colony until it is safe to return home. But when the ship is besieged by pirates on the Swollen Ocean, the senior officers are summarily executed. The surviving passengers are brought to Armada, a city constructed from the hulls of pirated ships, a floating, landless mass ruled by the bizarre duality called the Lovers. On Armada, everyone is given work, and even Remades live as equals to humans, Cactae, and Cray. Yet no one may ever leave.Lonely and embittered in her captivity, Bellis knows that to show dissent is a death sentence. Instead, she must furtively seek information about Armada’s agenda. The answer lies in the dark, amorphous shapes that float undetected miles below the waters—terrifying entities with a singular, chilling mission. . . .China Miéville is a writer for a new era—and The Scar is a luminous, brilliantly imagined novel that is nothing short of spectacular.From the Trade Paperback edition.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy. A little hapless, somewhat neurotic, sort of a hypochondriac. He's what's known as a Beta Male: the kind of fellow who makes his way through life by being careful and constant -- you know, the one who's always there to pick up the pieces when the girl gets dumped by the bigger/taller/stronger Alpha Male.  

 But Charlie's been lucky. He owns a building in the heart of San Francisco, and runs a secondhand store with the help of a couple of loyal, if marginally insane, employees. He's married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him for his normalcy. And she, Rachel, is about to have their first child.  

 Yes, Charlie's doing okay for a Beta. That is, until the day his daughter, Sophie, is born. Just as Charlie -- exhausted from the birth -- turns to go home, he sees a strange man in mint-green golf wear at Rachel's hospital bedside, a man who claims that no one should be able to see him. But see him Charlie does, and from here on out, things get really weird. . . .  

 People start dropping dead around him, giant ravens perch on his building, and it seems that everywhere he goes, a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Strange names start appearing on his nightstand notepad, and before he knows it, those people end up dead, too. Yup, it seems that Charlie Asher has been recruited for a new job, an unpleasant but utterly necessary one: Death. It's a dirty job. But hey, somebody's gotta do it.  

 Christopher Moore, the man whose *Lamb* served up Jesus' "missing years" (with the funny parts left in), and whose *Fluke* found the deep humor in whale researchers' lives, now shines his comic light on the undiscovered country we *all* eventually explore -- death and dying -- and the results are hilarious, heartwarming, and a hell of a lot of fun.


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A budding young writer falls in love with a vampire. He is Tommy of Indiana who moved to San Francisco in search of inspiration and is working in a supermarket. Shopping there is Jody, a secretary still trying to adjust to her new vampire status, after being bitten by one on her way home. A zany tale by the author of Coyote Blue.


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Sam Hunter, a yuppie salesman who has everything he needs except the beautiful Calliope's love, confronts Coyote, the Indian trickster god, and his own forgotten and buried life as Samson Hunts Alone, a native American outlaw. 50,000 first printing.


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Just why do humpback whales sing?That's the question that has marine biologist Nate Quinnand his crew poking, charting, recording andphotographing very big, wet, gray marine mammals. Thatis, until the extraordinary day when a whale lifts itstail into the air to display a cryptic message spelledout in foot-high letters: BITE ME.Trouble is, Nate's beginning to wonder if he hasn't spentjust a little too much time in the sun. 'Cause no oneelse saw a thing- not his longtime partner, ClayDemodocus; not their saucy young research assistant; noteven the spliff-puffing white-boy Rastaman Kona (nePreston Applebaum). But later, when a roll of filmreturns from the lab missing the crucial tail shot- andhis research facility is trashed- Nate realizes somethingvery fishy indeed is going on.


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"This is a bawdy tale. Herein you will find gratuitous shagging, murder, spanking, maiming, treason, and heretofore unexplored heights of vulgarity and profanity, as well as nontraditional grammar, split infinitives, and the odd wank . . . If that's the sort of thing you think you might enjoy, then you have happened upon the perfect story!"  

 Verily speaks Christopher Moore, much beloved scrivener and peerless literary jester, who hath writteneth much that is of grand wit and belly-busting mirth, including such laurelled bestsellers of the *Times of Olde Newe Yorke* as *Lamb*, *A Dirty Job*, and *You Suck* (no offense). Now he takes on no less than the legendary Bard himself (with the utmost humility and respect) in a twisted and insanely funny tale of a moronic monarch and his deceitful daughters—a rousing story of plots, subplots, counterplots, betrayals, war, revenge, bared bosoms, unbridled lust . . . and a ghost (there's always a bloody ghost), as seen through the eyes of a man wearing a codpiece and bells on his head.  

 Fool  

 A man of infinite jest, Pocket has been Lear's cherished fool for years, from the time the king's grown daughters—selfish, scheming Goneril, sadistic (but erotic-fantasy-grade-hot) Regan, and sweet, loyal Cordelia—were mere girls. So naturally Pocket is at his brainless, elderly liege's side when Lear—at the insidious urging of Edmund, the bastard (in every way imaginable) son of the Earl of Gloucester—demands that his kids swear their undying love and devotion before a collection of assembled guests. Of course Goneril and Regan are only too happy to brownnose Dad. But Cordelia believes that her father's request is kind of . . . well . . . stupid, and her blunt honesty ends up costing her her rightful share of the kingdom and earns her a banishment to boot.  

 Well, now the bangers and mash have really hit the fan. The whole damn country's about to go to hell in a handbasket because of a stubborn old fart's wounded pride. And the only person who can possibly make things right . . . is Pocket, a small and slight clown with a biting sense of humor. He's already managed to sidestep catastrophe (and the vengeful blades of many an offended nobleman) on numerous occasions, using his razor-sharp mind, rapier wit . . . and the equally well-honed daggers he keeps conveniently hidden behind his back. Now he's going to have to do some very fancy maneuvering—cast some spells, incite a few assassinations, start a war or two (the usual stuff)—to get Cordelia back into Daddy Lear's good graces, to derail the fiendish power plays of Cordelia's twisted sisters, to rescue his gigantic, gigantically dim, and always randy friend and apprentice fool, Drool, from repeated beatings . . . and to shag every lusciously shaggable wench who's amenable to shagging along the way.  

 Pocket may be a fool . . . but he's definitely not an idiot.


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Take a wonderfully crazed excursion into the demented heart of a tropical paradise—a world of cargo cults, cannibals, mad scientists, ninjas, and talking fruit bats. Our bumbling hero is Tucker Case, a hopeless geek trapped in a cool guy's body, who makes a living as a pilot for the Mary Jean Cosmetics Corporation. But when he demolishes his boss's pink plane during a drunken airborne liaison, Tuck must run for his life from Mary Jean's goons. Now there's only one employment opportunity left for him: piloting shady secret missions for an unscrupulous medical missionary and a sexy blond high priestess on the remotest of Micronesian hells. Here is a brazen, ingenious, irreverent, and wickedly funny novel from a modern master of the outrageous.


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The town psychiatrist has decided to switch everybody in Pine Cove, California, from their normal antidepressants to placebos, so naturally—well, to be accurate, artificially—business is booming at the local blues bar. Trouble is, those lonely slide-guitar notes have also attracted a colossal sea beast named Steve with, shall we say, a thing for explosive oil tanker trucks. Suddenly, morose Pine Cove turns libidinous and is hit by a mysterious crime wave, and a beleaguered constable has to fight off his own gonzo appetites to find out what's wrong and what, if anything, to do about it.


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Christmas crept into Pine Cove like a creeping Christmas thing: dragging garland, ribbon, and sleigh bells, oozing eggnog, reeking of pine, and threatening festive doom like a cold sore under the mistletoe. 'Twas the night (okay, more like the week) before Christmas, and all through the tiny community of Pine Cove, California, people are busy buying, wrapping, packing, and generally getting into the holiday spirit. It is the hap-hap-happiest time of the year, after all. But not everybody is feeling the joy. Little Joshua Barker is in desperate need of a holiday miracle. No, he's not on his deathbed; no, his dog hasn't run away from home. But Josh is sure that he saw Santa take a shovel to the head, and now the seven-year-old has only one prayer: Please, Santa, come back from the dead. But hold on! There's an angel waiting in the wings. (Wings, get it?) It's none other than the Archangel Raziel come to Earth seeking a small child with a wish that needs granting. Unfortunately, our angel's not sporting the brightest halo in the bunch, and before you can say "Kris Kringle," he's botched his sacred mission and sent the residents of Pine Cove headlong into Christmas chaos, culminating in the most hilarious and horrifying holiday party the town has ever seen. Only Christopher Moore, the man who brought you the outrageous lost gospel Lamb and the hysterical fish tale Fluke could have devised a new holiday classic that tugs at the heartstrings and serves up a healthy slice of fruitcake to boot. Move over, Charles Dickens -- it's Christopher Moore time.


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Being undead sucks. Literally. Just ask C. Thomas Flood. Waking up after a fantastic night unlike anything he's ever experienced, he discovers that his girlfrind, Jody, is a vampire. And surprise! Now he is one, too.


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Oaths sworn . . . loyalties tested . . . forces collide.It's been only months since Eragon first uttered "brisingr," the ancient language term for fire. Since then, he's not only learned to create magic with words-he's been challenged to his very core. Following the colossal battle against the Empire's warriors on the Burning Plains, Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, have narrowly escaped with their lives. Still, there is more adventure at hand for the Rider and his dragon, as Eragon finds himself bound by a tangle of promises he may not be able to keep.First is Eragon's oath to his cousin, Roran: to help rescue Roran's beloved from King Galbatorix's clutches. But Eragon owes his loyalty to others, too. The Varden are in desperate need of his talents and strength-as are the elves and dwarves. When unrest claims the rebels and danger strikes from every corner, Eragon must make choices-choices that will take him across the Empire and beyond, choices that may lead to unimagined sacrifice.Eragon is the greatest hope to rid the land of tyranny. Can this once simple farm boy unite the rebel forces and defeat the king?


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Darkness falls…despair abounds…evil reigns…Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, have just saved the rebel state from destruction by the mighty forces of King Galbatorix, cruel ruler of the Empire.  Now Eragon must travel to Ellesmera, land of the elves, for further training in the  skills of the Dragon Rider: magic and swordsmanship.  Soon he is on the journey of a lifetime, his eyes open to awe-inspring new places and people, his days filled with fresh adventure. But chaos and betrayal plague him at every turn, and nothing is what it seems. Before long, Eragon doesn’t know whom he can trust.Meanwhile, his cousin Roran must fight a new battle–one that might put Eragon in even graver danger.Will the king’s dark hand strangle all resistance? Eragon may not escape with even his life. . . .**Praise for *Eragon*:**“Unusual, powerful . . . fresh and fluid. An impressive start to a writing career that’s sure to flourish.” –*Booklist*, Starred“Christopher Paolini make[s] literary magic with his precocious debut.” –*People*“The new ‘It’ book of children’s lit.” –*U.S. News & World Report*“An auspicious beginning to both career and series.” –*Publishers Weekly*A #1 New York Times BestsellerA #1 Publishers Weekly BestsellerA USA Today BestsellerA Wall Street Journal BestsellerA Book Sense Book of the YearA #1 Book Sense Selection*From the Hardcover edition.*


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Fifteen-year-old Eragon believes that he is merely a poor farm  boy—until his destiny as a Dragon Rider is revealed. Gifted with only an ancient sword, a loyal dragon, and sage advice from an old storyteller, Eragon is soon swept into a dangerous tapestry of magic, glory, and power. Now his choices could save—or destroy—the Empire.“An authentic work of great talent.”—*The New York Times Book Review*“Christopher Paolini make[s] literary magic with his precocious debut.”—*People* “Unusual, powerful, fresh, and fluid.”—*Booklist*, Starred“An auspicious beginning to both career and series.”—*Publishers Weekly*A New York Times BestsellerA USA Today BestsellerA Wall Street Journal BestsellerA Book Sense Bestseller*From the Hardcover edition.*


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"The men wear masks. Their guns are drawn on the bank manager. She nervously recites the alarm code, and the tumblers within the huge vault fall. The timing and execution are brilliant. It could be the perfect heist. But as the huge sum of cash is stolen, so too is one man's heart -- and that man is the Prince of Thieves... Charlestown, a blue-collar Boston neighborhood, produces more bank robbers and armored car thieves than any square mile in the world. In this gripping, intricately plotted thriller, Claire Keesey, the branch manager for a Boston bank and one of an influx of young professionals chipping away at the neighborhood's insularity, is taken hostage during a robbery. She is released, but Doug MacRay, the brains behind the tough, tight-knit crew of thieves, can't get her out of his mind. Tracking her down without his mask and gun, Doug introduces himself, and as soon as he and Claire meet, their mutual attraction is undeniable -- as are the risks of a relationship. Meanwhile, Doug's crew pulls off another audacious, meticulously planned job. Frustrated by their ingenuity and brazen ambition, FBI Agent Adam Frawley begins to zero in on Doug and his pals -- and against his own better judgment, he, too, develops more than a professional interest in Claire. Under pressure from Frawley's ever-closer investigation, Doug imagines a life for himself away from bank robberies and Charlestown. But before that can happen, the crew learns that there may be a way to rob Boston's venerable baseball stadium, Fenway Park. It's a magnificently dangerous and utterly irresistible opportunity -- yet for Doug, pursuing his former hostage may be the most dangerous act of all... Chuck Hogan's brash tale of four men -- thieves, rivals, friends -- being hunted through the streets of Boston by a tenacious FBI agent, and the woman who may destroy them all, is a spectacular, stylish, heart-pounding thriller. "


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Victor Mancini, obsédé sexuel nt fils modèle, est ruiné par l'hospitalisation de sa mère, atteinte de la maladie d'Alzheimer. Pour faire face à ses dépenses, il met au point un stratagème extravagant : faire mine de s'asphyxier avec la nourriture en dînant dans des restaurants chic et gagner la compassion d'une clientèle de luxe. Entre deux crises d'étouffement au caviar, Victor travaille comme figurant dans un parc à thème historique et participe à des séances de thérapie collective pour drogués du sexe incurables. Mais c'est au chevet de sa mère qu'il retrouve intacte la folie galopante qui a ravagé son enfance. Derrière le délire sénile de cette vieille dame indigne, parviendra-t-il à percer à jour l'hallucinant secret de ses origines ? Une Amérique schizophrène est la toile de fond de cette tragi-comédie brillante et féroce, où Palahniuk s'affirme au croisement de John Kennedy Toole et de Bret Easton Ellis.


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In the closest thing he may ever write to an autobiography, Chuck Palahniuk provides answers to all these questions and more as he takes you through the streets, sewers and local haunts of Portland, Oregon. According to Katherine Dunn, author of the cult classic Geek Love, Portland is the home of America's 'fugitives and refugees.' Get to know these folks, the "most cracked of the crackpots,' as Palahniuk calls them, and come along with him on an adventure through the parts of Portland you might not otherwise actually believe actually exist. No other travel guide will give you this kind of access to "a little history, a little legend, and a lot of friendly sincere, fascinating people who maybe should've kept their mouths shut."Here are strange personal museums, wierd annual events and ghost stories. Tour the tunnels under downtown Portland. Visit swingers' sex clubs, gay and straight. See Frances Gabe's famous 1940's Self-cleaning house. Look into strange local customs like the I-Tit-a-Rod Race and the Santa rampage. Learn how to talk like a local in a quick vocabulary lesson. Get to know, I mean really get to know, the animals at the Portland Zoo.Oh, the list goes on and on.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

*Haunted* by Chuck Palahniuk is a novel made up of stories: Twenty-three of them, to be precise. Twenty-three of the most horrifying, hilarious, mind-blowing, stomach-churning tales you’ll ever encounter—sometimes all at once. They are told by people who have answered an ad headlined “Writers’ Retreat: Abandon Your Life for Three Months,” and who are led to believe that here they will leave behind all the distractions of “real life” that are keeping them from creating the masterpiece that is in them. But “here” turns out to be a cavernous and ornate old theater where they are utterly isolated from the outside world—and where heat and power and, most important, food are in increasingly short supply. And the more desperate the circumstances become, the more extreme the stories they tell—and the more devious their machinations become to make themselves the hero of the inevitable play/movie/nonfiction blockbuster that will surely be made from their plight.*Haunted* is on one level a satire of reality television—*The Real World* meets *Alive*. It draws from a great literary tradition—*The Canterbury Tales*, *The Decameron*, the English storytellers in the Villa Diodati who produced, among other works, *Frankenstein*—to tell an utterly contemporary tale of people desperate that their story be told at any cost. Appallingly entertaining, *Haunted* is Chuck Palahniuk at his finest—which means his most extreme and his most provocative.


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SUMMARY: Robert J. Sawyer’s award-winning science fiction has garnered both popular and critical acclaim. The New York Times called Frameshift “filled to bursting with ideas, characters, and incidents.” His novels are fixtures on the Hugo and Nebula ballots. Now, his award-winning novel Flash Forward is becoming a network TV series, expected to air in the fall of 2009. In pursuit of an elusive nuclear particle, an experiment goes incredibly awry, and, for a few moments, the consciousness of the entire human race is thrown ahead by about twenty years. As the implications truly hit home, the pressure to repeat the experiment builds. Everyone wants a glimpse of their future, a chance to flash forward and see their successes…or learn how to avoid their failures.


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Anne BrontA's first novel, Agnes Grey, combines an astute dissection of middle-class social behavior and class attitudes with a wonderful study of Victorian responses to young children which has parallels with debates about education that continue to this day. In writing the novel, BrontA drew on her own experiences, and one can trace in the work many of the trials of the Victorian governess, often stranded far from home, and treated with little respect by her employers, yet expected to control and educate her young charges. Agnes Grey looks at childhood from nursery to adolescence, and it also charts the frustrations of romantic love, as Agnes starts to nurse warmer feelings towards the local curate, Mr. Weston. Sally Shuttleworth's fascinating introduction considers the book's fictional and narrative qualities, its relationship with Victorian child-rearing and the responsibilities of parents, and the changing attitudes to the book influenced by modern concerns for children's rights. The new edition includes a revised and updated bibliography as well as revised notes drawing on the latest critical material.


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The screenplay for Stanley Kubrick’s disturbing and exhilarating masterpiece, featuring 800 film stills chosen by the director.    

This unique illustrated screenplay features 800 still images from “A Clockwork Orange,” selected by Stanley Kubrick when the film was first released in 1971. As Kubrick comments in his introduction: “I have always wondered if there might be a more meaningful way to present a book about a film. To make, as it were, a complete graphic representation of the film, cut by cut, with the dialogue printed in the proper place in relation to the cuts, so that within the limits of still photos and words, an accurate (and I hope interesting) record of a film might be available… This book represents that attempt.”    

Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick, based on the novel by Anthony Burgess.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

The Firstborn–the mysterious race of aliens who first became known to science fiction fans as the builders of the iconic black monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey*–*have inhabited legendary master of science fiction Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s writing for decades. With Time’s Eye and Sunstorm, the first two books in their acclaimed Time Odyssey series, Clarke and his brilliant co-author Stephen Baxter imagined a near-future in which the Firstborn seek to stop the advance of human civilization by employing a technology indistinguishable from magic.Their first act was the Discontinuity, in which Earth was carved into sections from different eras of history, restitched into a patchwork world, and renamed Mir. Mir’s inhabitants included such notables as Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and United Nations peacekeeper Bisesa Dutt. For reasons unknown to her, Bisesa entered into communication with an alien artifact of inscrutable purpose and godlike power–a power that eventually returned her to Earth. There, she played an instrumental role in humanity’s race against time to stop a doomsday event: a massive solar storm triggered by the alien Firstborn designed to eradicate all life from the planet. That fate was averted at an inconceivable price. Now, twenty-seven years later, the Firstborn are back.This time, they are pulling no punches: They have sent a “quantum bomb.” Speeding toward Earth, it is a device that human scientists can barely comprehend, that cannot be stopped or destroyed–and one that will obliterate Earth.Bisesa’s desperate quest for answers sends her first to Mars and then to Mir, which is itself threatened with extinction. The end seems inevitable. But as shocking new insights emerge into the nature of the Firstborn and their chilling plans for mankind, an unexpected ally appears from light-years away.*From the Hardcover edition.*


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

When Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the greatest science fiction writer ever, teams up with award-winning author Stephen Baxter, who shares Clarke’s bold vision of a future where technology and humanism advance hand in hand, the result is bound to be a book of stellar ambition and accomplishment. Such was the case with Time’s Eye. Now, in the highly anticipated sequel, Clarke and Baxter draw their epic to a triumphant conclusion that is as mind-blowing as anything in Clarke’s famous Space Odyssey series.**SUNSTORM**Returned to the Earth of 2037 by the Firstborn, mysterious beings of almost limitless technological prowess, Bisesa Dutt is haunted by the memories of her five years spent on the strange alternate Earth called Mir, a jigsaw-puzzle world made up of lands and people cut out of different eras of Earth’s history. Why did the Firstborn create Mir? Why was Bisesa taken there and then brought back on the day after her original disappearance?Bisesa’s questions receive a chilling answer when scientists discover an anomaly in the sun’s core–an anomaly that has no natural cause is evidence of alien intervention over two thousand years before. Now plans set in motion millennia ago by inscrutable watchers light-years away are coming to fruition in a sunstorm designed to scour the Earth of all life in a bombardment of deadly radiation.Thus commences a furious race against a ticking solar time bomb. But even now, as apocalypse looms, cooperation is not easy for the peoples and nations of the Earth. Religious and political differences threaten to undermine every effort.And all the while, the Firstborn are watching...


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Vannemar Morgans dream is to link Earth to the stars with the greatest engineering feat of all timea 24,000-mile-high space elevator. But first he must solve a million technical, political, and economic problems while allaying the wrath of God. For the only possible site on the planet for Morgans Orbital Tower is the monastery atop the Sacred Mountain of Sri Kanda.


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Sir Arthur C. Clarke is a living legend, a writer whose name has been synonymous with science fiction for more than fifty years. An indomitable believer in human and scientific potential, Clarke is a genuine visionary. If Clarke has an heir among today’s science fiction writers, it is award-winning author Stephen Baxter. In each of his acclaimed novels, Baxter has demonstrated dazzling gifts of imagination and intellect, along with a rare ability to bring the most cerebral science dramatically to life. Now these two champions of humanism and scientific speculation have combined their talents in a novel sure to be one of the most talked-about of the year, a 2001 for the new millennium. TIME’S EYE For eons, Earth has been under observation by the Firstborn, beings almost as old as the universe itself. The Firstborn are unknown to humankind– until they act. In an instant, Earth is carved up and reassembled like a huge jigsaw puzzle. Suddenly the planet and every living thing on it no longer exist in a single timeline. Instead, the world becomes a patchwork of eras, from prehistory to 2037, each with its own indigenous inhabitants. Scattered across the planet are floating silver orbs impervious to all weapons and impossible to communicate with. Are these technologically advanced devices responsible for creating and sustaining the rifts in time? Are they cameras through which inscrutable alien eyes are watching? Or are they something stranger and more terrifying still? The answer may lie in the ancient city of Babylon, where two groups of refugees from 2037–three cosmonauts returning to Earth from the International Space Station, and three United Nations peacekeepers on a mission in Afghanistan–have detected radio signals: the only such signals on the planet, apart from their own. The peacekeepers find allies in nineteenth-century British troops and in the armies of Alexander the Great. The astronauts, crash-landed in the steppes of Asia, join forces with the Mongol horde led by Genghis Khan. The two sides set out for Babylon, each determined to win the race for knowledge . . . and the power that lies within. Yet the real power is beyond human control, perhaps even human understanding. As two great armies face off before the gates of Babylon, it watches, waiting. . . .


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"I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history," Arthur Miller wrote in an introduction to The Crucible, his classic play about the witch-hunts and trials in seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts. Based on historical people and real events, Miller's drama is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria. In the rigid theocracy of Salem, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town's most basic fears and suspicions; and when a young girl accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch, self-righteous church leaders and townspeople insist that Elizabeth be brought to trial. The ruthlessness of the prosecutors and the eagerness of neighbor to testify against neighbor brilliantly illuminate the destructive power of socially sanctioned violence. Written in 1953, The Crucible is a mirror Miller uses to reflect the anti-communist hysteria inspired by Senator Joseph McCarthy's witch-hunts in the United States. Within the text itself, Miller contemplates the parallels, writing: "Political opposition ... is given an inhumane overlay, which then justifies the abrogation of all normally applied customs of civilized behavior. A political policy is equated with moral right, and opposition to it meets with diabolical malevolence."


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A dazzling novel in the most untraditional fashion, this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare's passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap, and it is Audrey Niffenegger's cinematic storytelling that makes the novel's unconventional chronology so vibrantly triumphant. An enchanting debut and a spellbinding tale of fate and belief in the bonds of love, The Time Traveler's Wife is destined to captivate readers for years to come.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

*Dracula*, by **Bram Stoker**, is part of the *Barnes & Noble Classics** *series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of *Barnes & Noble Classics*: 

New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. *Barnes & Noble Classics *pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.

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*Count Dracula* has inspired countless movies, books, and plays. But few, if any, have been fully faithful to **Bram Stoker**'s original, best-selling novel of mystery and horror, love and death, sin and redemption. *Dracula* chronicles the vampire's journey from Transylvania to the nighttime streets of London. There, he searches for the blood of strong men and beautiful women while his enemies plot to rid the world of his frightful power.



Today's critics see *Dracula* as a virtual textbook on Victorian repression of the erotic and fear of female sexuality. In it, Stoker created a new word for terror, a new myth to feed our nightmares, and a character who will outlive us all.

 



**Brooke Allen****** is a book critic whose work has appeared in numerous publications including The Atlantic Monthly, The New Criterion, The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, and The Hudson Review. A collection of her essays, *Twentieth-Century Attitudes*, will be published in 2003.


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*'I* would rather be an angel than God!'   

The voice of the speaker sounded clearly through the hawthorn tree. The young man and the young girl who sat together on the low tombstone looked at each other. They had heard the voices of the two children talking, but had not noticed what they said; it was the sentiment, not the sound, which roused their attention.   

The girl put her finger to her lips to impress silence, and the man nodded; they sat as still as mice whilst the two children went on talking.   

The scene would have gladdened a painter's heart. An old churchyard. The church low and square-towered, with long mullioned windows, the yellow-grey stone roughened by age and tender-hued with lichens. Round it clustered many tombstones tilted in all directions. Behind the church a line of gnarled and twisted yews.   

The churchyard was full of fine trees. On one side a magnificent cedar; on the other a great copper beech. Here and there among the tombs and headstones many beautiful blossoming trees rose from the long green grass. The laburnum glowed in the June afternoon sunlight; the lilac, the hawthorn and the clustering meadowsweet which fringed the edge of the lazy stream mingled their heavy sweetness in sleepy fragrance. The yellow-grey crumbling walls were green in places with wrinkled harts-tongues, and were topped with sweet-williams and spreading house-leek and stone-crop and wild- flowers whose delicious sweetness made for the drowsy repose of perfect summer.   

But amid all that mass of glowing colour the two young figures seated on the grey old tomb stood out conspicuously. The man was in conventional hunting-dress: red coat, white stock, black hat, white breeches, and top-boots. The girl was one of the richest, most glowing, and yet withal daintiest figures the eye of man could linger on. She was in riding-habit of hunting scarlet cloth; her black hat was tipped forward by piled-up masses red-golden hair. Round her neck was a white lawn scarf in the fashion of a man's hunting-stock, close fitting, and sinking into a gold-buttoned waistcoat of snowy twill. As she sat with the long skirt across her left arm her tiny black top-boots appeared underneath. Her gauntleted gloves were of white buckskin; her riding-whip was plaited of white leather, topped with ivory and banded with gold.   

Even in her fourteenth year Miss Stephen Norman gave promise of striking beauty; beauty of a rarely composite character. In her the various elements of her race seemed to have cropped out. The firm- set jaw, with chin broader and more square than is usual in a woman, and the wide fine forehead and aquiline nose marked the high descent from Saxon through Norman. The glorious mass of red hair, of the true flame colour, showed the blood of another ancient ancestor of Northern race, and suited well with the voluptuous curves of the full, crimson lips. The purple-black eyes, the raven eyebrows and eyelashes, and the fine curve of the nostrils spoke of the Eastern blood of the far-back wife of the Crusader. Already she was tall for her age, with something of that lankiness which marks the early development of a really fine figure. Long-legged, long-necked, as straight as a lance, with head poised on the proud neck like a lily on its stem.


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SUMMARY:
A hero with an incredible talent...for breaking things. A life-or-death mission...to rescue a bag of sand. A fearsome threat from a powerful secret network...the evil Librarians. Alcatraz Smedry doesn't seem destined for anything but disaster. On his 13th birthday he receives a bag of sand, which is quickly stolen by the cult of evil Librarians plotting to take over the world. The sand will give the Librarians the edge they need to achieve world domination. Alcatraz must stop them!...by infiltrating the local library, armed with nothing but eyeglasses and a talent for klutziness.


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According to mythology mankind used to live in The Tranquiline Halls. Heaven. But then the Voidbringers assaulted and captured heaven, casting out God and men. Men took root on Roshar, the world of storms. And the Voidbringers followed . . .They came against man ten thousand times. To help them cope, the Almighty gave men powerful suits of armor and mystical weapons, known as Shardblades. Led by ten angelic Heralds and ten orders of knights known as Radiants, mankind finally won.Or so the legends say. Today, the only remnants of those supposed battles are the Shardblades, the possession of which makes a man nearly invincible on the battlefield. The entire world is at war with itself and has been for centuries since the Radiants turned against mankind. Kings strive to win more Shardblades, each secretly wishing to be the one who will finally unite all of mankind under a single throne.On a world scoured down to the rock by terrfiying hurricanes that blow through every few day a young spearman forced into the army of a Shardbearer, led to war against an enemy he doesnt understand and doesnt really want to fight. What happened deep in mankinds past? Why did the Radiants turn against mankind, and what happened to the magic they used to wield?


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

"Arguably the novel of the 1990s...**Glamorama** should  establish Ellis as the most fearless and ambitious writer of his  generation...A must read." --*The Seattle Times*The  author of **American Psycho** and **Less Than Zero** continues  to shock and haunt us with his incisive and brilliant dissection of  the modern world.  In his most ambitious and gripping book yet, Bret  Easton Ellis takes our celebrity obsessed culture and increases the  volume exponentially.Victor Ward, a model with perfect abs who  exists in magazines and gossip columns and whose life resembles an  ultra-hip movie, is living with one beautiful model and having an  affair with another.  And then it's time to move on to the next stage.  But the future he gets is not the one he had in mind.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Bret Easton Ellis’s debut, *Less Than Zero,* is one of the signal novels of the last thirty years, and he now follows those infamous teenagers into an even more desperate middle age.Clay, a successful screenwriter, has returned from New York to Los Angeles to help cast his new movie, and he’s soon drifting through a long-familiar circle. Blair, his former girlfriend, is married to Trent, an influential manager who’s still a bisexual philanderer, and their Beverly Hills parties attract various levels of fame, fortune and power. Then there’s Clay’s childhood friend Julian, a recovering addict, and their old dealer, Rip, face-lifted beyond recognition and seemingly even more sinister than in his notorious past.But Clay’s own demons emerge once he meets a gorgeous young actress determined to win a role in his movie. And when his life careens completely out of control, he has no choice but to plumb the darkest recesses of his character and come to terms with his proclivity for betrayal.A genuine literary event.


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6, C.S. Lewis, a confirmed bachelor, married Joy Davidman, an American poet with two small children. After four brief, intensely happy years, Lewis found himself alone again, and inconsolable. To defend himself against the loss of belief in God, Lewis wrote this journal, an eloquent statement of rediscovered faith. In it he freely confesses his doubts, his rage, and his awareness of human frailty. In it he finds again the way back to life.


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During the last days of Narnia, good King Tirian faces the firecest challenge to any Narnian King's rule ever. Many Narnians think they have seen the great Aslan, but he doesn't behave the way they had expected. The ugly Ape who guards this false Aslan allows him to be seen for only moments at a time, and says that all Narnians have been commanded by the Lion to work for the cruel Calormenes.


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A forceful and accessible discussion of Christian belief that has become one of the most popular introductions to Christianity and one of the most popular of Lewis's books. Uncovers common ground upon which all Christians can stand together.  "Excellent for Homeschool Use"


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The first book in C. S. Lewis's acclaimed Space Trilogy, which continues with Perelandra and That Hideous Strength, Out of the Silent Planet begins the adventures of the remarkable Dr. Ransom. Here, that estimable man is abducted by a megalomaniacal physicist and his accomplice and taken via spaceship to the red planet of Malacandra. The two men are in need of a human sacrifice, and Dr. Ransom would seem to fit the bill. Once on the planet, however, Ransom eludes his captors, risking his life and his chances of returning to Earth, becoming a stranger in a land that is enchanting in its difference from Earth and instructive in its similarity. First published in 1943, Out of the Silent Planet remains a mysterious and suspenseful tour de force.


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The second book in C. S. Lewis's acclaimed Space Trilogy, which also includes Out of the Silent Planet and That Hideous Strength, Perelandra continues the adventures of the extraordinary Dr. Ransom. Pitted against the most destructive of human weaknesses, temptation, the great man must battle evil on a new planet -- Perelandra -- when it is invaded by a dark force. Will Perelandra succumb to this malevolent being, who strives to create a new world order and who must destroy an old and beautiful civilization to do so? Or will it throw off the yoke of corruption and achieve a spiritual perfection as yet unknown to man? The outcome of Dr. Ransom's mighty struggle alone will determine the fate of this peace-loving planet.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Caspian's father is dead, and Narnia is ruled by his wicked uncle Miraz. Hearing tales of the old Narnia and of Talking Beasts from his tutor, a dwarf, Caspian escapes from the palace to find it.


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In this humorous and perceptive exchange between two devils, C. S. Lewis delves into moral questions about good vs. evil, temptation, repentance, and grace. Through this wonderful tale, the reader emerges with a better understanding of what it means to live a faithful life.  "Excellent for Homeschool Use"


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SUMMARY:
The final book in C. S. Lewis's acclaimed Space Trilogy, which includes Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra, That Hideous Strength concludes the adventures of the matchless Dr. Ransom. The dark forces that were repulsed in Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra are massed for an assault on the planet Earth itself. Word is on the wind that the mighty wizard Merlin has come back to the land of the living after many centuries, holding the key to ultimate power for that force which can find him and bend him to its will. A sinister technocratic organization is gaining power throughout Europe with a plan to "recondition" society, and it is up to Ransom and his friends to squelch this threat by applying age-old wisdom to a new universe dominated by science. The two groups struggle to a climactic resolution that brings the Space Trilogy to a magnificent, crashing close.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

This is the story of an adventure that happened in Narnia and Calormen and the lands between, in the Golden Age when Peter was High King in Narnia and his brother and his two sisters were King and Queens under him. It is during this glorious era in Narnian history that Shasta, a young boy living in Calormen with a cruel man who claims to be his father, dreams of traveling to the unknown North.


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There are a thousand stories in the land of Narnia, and the first is about to be told in an extraordinary motion picture, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, from Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media. In the never-ending war between good and evil, The Chronicles of Narnia set the stage for battles of epic proportions. Some take place in vast fields, where the forces of light and darkness clash. But other battles occur within the small chambers of the heart and are equally decisive. Journeys to the ends of the world, fantastic creatures, betrayals, heroic deeds and friendships won and lost -- all come together in an unforgettable world of magic. So join the battle to end all battles. The second volume in The Chronicles of Narnia® The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Narnia .... a land frozen in eternal winter ... a country waiting to be set free. Four adventurers step through a wardrobe door and into the land of Narnia -- a land enslaved by the power of the White Witch. But when almost all hope is lost, the return of the Great Lion, Aslan, signals a great change ... and a great sacrifice.


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Narnia. . .where the woods are thick and cool, where Talking Beasts are called to life. . .a new world where the adventure begins. Digory and Polly meet and become friends one cold, wet summer in London. Their lives burst into adventure when Digory's Uncle Andrew, who thinks he is a magician, sends them hurtling to. . .somewhere else. They find their way to Narnia, newborn from the Lion's song, and encounter the evil sorceress Jadis, before they finally return home.


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SUMMARY:
Two English children undergo hair-raising adventures as they go on a search and rescue mission for the missing Prince Rilian, who is held captive in the underground kingdom of the Emerald Witch.


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It begins on a very normal Monday morning. But in the space of only a few days, the world's oil supplies have been severed and at a horrifying pace things begin to unravel everywhere. This is no natural disastersomeone is behind this. Oil engineer Andy Sutherland is stranded in Iraq with a company of British soldiers, desperate to find a way home, trapped as the very infrastructure of daily life begins to collapse around him. Back in Britain, his wife Jenny is stuck in Manchester, fighting desperately against the rising chaos to get back to their children in London as events begin to spiral out of controlriots, raging fires, looting, rape, and murder. In the space of a week, London is transformed into an anarchic vision of hell. Meanwhile, a mysterious man is tracking Andy's family. He'll silence anyone who can reveal the identities of those behind this global disaster. The people with a stranglehold on the future of civilization have flexed their muscles at other significant tipping points in history, and they are prepared to do anything to keep their secretand their powersafe.


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Lucy and Edmund, accompanied by their peevish cousin Eustace, sail to the land of Narnia where Eustace is temporarily transformed into a green dragon because of his selfish behavior and skepticism.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

It's a fear more paralyzing than falling. More terrifying than absolute darkness. More horrifying than anything you can imagine. It's the one fear you cannot escape, no matter where you run...no matter where you hide.  It's the fear of yourself.  It's real.  It can happen to you.  And facing it can be deadly.False MemoryFear for your mind.


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SUMMARY:
Back on Earth with nothing more to show for his long, strange trip through time and space than a ratty towel and a plastic shopping bag, Arthur Dent is ready to believe that the past eight years were all just a figment of his stressed-out imagination. But a gift-wrapped fishbowl with a cryptic inscription, the mysterious disappearance of Earth's dolphins, and the discovery of his battered copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy all conspire to give Arthur the sneaking suspicion that something otherworldly is indeed going on. . . . God only knows what it all means. And fortunately, He left behind a Final Message of explanation. But since it's light-years away from Earth, on a star surrounded by souvenir booths, finding out what it is will mean hitching a ride to the far reaches of space aboard a UFO with a giant robot. But what else is new? "From the Paperback edition."


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

The Phantom of the Opera (in French, Le Fantome de l'Opera) is a French novel by Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serialization in Le Gaulois from September 23, 1909 to January 8, 1910. Some believe it to have been inspired by George du Maurier's Trilby. Trilby is based on real events related to the Paris Opera House which Leroux investigated, initiated by stories of an opera house ghost. Initially, the novel sold very poorly and was even out of print several times during the twentieth century. Today, it is considered to be a classic of French literature, though it is overshadowed by its many subsequent adaptations. The novel was translated into English in 1911. It has since been adapted many times into film and stage productions, the most notable of which were the 1925 film depiction and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical, starring Michael Crawford as the Phantom, Steve Barton as Raoul, and Sarah Brightman as Christine, which is now the longest running Broadway show in history and the most lucrative entertainment enterprise of all time, its worldwide box office over the past 20 years out-grossing even the highest grossing film in history, Titanic. *(Quote from wikipedia.org)*



**About the Author**



Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux (6 May 1868, Paris, France - 15 April 1927) was a French journalist, detective and novelist.



In the English-speaking world, he is best known for writing the novel The Phantom of the Opera (Le Fantome de l'Opera, 1910), which has been made into several film and stage productions of the same name, such as the 1925 film starring Lon Chaney; and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical. It was also the basis of the 1990 novel Phantom by Susan Kay.



Leroux went to school in Normandy and studied law in Paris, graduating in 1889. He inherited mil


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SUMMARY:
Marika, now a psychic adept in the Maksche Cloister of Silth, faces new challenges as she befriends the tradermale Bagnel, uncovers a renegade Silth sect, and confronts the mysterious, powerful Warlock


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SUMMARY:
To observe an eclipse is to witness a rare and unusual event. Under darkened skies the sun becomes a negative image of itself, its corona transforming the landscape into a strange space where anything might happen, and any story may be true... In the spirit of classic science fiction anthologies such as Universe, Orbit, and Starlight, master anthologist Jonathan Strahan (The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year) presents the non-themed genre anthology Eclipse: New Science Fiction and Fantasy. Here you will find stories where strange and wonderful things happen - where reality is eclipsed by something magical and new.


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SUMMARY:
The incomparable Ray Bradbury is in the driver's seat, off on twenty-one unforgettable excursions through fantasy, time and memory, and there are surprises waiting around every curve and behind each mile marker. The journey promises to be a memorable one.


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<div><p class="description">EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">A vibrant collection of essays on the cosmos from the nation's best-known astrophysicist. “One of today’s best popularizers of science.”—Kirkus  Reviews.  Loyal readers of the monthly "Universe" essays in Natural History magazine have long recognized Neil deGrasse Tyson's talent for guiding them through the mysteries of the cosmos with stunning clarity and almost childlike enthusiasm. Here, Tyson compiles his favorite essays across a myriad of cosmic topics. The title essay introduces readers to the physics of black holes by explaining the gory details of what would happen to your body if you fell into one. "Holy Wars" examines the needless friction between science and religion in the context of historical conflicts. "The Search for Life in the Universe" explores astral life from the frontiers of astrobiology. And "Hollywood Nights" assails the movie industry's feeble efforts to get its night skies right.    Known for his ability to blend content, accessibility, and humor, Tyson is a natural teacher who simplifies some of the most complex concepts in astrophysics while simultaneously sharing his infectious excitement about our universe.</p></div>


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<p class="description">The complete original short stories and novels/novellas of Howard Philips Lovecraft written between 1917 and 1935.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Hugh Laurie concocts an uproarious cocktail of comic zingers and over-the-top action in this "ripping spoof of the spy genre" (Vanity Fair) -- the irresistible tale of a former Scots Guard-turned-hired gun, a freelance soldier of fortune who also happens to be one heck of a nice guy.Cold-blooded murder just isn't Thomas Lang's cup of tea. Offered a bundle to assassinate an American industrialist, he opts to warn the intended victim instead -- a good deed that soon takes a bad turn. Quicker than he can down a shot of his favorite whiskey, Lang is bashing heads with a Buddha statue, matching wits with evil billionaires, and putting his life (among other things) in the hands of a bevy of femmes fatales. Up against rogue CIA agents, wannabe terrorists, and an arms dealer looking to make a high-tech killing, Lang's out to save the leggy lady he has come to love...and prevent an international bloodbath to boot.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Britain is in the depths of recession.A left-leaning young Oxford academic and his barrister girlfriend take an off-peak holiday on the Caribbean island of Antigua.By seeming chance they bump into a Russian millionaire called Dima who owns a peninsula and a diamond-encrusted gold watch.He also has a tattoo on his right thumb, and wants a game of tennis. What else he wants propels the young lovers on a tortuous journey through Paris to a safe house in the Swiss Alps, to the murkiest cloisters of the City of London and its unholy alliance with Britain's Intelligence Establishment.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>On a quiet fall evening in the small, peaceful town of Mill Valley, California, Dr. Miles Bennell discovered an insidious, horrifying plot. Silently, subtly, almost imperceptibly, alien life-forms were taking over the bodies and minds of his neighbors, his friends, his family, the woman he loved -- the world as he knew it.First published in 1955, this classic thriller of the ultimate alien invasion and the triumph of the human spirit over an invisible enemy inspired three major motion pictures.</p>


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<p class="description">In American on Purpose, Craig Ferguson delivers a moving and achingly funny memoir of living the American dream as he journeys from the mean streets of Glasgow, Scotland, to the comedic promised land of Hollywood. Along the way he stumbles through several attempts to make his mark—as a punk rock musician, a construction worker, a bouncer, and, tragically, a modern dancer. To numb the pain of failure, Ferguson found comfort in drugs and alcohol, addictions that eventually led to an aborted suicide attempt. (He forgot to do it when someone offered him a glass of sherry.) But his story has a happy ending: in 1993, the washed-up Ferguson washed up in the United States. Finally sober, Ferguson landed a breakthrough part on the hit sitcom The Drew Carey Show, a success that eventually led to his role as the host of CBS's The Late Late Show. By far Ferguson's greatest triumph was his decision to become a U.S. citizen, a milestone he achieved in early 2008, just before his command performance for the president at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. In American on Purpose, Craig Ferguson talks a red, white, and blue streak about everything our Founding Fathers feared.<br>SUMMARY:<br>In American on Purpose, Craig Ferguson delivers a moving and achingly funny memoir of living the American dream as he journeys from the mean streets of Glasgow, Scotland, to the comedic promised land of Hollywood. Along the way he stumbles through several attempts to make his mark—as a punk rock musician, a construction worker, a bouncer, and, tragically, a modern dancer.   To numb the pain of failure, Ferguson found comfort in drugs and alcohol, addictions that eventually led to an aborted suicide attempt. (He forgot to do it when someone offered him a glass of sherry.) But his story has a happy ending: in 1993, the washed-up Ferguson washed up in the United States. Finally sober, Ferguson landed a breakthrough part on the hit sitcom The Drew Carey Show, a success that eventually led to his role as the host of CBS's The Late Late Show. By far Ferguson's greatest triumph was his decision to become a U.S. citizen, a milestone he achieved in early 2008, just before his command performance for the president at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. In American on Purpose, Craig Ferguson talks a red, white, and blue streak about everything our Founding Fathers feared.</p>


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<div><p class="description">EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">**From the #1 *New York Times* bestselling master of suspense comes a fast-paced, emotion-packed novel about guilt, grief, and our capacity to forgive** </p>
<p class="description"></p>
<p class="description">    17-year-old Haley McWaid is a good girl, the pride of her suburban New Jersey family, captain of the lacrosse team, headed off to college next year with all the hopes and dreams her doting parents can pin on her. Which is why, when her mother wakes one morning to find that Haley never came home the night before, and three months quickly pass without word from the girl, the community assumes the worst. </p>
<p class="description"></p>
<p class="description">    Wendy Tynes is a reporter on a mission, to identify and bring down sexual predators via elaborate—and nationally televised—sting operations. Working with local police on her news program Caught in the Act, Wendy and her team have publicly shamed dozens of men by the time she encounters her latest target. Dan Mercer is a social worker known as a friend to troubled teens, but his story soon becomes more complicated than Wendy could have imagined. </p>
<p class="description"></p>
<p class="description">    In a novel that challenges as much as it thrills, filled with the astonishing tension and unseen suburban machinations that have become Coben’s trademark, *Caught* tells the story of a missing girl, the community stunned by her loss, the predator who may have taken her, and the reporter who suddenly realizes she can’t trust her own instincts about this story—or the motives of the people around her.</p>
<p class="description"></p>
<p class="description">    Praise for *Long Lost*: </p>
<p class="description"></p>
<p class="description">    "Coben is one of the best authors around at writing page-turning suspense, as   *Long Lost* makes clear." </p>
<p class="description">  -*Chicago Sun-Times* </p>
<p class="description"></p>
<p class="description">    "Roller-coaster plot and savvy dialogue...All the ingredients of a good old-  fashioned thriller: murder, action and wit." </p>
<p class="description">  -*New York Daily News*</p></div>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Marooned in outer space after an attack on his ship, Nomad, Gulliver Foyle lives to obsessively pursue the crew of a rescue vessel that had intended to leave him to die. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>'It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.' So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Can she vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you'd actually want to read.</p>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p><em>Starred Review.</em> Hugo-winner Simmons (_Olympos_) brings the horrific trials and tribulations of arctic exploration vividly to life in this beautifully written historical, which injects a note of supernatural horror into the 1840s Franklin expedition and its doomed search for the Northwest Passage. Sir John Franklin, the leader of the expedition and captain of the <em>Erebus</em>, is an aging fool. Francis Crozier, his second in command and captain of the <em>Terror</em>, is a competent sailor, but embittered after years of seeing lesser men with better connections given preferment over him. With their two ships quickly trapped in pack ice, their voyage is a disaster from start to finish. Some men perish from disease, others from the cold, still others from botulism traced to tinned food purchased from the lowest bidder. Madness, mutiny and cannibalism follow. And then there's the monstrous creature from the ice, the thing like a polar bear but many times larger, possessed of a dark and vicious intelligence. This complex tale should find many devoted readers and add significantly to Simmons's already considerable reputation. <em>(Jan.)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>The prolific and versatile Simmons turns to historical fiction in this fine narrative of the lost Franklin expedition of the 1840s, in which nearly 200 men sailed in search of the Northwest Passage aboard two converted naval vessels, <em>Erebus</em> and <em>Terror</em>. They seemingly sailed off the face of the earth, until remains of the longest survivors among them were discovered many years later. Simmons makes the <em>Terror</em>'s Captain Crozier his protagonist, and through his eyes we see history infused with sf, fantasy, and horror elements: sf because the expedition went farther into the then unknown than did the Apollo astronauts; fantasy because the hardships of the grippingly described arctic environment played havoc with their minds; and horror because the men perished in ones and twos, in dozens and scores, from boat accidents, falls, scurvy, hypothermia, exposure, starvation, and parasitic infections. Crozier survives by taking refuge among the Inuit and covering the expedition's nightmarish trail by burning his ship and vanishing from civilization, by which time readers may be as emotionally drained as he. Outstanding. <em>Roland Green</em><br><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p>

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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Brandon Sanderson, fantasy's newest master tale spinner, author of the acclaimed debut "Elantris," dares to turn a genre on its head by asking a simple question: What if the hero of prophecy fails? What kind of world results when the Dark Lord is in charge? The answer will be found in the Mistborn Trilogy, a saga of surprises and magical martial-arts action that begins in "Mistborn." For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison. Kelsier "snapped" and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark.  Kelsier recruited the underworld's elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Only then does he reveal his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel's plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets, and gotten it. She will have to learn to trust, if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed. Readers of "Elantris" thought they'd discovered someone special in Brandon Sanderson. "Mistborn "proves they were right. Brandon Sanderson is an instructor at Brigham Young University. For fascinating behind-the-scenes information, visit him at www.brandonsanderson.com. Brandon Sanderson, fantasy's newest master tale spinner, author of the acclaimed debut "Elantris," dares to turn a genre on its head by asking a simple question: What if the hero of prophecy fails? What kind of world results when the Dark Lord is in charge? The answer will be found in the Mistborn Trilogy, a saga of surprises and magical martial-arts action that begins in "Mistborn."For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison. Kelsier "snapped" and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark. Kelsier recruited the underworld's elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Only then does he reveal his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel's plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets, and gotten it. She will have to learn to trust, if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed. "A fascinating world . . . one that deserves a sequel."--"The Washington Post""An enjoyable, adventurous read that . . . should satisfy even easily-bored teens."--"Locus""Sanderson's eerie . . . fantasy, set in a mist-haunted, ash-ridden world, pits Kelsier, "the Survivor of Hathsin," against the immortal Lord Ruler's 1,000-year domination of both the Great Houses and their serflike "skaa." Through Allomancy acquired in the Ruler's most hellish prison, Kelsier can "burn" 10 metals internally, fueling superhuman powers he uses to assemble rebels in a loose plan to destroy the nobility, the empire and the Lord Ruler himself. Kelsier uses Vin, a street urchin with the same Mistborn powers Kelsier possesses, to infiltrate the Great Houses' society, where she falls in love with philosopher prince Elend Venture. This mystico-metallurgical fantasy combines Vin's coming-of-age-in-magic and its well-worn theme of revolt against oppression with copious mutilations, a large-scale cast of thieves, cutthroats, conniving nobles and exotic mutants. Fast-paced action . . . the characters . . . have a raw stereotypic appeal."--"Publishers Weekly""The Sliver of Infinity, the Lord Ruler, is the locus of religious and temporal order in a world in which the skaa are slaves or worse. Half-skaa erstwhile thief Kelsior is the only person to survive and escape the Lord Ruler's most brutal prison, in which, however, he discovered he has the powers of the Mistborn, which are based on the internal "burning" of certain metals, all of which the Mistborn can use, while most others can burn only one. Now Kelsior plans his most daring raid ever, into the center of the palace to discover the secret of the Lord Ruler's power. Beforehand, his band finds the half-skaa orphan Vin in another thieving crew, where she's useful because she brings good luck. She is also Mistborn and, if she can master and learn to trust her powers, will enable Kelsior's crew to infiltrate the nobility and possibly overthrow the status quo. Intrigue, politics, and conspiracies mesh complexly in a world Sanderson realizes in satisfying depth and peoples with impressive characters."--Regina Schroeder, " Booklist"</p>


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<div><p class="description">EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">Evil has been defeated. The war has just begun.</p>
<p class="description"></p>
<p class="description">They did the impossible, deposing the godlike being whose brutal rule had lasted a thousand years. Now Vin, the street urchin who has grown into the most powerful Mistborn in the land, and Elend Venture, the idealistic young nobleman who loves her, must build a healthy new society in the ashes of an empire.</p>
<p class="description"></p>
<p class="description">They have barely begun when three separate armies attack. As the siege tightens, an ancient legend seems to offer a glimmer of hope. But even if it really exists, no one knows where to find the Well of Ascension or what manner of power it bestows.</p>
<p class="description"></p>
<p class="description">It may just be that killing the Lord Ruler was the easy part. Surviving the aftermath of his fall is going to be the real challenge.</p></div>


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<div><p class="description">EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">Who is the Hero of Ages?</p>
<p class="description"></p>
<p class="description">To end the Final Empire and restore freedom, Vin killed the Lord Ruler. But as a result, the Deepness---the lethal form of the ubiquitous mists---is back, along with increasingly heavy ashfalls and ever more powerful earthquakes. Humanity appears to be doomed.</p>
<p class="description"></p>
<p class="description">Having escaped death at the climax of *The Well of Ascension* only by becoming a Mistborn himself, Emperor Elend Venture hopes to find clues left behind by the Lord Ruler that will allow him to save the world. Vin is consumed with guilt at having been tricked into releasing the mystic force known as Ruin from the Well. Ruin wants to end the world, and its near omniscience and ability to warp reality make stopping it seem impossible. She can’t even discuss it with Elend lest Ruin learn their plans!</p>
<p class="description"></p>
<p class="description">The conclusion of the Mistborn trilogy fulfills all the promise of the first two books. Revelations abound, connections rooted in early chapters of the series click into place, and surprises, as satisfying as they are stunning, blossom like fireworks to dazzle and delight. It all leads up to a finale unmatched for originality and audacity that will leave readers rubbing their eyes in wonder, as if awaking from an amazing dream.</p></div>


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Set hundreds of years before the events of The Magicians' Guild, THE MAGICIAN'S APPRENTICE is the new novel set in the world of Trudi Canavan's Black Magician Trilogy.

In the remote village of Mandryn, Tessia serves as assistant to her father, the village Healer. Her mother would rather she found a husband. But her life is about to take a very unexpected turn.

When the advances of a visiting Sachakan mage get violent, Tessia unconsciously taps unknown reserves of magic to defend herself. Lord Dakon, the local magician, takes Tessia under his wing as an apprentice. 

The long hours of study and self-discipline also offer more opportunities than she had ever hoped for, and an exciting new world opens up to her. There are fine clothes and servants - and, to Tessia's delight - regular trips to the great city of Imardin.

But along with the excitement and privilege, Tessia is about to discover that her magical gifts bring with them a great deal of responsibility. For great danger looms on the horizon for Tessia and her world.


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Genre-hopping Dan Simmons returns to science fiction with the vast and intricate masterpiece <em>Ilium</em>. Within, Simmons weaves three astounding story lines into one Earth-, Mars-, and Jupiter-shattering cliffhanger that will leave readers aching for the sequel. </p><p>On Earth, a post-technological group of humans, pampered by servant machines and easy travel via "faxing," begins to question its beginnings. Meanwhile, a team of sentient and Shakespeare-quoting robots from Jupiter's lunar system embark on a mission to Mars to investigate an increase in dangerous quantum fluctuations. On the Red Planet, they'll find a race of metahumans living out existence as the pantheon of classic Greek gods. These "gods" have recreated the Trojan War with reconstituted Greeks and Trojans and staffed it with scholars from throughout Earth's history who observe the events and report on the accuracy of Homer's <em>Iliad</em>. One of these scholars, Thomas Hockenberry, finds himself tangled in the midst of interplay between the gods and their playthings and sends the war reeling in a direction the blind poet could have never imagined. </p><p>Simmons creates an exciting and thrilling tale set in the thick of the Trojan War as seen through Hockenberry's 20th-century eyes. At the same time, Simmons's robots study Shakespeare and Proust and the origin-seeking Earthlings find themselves caught in a murderous retelling of <em>The Tempest</em>. Reading this highly literate novel does take more than a passing familiarity with at least <em>The Iliad</em> but readers who can dive into these heady waters and swim with the current will be amply rewarded. <em>--Jeremy Pugh</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Hugo and Stoker winner Simmons (Hyperion) makes a spectacular return to large-scale space opera in this elegant monster of a novel. Many centuries in the future, Earth's small, more or less human population lives an enjoyable, if drone-like existence. Elsewhere, on some alternate Earth, or perhaps it's the distant past, the battle for Troy is in its ninth year. Oddly, its combatants, Hector, Achilles and the rest, seem to be following a script, speaking their lines exactly as Homer reported them in The Iliad. The Gods, who live on Olympus Mons on the planet Mars, may be post-humans, or aliens, or, well, Gods; it isn't entirely clear. Thomas Hockenberry, a late-20th-century professor of the classics from De Pauw University in Indiana, has, along with other scholars from his era, apparently been resurrected by the Gods. His job is to take notes on the war and compare its progress to Homer's tale, noting even the smallest deviations. Meanwhile, the "moravecs," a civilization of diverse, partially organic AIs clustered on the moons of Jupiter, have been disturbed by the quantum activity they've registered from the inner solar system and have sent an expedition to Mars to investigate. It will come as no surprise to the author's fans that the expedition's members include specialists in Shakespeare and Proust. Beautifully written, chock full of literary references, grand scenery and fascinating characters, this book represents Simmons at his best.<br />Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Welcome back to the Trojan War gone round the bend. Hector and Achilles have joined forces against the Olympic Gods. Back on a future Earth, assorted creatures from Shakespeare's __ get ready to rumble in a winner-takes-the-universe battle royale. And amid it all, a group of confused mere mortals with their classically trained robot allies (from Jupiter no less) race across time and space to keep from getting squashed as the various Titans of the Western Canon square off.</p><p>Confused? It's all part of Dan Simmons's <em>Olympos</em>, a novel one part fun-with-quantum-physics and two parts through-the-looking-glass survey of Western Literature. Picking up where he left off in the high-wire act __, Simmons doesn't disappoint. Not only is <em>Olympos</em> excellent hard science fiction and grand space opera, it's a riveting and fast-paced book that is alternately shocking, thrilling, and often deftly hilarious as his hapless human creations wrestle the forces of literary history itself. Be sure to read <em>Ilium</em> first though. That and a more-than passing familiarity with <em>_ might come in handy for the journey to Mars, Ilium's far-off shores, and the Earth that might be. --</em>Jeremy Pugh_</p><p><strong>Amazon.com Exclusive Content</strong></p><p><strong><em>Master of the Universes</em>: An Exclusive Interview with Dan Simmons</strong> </p><p><em>Olympos</em>, a tale of Mars, the Greek gods, and survival in a post-human world.</p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p><em>Starred Review.</em> Drawing from Homer's <em>Iliad</em>, Shakespeare's <em>Tempest</em> and the work of several 19th-century poets, Simmons achieves another triumph in this majestic, if convoluted, sequel to his much-praised <em>Ilium</em> (2003). Posthumans masquerading as the Greek gods and living on Mars travel back and forth through time and alternate universes to interfere in the real Trojan War, employing a resurrected late 20th-century classics professor, Thomas Hockenberry, as their tool. Meanwhile, the last remaining old-style human beings on a far-future Earth must struggle for survival against a variety of hostile forces. Superhuman entities with names like Prospero, Caliban and Ariel lay complex plots, using human beings as game pieces. From the outer solar system, an advanced race of semiorganic Artificial Intelligences, called moravecs, observe Earth and Mars in consternation, trying to make sense of the situation, hoping to shift the balance of power before out-of-control quantum forces destroy everything. This is powerful stuff, rich in both high-tech sense of wonder and literary allusions, but Simmons is in complete control of his material as half a dozen baroque plot lines smoothly converge on a rousing and highly satisfying conclusion. <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p>


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<div><meta charset="utf-8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; ">London, 2043. Jake Reed is a young futures broker, trading stock on the datascape, the high-tech virtual stock market, one of the best in his field. When the datascape comes under attack from hackers, Reed is called in to investigate who could be responsible. However, the virtual attack is but the opening move in a struggle years in the planning. Cities burn, riots erupt and armies are neutralised as the long-feared collapse of modern civilisation begins.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; "><meta charset="utf-8">Twenty-two years later, Reed lives in a rural community in Dorset. Millions have died in the post-Collapse years and the UK is now a patchwork of farming communities. Supplies of advanced medicines and high technology are running low, with no infrastructure available to replace them. But strange things are happening. Waves of refugees are appearing out of the east, strange craft with dragons painted on the wings have been seen in the sky and, on the horizon, a vast structure has appeared and is getting closer. The age of Western dominance has ended and the future belongs to the East.<br><br><span style="font-style: italic; ">Son of Heaven</span> is the first novel in the new version of David Wingrove's<span style="font-weight: bold; ">Chung Kuo</span> series, a science fiction epic spanning 200 years of future history. In Wingrove's series, the entire world has come to be dominated by China, which has constructed vast, continent-spanning cities packed with billions of people and begun to expand into space. Wingrove previously attempted to tell this story in the late 1980s and through the 1990s in eight large volumes, but the series was not completed properly. Now Corvus are republishing the saga in <span style="font-style: italic; ">twenty</span>volumes, with a new beginning and ending and a thorough revising of the previously-published material.<br><br><span style="font-style: italic; ">Son of Heaven</span> starts the story much earlier than the original first volume, depicting exactly how Western civilisation and modern economic system were destroyed and how China survived the aftershocks to rise to dominance. This is an interesting movie: the original first book started with China's supremacy firmly established and the reasons for its rise consigned to backstory. Here we see it in progress. It also means we are introduced to the world through the eyes of outsiders (Jake and his neighbours and family who are 'incorporated' into the World of Levels) rather than from inside, which is perhaps a little more forgiving to new readers to the series.<br><br>On the downside, this means that the methods by which China's dominance was established have to be depicted in a lot of detail, and these methods are somewhat fanciful, requiring a catastrophic and colossal failure of tens of thousands of Western intelligence, military and economic experts across many years whilst still requiring China to have acquired technology far in advance of the rest of the world (particularly the AI and nanotech required start building its massive continent-spanning cities in the space of a few years). Lots of SF is based on far more ludicrous premises, of course, but generally these work by taking place in the distant future with the transition from modern society being a vague or mythological event. Here it's more central to the story and therefore more open to scrutiny. This isn't helped by Wingrove having to take into account twenty years of additional real history (such as China's economic explosion) and then weld it onto the front of his original narrative. Ironically, China's real-life economic success provides a much more reasonable grounding for it becoming the dominant world culture over the course of decades, but using this as the grounding of the story would have presumably required a much more thorough rewriting of the entire series.<br><br>Moving beyond this, Wingrove's actual writing is pretty solid, depicting both the high-tech world of 21st Century London and the post-Collapse, almost post-apocalyptic agrarian society quite well. The conflict presented by the latter is handled intriguingly: the 21st Century, money-fixated world of haves and have-nots is shown to be comfortable but also shallow. The post-apocalyptic world initially lauds the absence of pointless materialism but then exposes the ugliness of living in a world where people die of cold exposure in the winter or from very minor wounds a modern hospital would sort out in a few minutes, or where girls are encouraged to get pregnant before the age of twenty to increase the chances of propagating the species. This sort of duality was one of the key themes of the original series, with the conflicts between progress and stasis and the state and the individual being key, but with the various options being presented as having their own benefits and disadvantages.<br><br>In the latter part of the book the Chinese finally show up and we meet a raft of new characters. General Jiang Lei is leading the subjugation of England and is presented as an effective soldier but also one with a sense of history and a conscience. He is contrasted against Wang Yu-Lai, a savage and ruthless intelligence agent who is all for rape, plunder and genocide. Jiang is an interesting character whose attitudes mirror many of the conflicts inherent in the series in microcosm. Wang is a caricature and a cartoon villain at best, however, lacking convincing motivation or characterisation.<br><br>The contrast between these two characters is symptomatic of much of the book: some excellent worldbuilding stands contrasted against some highly unconvincing developments needed to make China top dog. Jake and Jiang's solid depictions stand against some under-developed characters (particularly women) elsewhere. Respect and admiration for Chinese culture is contrasted against stereotypical elements elsewhere (the 'cold, brutal' Chinese stereotype is played up a bit, even when characters like Jiang are shown to be nothing like this). Overall though, the book is readable and sets up a world intriguing enough to make even the modest wait for the second book,<span style="font-style: italic; ">Daylight on Iron Mountain</span> (due in late 2011), feel somewhat disappointing. Whether it's enough to sustain twenty novels released across five years is another question, but we'll see.<br><br><span style="font-style: italic; ">Son of Heaven </span>(***1⁄2) is a solid opening to a very long epic SF series, overcoming its weaknesses to deliver an unsettling (if implausible) depiction of the future. The novel will be published in the UK on <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Son-Heaven-David-Wingrove/dp/0857890417/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1293367783&amp;sr=8-2" style="color: rgb(68, 85, 102); ">3 February 2011</a> as a limited-edition hardcover and ebook and on 1 March as <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Son-Heaven-David-Wingrove/dp/184887524X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1293367783&amp;sr=8-1" style="color: rgb(68, 85, 102); ">a regular hardcover</a>. American imports of the latter should be available via <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Son-Heaven-David-Wingrove/dp/184887524X/ref=tmm_hrd_title_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1293367788&amp;sr=8-2" style="color: rgb(68, 85, 102); ">Amazon</a> and the <a href="http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9781848875241/Son-of-Heaven" style="color: rgb(68, 85, 102); ">Book Depository</a>.</span></div></div>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>An explosive prologue sets the stage for Nix's riveting continuation of the story begun in Sabriel and Lirael. While newcomers might find the intricate plotting and the rituals of the Charter Magic off-putting at first, Nix rewards their efforts. Returning characters Lirael, former Second Assistant Librarian of the Clayr and now an Abhorsen-in-Waiting (the Abhorsen's "birthright and charge [is] to maintain the borders of Life and Death"), and her nephew, Prince Sameth, along with Disreputable Dog and the mysterious white cat, Mogget, are ensorcelled in the Abhorsen House by a Dead creature, Chlorr of the Mask, who is in league with the evil necromancer Hedge. They break out to try and rescue Sam's old friend, Nicholas Sayre, who has been tricked by Hedge into digging up Orannis, the Destroyer; if Hedge's plan succeeds, the evil now contained by two separate hemispheres will join and annihilate all life. The grotesque imagery of the Death realm provides a haunting note, which Nix offsets by the brightness of the main characters' quest to defeat the Destroyer. At once an allegory regarding war and peace and a testament to friendship, this thought-provoking fantasy also resolves the true identities of the popular Dog and Mogget characters-and suggests that Nix may still have more tricks up his sleeve. Ages 12-up. <br>Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From School Library Journal</h3><p>Grade 7 Up-The long-awaited confrontation between the evil necromancer Hedge and Abhorsen-in-Waiting Lirael and her nephew Sameth finally takes place in this conclusion to Nix's trilogy. Fans were left hanging at the end of Lirael (HarperCollins, 2001) as they learned that Hedge had magically enslaved a horde of the newly dead and Sam's friend Nick to help him dig up Orannis, a powerful Free Magic being who intended to destroy all life in the Kingdom. Long ago, Orannis had been broken in two and buried deep beneath the earth and Nick has discovered a way to join the two pieces to release him. All the characters from the previous books are here, but Lirael and Sam dominate the action. Lirael is destined to travel into death to find out how Orannis was defeated before and to try to find out how to defeat him once again. The experience leaves her scathed but stronger, and she finds her family, heritage, and her place in the world. Readers discover the real identities of the Disreputable Dog and the cat Mogget but Lirael's mother's actions still remain unsatisfactorily explained. Lirael and Sam have gained confidence in themselves and in their abilities in this title. There are also fewer surprises here, but Nix maintains the nonstop action, imaginative magical descriptions, and high level of violence of the previous titles. It is essential to read the series in order. There is a resolution, but the ending hints that this may not be the last story about the Old Kingdom. Fans will be overjoyed.<br><em>Sharon Rawlins, Piscataway Public Library, NJ</em><br>Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p> </div>


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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Fourteen years have passed since the necromancer Sabriel bound the Greater Dead Adept Kerrigor beyond the Ninth Gate and helped restore King Touchstone to the Old Kingdom throne. Now she rules at his side as Abhorsen, the sole necromancer of the Old Kingdom, keeping the people safe from the dark power of Free Magic. But this is not just Sabriel's tale. It is also the story of Hedge, a mysterious necromancer who is digging up a monstrous evil that could utterly destroy the Old Kingdom. And it is the story of Prince Sameth, Touchstone and Sabriel's only son, who would rather fight an entire army of Dead than disappoint his beloved parents. And Sam's friend Nick, who has unknowingly loosed Free Magic into the Old Kingdom, blissfully ignorant of its complete malevolence. But mostly, this is the tale of Lirael, the only daughter of the future-seeing Clayr who does not possess the Sight. Burying the pain of her Sightlessness in the Clayr's great library, Third Assistant Librarian Lirael's insatiable curiosity will soon lead her to an unbelievable destiny that may even be connected with that of the great Sabriel herself. </p><p>Garth Nix's stunning sequel to __, full of Mages, Moggets, and even a Disreputable Dog, is on par with the equally superb works of Philip Pullman and William Nicholson. And fantasy lovers of all ages will be thrilled to discover that <em>Lirael</em> ends with more questions than answers, which will mean a third dip into Nix's beguiling Charter Magic. Both exhilarating and mesmerizing, this fine novel is pure enchantment. (Ages 12 and older) <em>--Jennifer Hubert</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>In Nix's sequel to Sabriel, readers return to the entrancing and complicated Old Kingdom: a world of necromancy, seers, dangerous monsters and talking animals (the cat Mogget is back). The relationships between the Kingdom's various realms and the magic may take some unraveling for readers new to the series, but the heroine's plight will be instantly compelling. Lirael is the only one of a community of clairvoyant women not to be gifted with "the Sight," and the mystery of her parentage contributes to her alienation. Just after her 14th birthday, Lirael releases a Stilken (half-woman, half-crustacean) from a glass-covered coffin. Her act leads to a meeting with a healer (Lirael's great-great-grandmother) who fortifies her and urges her to take as her only friend the impertinent "Disreputable Dog," a creature of suspicious magical origin whose true nature remains unknown. The overall plot may follow the expected course an evil magician threatens the well-being of the Old Kingdom and Lirael finds her destiny linked with that of handsome, nervous Prince Sameth (son of Sabriel) but startling subplots abound and keep the pages turning. The book ends on a cliffhanger, and Nix leaves nearly every major question unanswered. The evil is still at large, the Disreputable Dog still unexplained and Lirael's mother's desertion of her unresolved. Readers hoping for a satisfying ending will have to wait for the third in the series, to be titled Abhorsen, and tentatively scheduled for fall 2002. Ages 12-up. </p><p>Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.</p> </div>


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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>After receiving a cryptic message from her father, Abhorsen, a necromancer trapped in Death, 18-year-old Sabriel sets off into the Old Kingdom. Fraught with peril and deadly trickery, her journey takes her to a world filled with parasitical spirits, Mordicants, and Shadow Hands. Unlike other necromancers, who raise the dead, Abhorsen lays the disturbed dead back to rest. This obliges him--and now Sabriel, who has taken on her father's title and duties--to slip over the border into the icy river of Death, sometimes battling the evil forces that lurk there, waiting for an opportunity to escape into the realm of the living. Desperate to find her father, and grimly determined to help save the Old Kingdom from destruction by the horrible forces of the evil undead, Sabriel endures almost impossible exhaustion, violent confrontations, and terrifying challenges to her supernatural abilities--and her destiny. </p><p>Garth Nix delves deep into the mystical underworld of necromancy, magic, and the monstrous undead. This tale is not for the faint of heart; imbedded in the classic good-versus-evil story line are subplots of grisly ghouls hungry for human life to perpetuate their stay in the world of the living, and dark, devastating secrets of betrayal and loss. Just <em>try</em> to put this book down. For more along this line, try Nix's later novel: __. (Ages 12 and older) <em>--Emilie Coulter</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Sabriel is her last year at Wyverley College, a private school in Ancelstierre, where Magic does not work, but near the Border with the Old Kingdom, where it does. She and her father are also highly skilled necromancers, who fight the dead who seek to return to Life. But when her father is somehow trapped in Death, she must journey into the Old Kingdom to find him. She does not know that it is wracked by struggle (like that in Ursula LeGuin's The Farthest Shore)-a magician has brought chaos by refusing to die and hopes to use Sabriel and her father to further consolidate his power. Sabriel goes on a long journey throughout a densely imagined world, learning as she goes, and meeting such strange characters as Mogget, a raging natural force contained in the shape of a cat. She also develops a relationship with Touchstone, a young man who turns out to be as crucially involved as she is. Although Sabriel is possessed of much heavy knowledge ("A year ago, I turned the final page of The Book of the Dead. I don't feel young any more"), she is still a teenager and vulnerable where her father and love for Touchstone are concerned, making her a sympathetic heroine. Rich, complex, involving, hard to put down, this first novel, an Australian import, is excellent high fantasy. The suitably climactic ending leaves no loose ends, but readers will hope for a sequel. Ages 12-up. <br>Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p> </div>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Two teenage orphans in an anemic fantasy analogue of Victorian London are baffled to find themselves on the run in this overeager effort from British author and blogger Hunt (_For the Crown and the Dragon_). Molly, pursued by determined assassins with mysterious masters, hides underground, while Oliver, framed for his uncle's death, takes to the air to escape the fey-hunting Special Guard. They also draw the attention of the Court of the Air, a shadowy black-ops organization, and communityist revolutionaries seeking to resurrect ancient subterranean gods. An entire steampunk menagerie is pressed into lackluster service, but the pace leaves no time to focus on any single element. Only the steammen and their refreshingly tender machine culture are affecting and original. The historical and geographical parallels are overly frequent and mostly trite. Hunt has packed the story full of intriguing gimmicks, but the end result is more overload than wonder. <em>(June)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>Praise for <em>The Court of the Air</em></p><p>“Hunt has packed the story full of intriguing gimmicks...the ‘steammen’ and their refreshingly tender machine culture are affecting and original.”--_Publishers Weekly_</p><p>“A curious part-future blend of aerostats, mechanical computers, psychic powers, self-willed steam-power robots, Elder gods, talking superweapons and more...Harry Potter mugs H.P. Lovecraft and L. Ron Hubbard explains it all.”--_Kirkus Reviews_</p><p>“An ultra supersonic speed Dickens fantasy thriller...put on your seatbelts for a frenetic cat and mouse encounter that includes some nasty paranormal adversaries as this is an exciting tale of two orphans trying to save the world from those who want Armageddon now.”--_SFRevu__ _</p> </div>


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EDITORIAL REVIEW: Jean-Baptiste Clamence, a successful Parisian barrister, has come to recognize the deep-seated hypocrisy of his existence. His epigrammatic and, above all, discomforting monologue gradually saps, then undermines, the reader's own complacency.


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Stephen Ambrose is the acknowledged dean of the historians of World War II in Europe. In three highly acclaimed, bestselling volumes, he has told the story of the bravery, steadfastness, and ingenuity of the ordinary young men, the citizen soldiers, who fought the enemy to a standstill -- the band of brothers who endured together.  The very young men who flew the B-24s over Germany in World War II against terrible odds were yet another exceptional band of brothers, and, in "The Wild Blue, " Ambrose recounts their extraordinary brand of heroism, skill, daring, and comradeship with the same vivid detail and affection.  Ambrose describes how the Army Air Forces recruited, trained, and then chose those few who would undertake the most demanding and dangerous jobs in the war. These are the boys -- turned pilots, bombardiers, navigators, and gunners of the B-24s -- who suffered over 50 percent casualties.  With his remarkable gift for bringing alive the action and tension of combat, Ambrose carries us along in the crowded, uncomfortable, and dangerous B-24s as their crews fought to the death through thick black smoke and deadly flak to reach their targets and destroy the German war machine. Twenty-two-year-old George McGovern, who was to become a United States senator and a presidential candidate, flew thirty-five combat missions (all the Army would allow) and won the Distinguished Flying Cross. We meet him and his mates, his co-pilot killed in action, and crews of other planes. Many went down in flames.  As "Band of Brothers" and "Citizen Soldiers" portrayed the bravery and ultimate victory of the American soldiers from Normandy on to Germany, "The Wild Blue makes" clear the contribution these young men of the Army Air Forces stationed in Italy made to the Allied victory.


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Thirteen short science-fiction mysteries by the acclaimed science writer are presented together with commentary


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Azazel, an enchanting, other-wordly imp, uses his magical powers to help humans beset by ill fortune, but his efforts frequently have unexpected results, in this collection of fantasy tales.


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Featuring Asimov's personal choices, this collection offers a variety of science fiction stories that cover the period from 1949 to the present, each accompanied by a brief introduction


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This classic collection includes the title story, acclaimed as Asimov's single finest Robot tale, and now made into a Hollywood movie starring Robin Williams. Each of the eleven stories here sparkle with characteristic Asimov inventiveness and imagination.


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Twenty-four tales set in diverse locations are accompanied by critical and autobiographical commentary


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A millennium into the future two advancements have altered the course of human history:  the colonization of the galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain.  Isaac Asimov's *Robot* novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together.  Like most people left behind on an over-populated Earth, New York City police detective Elijah Baley had little love for either the arrogant Spacers or their robotic companions.  But when a prominent Spacer is murdered under mysterious circumstances, Baley is ordered to the Outer Worlds to help track down the killer.  The relationship between Life and his Spacer superiors, who distrusted all Earthmen, was strained from the start.  Then he learned that they had assigned him a partner:  R. Daneel Olivaw.  Worst of all was that the "R" stood for robot--and his positronic partner was made in the image and likeness of the murder victim!


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High above the planet Florinia, the Squires of Sark live in unimaginable wealth and comfort.  Down in the eternal spring of the planet, however, the native Florinians labor ceaselessly to produce the precious kyrt that brings prosperity to their Sarkite masters. Rebellion is unthinkable and impossible. Not only do the Florinians no longer have a concept of freedom, any disruption of the vital kyrt trade would cause other planets to rise in protest, ultimately destabilizing trade and resulting in a galactic war. So the Trantorian Empire, whose grand plan is to unite all humanity in peace, prosperity, and freedom, has stood aside and allowed the oppression to continue. Living among the workers of Florinia, Rik is a man without a memory or a past.  He has been abducted and brainwashed. Barely able to speak or care for himself when he was found, Rik is widely regarded as a simpleton by the worker community where he lives.  But as his memories begin to return, Rik finds himself driven by a cryptic message he is determined to deliver:  Everyone on Florinia is doomed . . . the Currents of Space are bringing destruction. But if the planet is evacuated, the power of Sark will end--so some would finish the job and would kill the messenger. The fate of the Galaxy hangs in the balance.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Anything can happen and probably will right here on earth. You don't have to rent a spaceship or sign up for a singles cruise to Saturn or spend your weekends star-hopping along the Milky Way because ... Earth Is Room Enough. Earth is where the action is and each tomorrow unleashes new discoveries.

Here are brilliant, witty, frightening, and fascinating stories of the future by the greatest science fiction master of them all. Just hitch your mind to these weird and wonderful tales for a spin around the world of tomorrow that will take you right to the center of your wildest dreams.

Contains: The Dead Past, The Foundation of S.F. Success, Franchise, Gimmicks Three, Kid Stuff, The Water Place, Living Space, The Message, Satisfaction Guaranteed, Hell-Fire, The Last Trump, The Fun They Had, Jokester, The Immortal Bard, Someday, The Author's Ordeal, Dreaming Is A Private Thing.


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One of Isaac Asimov’s SF masterpieces, this stand-alone novel is a monument of the flowering of SF in the twentieth century. It is widely regarded as Asimov’s single best SF novel. Andrew Harlan is an Eternal, a member of the elite of the future. One of the few who live in Eternity, a location outside of place and time, Harlan’s job is to create carefully controlled and enacted Reality Changes. These Changes are small, exactingly calculated shifts in the course of history, made for the benefit of humankind. Though each Change has been made for the greater good, there are also always costs. During one of his assignments, Harlan meets and falls in love with Noÿs Lambent, a woman who lives in real time and space. Then Harlan learns that Noÿs will cease to exist after the next Change, and he risks everything to sneak her into Eternity.Unfortunately, they are caught. Harlan’s punishment? His next assignment: Kill the woman he loves before the paradox they have created results in the destruction of Eternity.


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Perma-Bound Hard cover. Based on a Screenplay by Harry Kleiner. Adaptatation by David Duncan. Based on a Story by Atto Klement and Jay Lewis Bixby.


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From the phenomenal Isaac Asimov, Fantastic Voyage II, the fabulous sequel to bestselling Fantastic Voyage, is a powerful high-tech thriller set in the near future and in a human brain! A band of Americans and Russians are miniaturized in a joint effort to extract vital information from a comatose scientist's brain. Certain to become a science fiction classic.


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One of the great masterworks of science fiction, the Foundation novels of Isaac Asimov are unsurpassed for their unique blend of nonstop action, daring ideas, and extensive world-building. The story of our future begins with the history of Foundation and its greatest psychohistorian: Hari Seldon. For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. Only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future—a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save mankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire—both scientists and scholars—and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the Galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for future generations. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation. But soon the fledgling Foundation finds itself at the mercy of corrupt warlords rising in the wake of the receding Empire. And mankind’s last best hope is faced with an agonizing choice: submit to the barbarians and live as slaves—or take a stand for freedom and risk total destruction. From the Hardcover edition.


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The fifth novel in Asimov's popular Foundation series opens with second thoughts. Councilman Golan Trevize is wondering if he was right to choose a collective mind as the best possible future for humanity over the anarchy of contentious individuals, nations and planets. To test his conclusion, he decides he must know the past and goes in search of legendary Earth, all references to which have been erased from galactic libraries. The societies encountered along the way become arguing points in a book-long colloquy about man's fate, conducted by Trevize and traveling companion Bliss, who is part of the first world/mind, Gaia.


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The Isaac Asimov Collection Edition. Decorative imitation leather blue Hardcover with gold imprinted spine. Originally available from Doubleday by subscription only.


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At last, the costly and bitter war between the two Foundations had come to an end. The scientists of the First Foundation had proved victorious; and now they retum to Hari Seldon's long-established plan to build a new Empire that the Second Foundation is not destroyed after all-and that its still-defiant survivors are preparing their revenge. Now the two exiled citizens of the Foundation-a renegade Councilman and the doddering historian-set out in search of the mythical planet Earth. . .and proof that the Second Foundation still exists. Meanwhile someone-or something-outside of both Foundations sees to be orchestrating events to suit its own ominous purpose. Soon representatives of both the First and Second Foundations will find themselves racing toward a mysterious world called Gaia and a final shocking destiny at the very end of the universe!


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Only a few know the terrifying truth--an outcast Earth scientist, a rebellious alien inhabitant of a dying planet, a lunar-born human intuitionist who senses the imminent annihilation of the Sun.  They know the truth--but who will listen?  They have foreseen the cost of abundant energy--but who will believe?  These few beings, human and alien, hold the key to the Earth's survival.


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SUMMARY: The three laws of Robotics:1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm2) A robot must obey orders givein to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.With this, Asimov changed our perception of robots forever when he formulated the laws governing their behavior. In I, Robot, Asimov chronicles the development of the robot through a series of interlinked stories: from its primitive origins in the present to its ultimate perfection in the not-so-distant future--a future in which humanity itself may be rendered obsolete.Here are stories of robots gone mad, of mind-read robots, and robots with a sense of humor. Of robot politicians, and robots who secretly run the world--all told with the dramatic blend of science fact & science fiction that became Asmiov's trademark.


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EDITORIAL REVIEW:

The second volume in an extraordinary collection published shortly before the author's death. In these forty stories, Asimov's vivid awareness of the potential of technology is translated into human dilemmas. The definitive collection of short fiction by Isaac Asimov, supreme master of the science fiction genre continues with Volume Two of the Complete Stories. The Good Doctor was always ahead of his time and his work stands today as the clearest expression of our collective hopes and fears for the future. But the ever-expanding popularity of his stories with young and old readers alike is explained by their wit, zest and human interest. Within this volume are stories often voted among the best science fiction stories of all time. In these stories Asimov's vivid awareness of the potential of technology is translated into human dilemmas that are more relevant today than ever before.


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This collection of four famous science fiction tales masterfully exemplifies author Isaac Asimov's ability to create quickly a believable human milieu in the midst of alien circumstances. Each of the long stores also shows his considerable skill in fully fleshing out a speculative scientific or social possibility.


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The Earth will be destroyed by Solaria's robot army if Elijah Baley fails to find the murderer of an eminent scientist


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One of this master's finest. Also use The Currents of Space (1985), End of Eternity (1986), and Casebook of the Black Widowers (1985).


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One moment Joseph Schwartz is a happily retired tailor in 1949 Chicago. The next he’s a helpless stranger on Earth during the heyday of the first Galactic Empire. Earth, he soon learns, is a backwater, just a pebble in the sky, despised by all the other 200 million planets of the Empire because its people dare to claim it’s the original home of man. And Earth is poor, with great areas of radioactivity ruining much of its soil—so poor that everyone is sentenced to death at the age of sixty.Joseph Schwartz is sixty-two.This is young Isaac Asimov’s first novel, full of wonders and ideas, the book that launched the novels of the Galactic Empire, culminating in the Foundation books and novels. It is also one of that select group of SF adventures that since the early 1950s has hooked generations of teenagers on reading science fiction. This is Golden Age SF at its finest.


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It is the year 12,020 G.E. and Emperor Cleon I sits uneasily on the Imperial throne of Trantor. Here in the great multidomed capital of the Galactic Empire, forty billion people have created a civilization of unimaginable technological and cultural complexity. Yet Cleon knows there are those who would see him fall - those whom he would destroy if only he could read the future.Hari Seldon has come to Trantor to deliver his paper on psychohistory, his remarkable theory of prediction. Little does the young Outworld mathematician know that he has already sealed his fate and the fate of humanity. For Hari possesses the prophetic power that makes him the most wanted man in the Empire... the man who holds the key to the future - an apocalyptic power to be know forever after as the Foundation.From the Paperback edition.


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A collection of 8 short stories and 2 novels about robots by the 20th century American science fiction writer


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24-copy mixed floor display with special riser (4 each of Neuromancer, Forever Peace, Stranger in a Strange Land, Dune, Robot Dreams, and The Left Hand of Darkness) 0-441-01140-3 @ $175.76/$239.76 Can.


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Launching Roc Books' new science fiction/fantasy line is this collection from the undisputed grandmaster".d capture the essence of an extraordinary life's work.er of a 1986 Oscar for his special effects for Cocoon--provides 15 line drawings.


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Long after his humiliating defeat at the hands of Earthman Elijah Baley, Keldon Amadiro embarked on a plan to destroy planet Earth.  But even after his death, Baley's vision continued to guide his robot partner, R. Daneel Olivaw, who had the wisdom of a great man behind him and an indestructable will to win....


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A millennium into the future two advances have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the Galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. Isaac Asimov's Robot novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together. Detective Elijah Baley is called to the Spacer world Aurora to solve a bizarre case of roboticide. The prime suspect is a gifted roboticist who had the means, the motive, and the opportunity to commit the crime. There's only one catch: Baley and his positronic partner, R. Daneel Olivaw, must prove the man innocent. For in a case of political intrigue and love between woman and robot gone tragically wrong, there's more at stake than simple justice. This time Baley's career, his life, and Earth's right to pioneer the Galaxy lie in the delicate balance.


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Biron Farrell was young and naïve, but he was growing up fast. A radiation bomb planted in his dorm room changed him from an innocent student at the University of Earth to a marked man, fleeing desperately from an unknown assassin.He soon discovers that, many light-years away, his father, the highly respected Rancher of Widemos, has been murdered. Stunned, grief-stricken, and outraged, Biron is determined to uncover the reasons behind his father’s death, and becomes entangled in an intricate saga of rebellion, political intrigue, and espionage.The mystery takes him deep into space where he finds himself in a relentless struggle with the power-mad despots of Tyrann. Now it is not just a case of life or death for Biron, but a question of freedom for the galaxy….


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Four elderly gentlemen while away their time at their comfortable club telling pungent tales of mystery and intrigue


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These two renowned writers have invented a world not unlike our own--a world on the edge of chaos, torn between the madness of religious fanaticism and the stubborn denial of scientists. Only a handful of people on the planet Lagash are prepared to face the truth--that their six suns are setting all at once for the first time in 2,000 years, signaling the end of civilization!


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Andrew Martin, a standard housekeeping robot, allows the unique capabilities of his experimental brain to lead him to become an artist, businessman, and crusader, in a novel based on Asimov's short story, "The Bicentennial Man." 35,000 first printing. $35,000 ad/promo.


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This letter is the closest that Kafka came to setting down his autobiography. He was driven to write it by his father's opposition to his engagement with Julie Wohryzek. The marriage did not take place; the letter was not delivered.


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Written in 1914, The Trial is one of the most important novels of the twentieth century: the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, Kafka's nightmare has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers. This new edition is based upon the work of an international team of experts who have restored the text, the sequence of chapters, and their division to create a version that is as close as possible to the way the author left it.In his brilliant translation, Breon Mitchell masterfully reproduces the distinctive poetics of Kafka's prose, revealing a novel that is as full of energy and power as it was when it was first written.


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SUMMARY: Jean le Flambeur is a post-human criminal, mind burglar, confidence artist and trickster. His origins are shrouded in mystery, but his exploits are known throughout the Heterarchy - from breaking into the vast Zeusbrains of the Inner System to steal their thoughts, to stealing rare Earth antiques from the aristocrats of the Moving Cities of Mars. Except that Jean made one mistake. Now he is condemned to play endless variations of a game-theoretic riddle in the vast virtual jail of the Axelrod Archons - the Dilemma Prison - against countless copies of himself. Jean's routine of death, defection and cooperation is upset by the arrival of Mieli and her spidership, Perhonen. She offers him a chance to win back his freedom and the powers of his old self - in exchange for finishing the one heist he never quite managed . . .The Quantum Thief is a dazzling hard SF novel set in the solar system of the far future - a heist novel peopled by bizarre post-humans but powered by very human motives of betrayal, revenge and jealousy. It is a stunning debut.


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Today's hottest geek and host of G4's ATTACK OF THE SHOW dishes her unique brand of humor of on everything from Star Wars, gadgets, and her love of banana cream pie.  Olivia Munn is an actress, comedian and television host, best known for being the face of the G4 network.  She also occasionally likes to get dressed up as Wonder Woman.  SUCK IT WONDER WOMAN is her paean to Geeks everywhere.  Using her trademark humor in essays like THOUGHTS ABOUT MY FIRST AGENT’S GIRLFRIEND’S VAGINA she skewers what it’s like to live in Hollywood.  In " SEX: WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP YOURSELF HAVE MORE OF IT" she frankly gets down to the business of getting it on. In "WHAT TO DO WHEN THE ROBOTS INVADE (YES, WHEN!)," Olivia offers valuable information on... what to do when the robots invade! And just when you thought she couldn’t get any more Geeky, she can. This book also includes an Olivia Munn timeline of great moments in Geek history and her answers to the Unofficial Geek FAQ. Is it any wonder that Olivia Munn is quickly becoming the most powerful Geek on the planet? SUCK IT WONDER WOMAN is a humorous look at geeks, gadgets, Hollywood, and huge heapings of banana cream pie.


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The New York Times Book Review called Neal Stephenson's most recent novel "electrifying" and "hilarious".  but if you want to know Stephenson was doing twenty years before he wrote the epic Cryptonomicon, it's back-to-school time. Back to The Big U, that is, a hilarious send-up of American college life starring after years our of print, The Big U is required reading for anyone interested in the early work of this singular writer.


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Within these pages are the musings, the revelations, the ruminations, and the reflections of the incomparable Larry Wilmore. Here, collected for the first time, all in one place, are his Black Thoughts. From why black weathermen make him feel happy (or sad) and why brothas don't see UFOs to his search for Black Jesus or his quest to replace "African-American" with "chocolate," Wilmore has finally relented, agreeing to share his unique (black) perspective. Soon, you too will have the ability to find racism in everything. Bring back the Shetland Negro and do away with Black History Month! After all, can twenty-eight days of trivia really make up for centuries of oppression? In Wilmore's own words, "I'd rather we got casinos!"


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<p class="description">SUMMARY: Four of these stories are set on the shimmering desert fringes of Albert Camus' native Algeria, and all of them first appeared in 1957, the year when he became the youngest French writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught in one feud too many, he's on the verge of becoming a dead barbarian - leaving nothing behind him but bad songs, dead friends, and a lot of happy enemies. Nobleman, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, Captain Jezal dan Luthar has nothing more dangerous in mind than fleecing his friends at cards and dreaming of glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules. Inquisitor Glokta, cripple turned torturer, would like nothing better than to see Jezal come home in a box. But then Glokta hates everyone: cutting treason out of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendship. His latest trail of corpses may lead him right to the rotten heart of government, if he can stay alive long enough to follow it. Enter the wizard, Bayaz. A bald old man with a terrible temper and a pathetic assistant, he could be the First of the Magi, he could be a spectacular fraud, but whatever he is, he's about to make the lives of Logen, Jezal, and Glotka a whole lot more difficult. Murderous conspiracies rise to the surface, old scores are ready to be settled, and the line between hero and villain is sharp enough to draw blood. Unpredictable, compelling, wickedly funny, and packed with unforgettable characters, The Blade Itself is noir fantasy with a real cutting edge.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Bitter and merciless war is coming to the frozen north. It's bloody and dangerous and the Union army, split by politics and hamstrung by incompetence, is utterly unprepared for the slaughter that's coming. Lacking experience, training, and in some cases even weapons the army is scarcely equipped to repel Bethod's scouts, let alone the cream of his forces. In the heat-ravaged south the Gurkish are massing to assault the city of Dagoska, defended by Inquisitor Glokta. The city is braced for the inevitable defeat and massacre to come, preparations are made to make the Gurkish pay for every inch of land . . . but a plot is festering to hand the city to its beseigers without a fight, and the previous Inquisitor of Dagoska vanished without trace. Threatened from within and without the city, Glokta needs answers, and he needs them soon. And to the east a small band of malefactors travel to the edge of the world to reclaim a device from history - a Seed, hidden for generations - with tremendous destructive potential. A device which could put a end to war, to the army of Eaters in the South, to the invasion of Shanka from the North - but only if it can be found, and only if its power can be controlled . . .</p>


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The series that brought grittiness to Fantasy and became a bestseller in the US finally comes to the UK. Darkness wars with darkness as the hard-bitten men of the Black Company take their pay and do what they must. They bury their doubts with their dead. Then comes the prophecy: The White Rose has been reborn, somewhere, to embody good once more . . . This is fantasy for all fans of Steven Erikson, Joe Abercrombie and David Gemmell. Available for the first time in a UK edition. Contains the first three Black Company novels: THE BLACK COMPANY, SHADOWS LINGER and THE WHITE ROSE With the Black Company series, Glen Cook single-handedly changed the face of fantasy - something a lot of people didn’t notice, and maybe still don’t. He brought the story down to a human level, dispensing with the cliche archetypes of princes, kings and evil sorcerers. Reading his stuff is like reading Vietnam fiction on Peyote’ STEVEN ERIKSON


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<div><p class="description">EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">The Man in Black is dead, and Roland is about to be hurled into 20th-century America, occupying the mind of a man running cocaine on the New York/Bermuda shuttle. A brilliant work of dark fantasy inspired by Browning's romantic poem, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came".</p></div>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Roland, The Last Gunslinger, moves ever closer to The Dark Tower of his dreams-and nightmares-as he crosses a desert of damnation in a macabre world that is a twisted image of our own...</p>


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<p class="description">Roland and his band have narrowly escaped the city of Lud and boarded Blaine, a train that will take them to, of all places, Kansas, where the ghost city of Topeka has been depopulated by a superflu and where, alongside Interstate 70, an emerald palace rises enchantingly. Before Roland and the companions of his ka-tet continue along the Path of the Bean, Roland must tell his companions the tale that defines him both as a man and hero, a long-ago romance of witchery and evil, of the beautiful, unforgettable Susan Delgado, of the Big Coffin Hunters and Reah of the Coos. And when his tale is finished, Roland confronts a man who goes by many names, a man who "darkles and tincts" and who holds perhaps the key to the Dark Tower.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Set in a world of extraordinary circumstances, filled with stunning visual imagery and unforgettable characters, the DARK TOWER series is unlike anything you have ever read.Here is the fifth installment, "one of the strongest entries yet in what will surely be a master storyteller's magnum opus" (Locus).Roland Deschain and his ka-tet are bearing southeast through the forests of Mid-World on their quest for the Dark Tower. Their path takes them to the outskirts of Calla Bryn Sturgis. But beyond the tranquil farm town, the ground rises to the hulking darkness of Thunderclap, the source of a terrible affliction that is stealing the town's soul. The wolves of Thunderclap and their unspeakable depredation are coming. To resist them is to risk all, but these are odds the gunslingers are used to. Their guns, however, will not be enough....</p>


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<p class="description">There's something about a crippled, black, schizophrenic, civil rights activist-turned-gunslinger whose body has been hijacked by a white, pregnant demon from a parallel world that keeps a seven-volume story bracingly strong as it veers toward its Armageddon-like conclusion. When Susannah Dean is transported via a magic door on the outskirts of Calla Bryn Sturgis (the scene of much of The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla) to New York City in the summer of 1999, the "demon-mother" who possesses her, Mia, has only one thing on her mind. She must give birth to her "chap" at a predetermined location in Manhattan's East 60s, as instructed by the henchmen-or "Low Men"-of the evil Crimson King. Pressed for time, Father Callahan, preteen Jake and talking pet "billy-bumbler" Oy follow Susannah and Mia's trail in an effort to prevent an act that would quicken the destruction of the Dark Tower and, in turn, of all worlds. Meanwhile, gunslingers Roland and Eddie travel to 1977 Maine in search of bookstore owner Calvin Tower, who is being hunted down by mobster Enrico Balazar and his gang, who first appeared in Eddie's version of New York in The Drawing of the Three Avid readers of the series will either be completely enthralled or extremely irritated when, in a gutsy move, the author weaves his own character into this unpredictable saga, but either way there's no denying the ingenuity with which King paints a candid picture of himself. The sixth installment of this magnum opus stops short with the biggest cliffhanger of King's career, but readers at the edge of their seats need only wait a few short months (Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower) to find out how-and if-King's fictional universe will come to an end. 10 full-color illus. not seen by PW.<br>SUMMARY:<br>Stephen KingThe Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah with 10 full-color illustrations by Darrel AndersonThe next-to-last novel in Stephen King's seven-volume magnum opus, Song of Susannah is at once a book of revelation, a fascinating key to the unfolding mystery of the Dark Tower, and a fast-paced story of double-barreled suspense.To give birth to her "chap," demon-mother Mia has usurped the body of Susannah Dean and used the power of Black Thirteen to transport to New York City in the summer of 1999. The city is strange to Susannah...and terrifying to the "daughter of none," who shares her body and mind.Saving the Tower depends not only on rescuing Susannah but also on securing the vacant lot Calvin Tower owns before he loses it to the Sombra Corporation. Enlisting the aid of Manni senders, the remaining katet climbs to the Doorway Cave...and discovers that magic has its own mind. It falls to the boy, the billy-bumbler, and the fallen priest to find Susannah-Mia, who, in a struggle to cope -- with each other and with an alien environment -- "go todash" to Castle Discordia on the border of End-World. In that forsaken place, Mia reveals her origins, her purpose, and her fierce desire to mother whatever creature the two of them have carried to term.Eddie and Roland, meanwhile, tumble into western Maine in the summer of 1977, a world that should be idyllic but isn't. For one thing, it is real, and the bullets are flying. For another, it is inhabited by the author of a novel called 'Salem's Lot, a writer who turns out to be as shocked by them as they are by him.These are the simple vectors of a story rich in complexity and conflict. Its dual climaxes, one at the entrance to a deadly dining establishment and the other appended to the pages of a writer's journal, will leave readers gasping for the saga's final volume (which, Dear Reader, follows soon, say thank ya).</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Creating "true narrative magic" (The Washington Post) at every revelatory turn, Stephen King surpasses all expectation in the stunning final volume of his seven-part epic masterwork. Entwining stories and worlds from a vast and complex canvas, here is the conclusion readers have long awaited -- breath-takingly imaginative, boldly visionary, and wholly entertaining.Roland Deschain and his ka-tet have journeyed together and apart, scattered far and wide across multilayered worlds of wheres and whens. The destinies of Roland, Susannah, Jake, Father Callahan, Oy, and Eddie are bound in the Dark Tower itself, which now pulls them ever closer to their own endings and beginnings . . . and into a maelstrom of emotion, violence, and discovery.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>First volume in a dramatic and colourful new fantasy series, 'Shadows of the Apt', about the fight for survival against a menacingly regimented empire Seventeen years ago Stenwold witnessed the Wasp Empire storming the city of Myna in a brutal war of conquest. Since then he has preached vainly against this threat in his home city of Collegium, but now the Empire is on the march, with its spies and its armies everywhere, and the Lowlands lie directly in its path. All the while, Stenwold has been training youthful agents to fight the Wasp advance, and the latest recruits include his niece, Che, and his mysterious ward, Tynisa. When his home is violently attacked, he is forced to send them ahead of him and, hotly pursued, they fly by airship to Helleron, the first city in line for the latest Wasp invasion. Stenwold and Che are Beetle-kinden, one of many human races that take their powers and inspiration each from a totem insect, but he also has allies of many breeds: Mantis, Spider, Ant, with their own particular skills. Foremost is the deadly Mantis-kinden warrior, Tisamon, but other very unlikely allies also join the cause. As things go from bad to worse amid escalating dangers, Stenwold learns that the Wasps intend to use the newly completed railroad between Helleron and Collegium to launch a lightning strike into the heart of the Lowlands. Then he gathers all of his agents to force a final showdown in the engine yard . . .</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Two young companions, Totho and Salma, arrive at Tark to spy on the menacing Wasp army, but are there mistakenly apprehended as enemy agents. By the time they are freed, the city is already under siege. Over in the imperial capital the young emperor, Alvdan, is becoming captivated by a remarkable slave, the vampiric Uctebri, who claims he knows of magic that can grant eternal life. In Collegium, meanwhile, Stenwold is still trying to persuade the city magnates to take seriously the Wasp Empire's imminent threat to their survival.  In a colourful drama involving mass warfare and personal combat, a small group of heroes must stand up against what seems like an unstoppable force. This volume continues the story that so brilliantly unfolded in Empire in Black and Gold - and the action is still non-stop.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Driven by the ghosts of the Darakyon, Achaeos has tracked the stolen Shadow Box to the marsh-town of Jerez, but he has only days before the magical box is lost to him forever.  Meanwhile, the forces of the Empire are mustering over winter for their great offensive, gathering their soldiers and perfecting their new weapons. Stenwold and his followers have only a short time to gather what allies they can before the Wasp armies march again, conquering everything in their path. If they cannot throw back the Wasps this spring then the imperial black-and-gold flag will fly over every city in the Lowlands before the year's end.  In Jerez begins a fierce struggle over the Shadow Box, as lake creatures, secret police and renegade magicians compete to take possession. If it falls into the hands of the Wasp Emperor, however, then no amount of fighting will suffice to save the world from his relentless ambition.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>The vampiric sorcerer Uctebri has at last got his hands on the Shadow Box and can finally begin his dark ritual - a ritual that the Wasp-kinden Emperor believes will grant him immortality - but Uctebri has his own plans both for the Emperor and the Empire. The massed Wasp armies are on the march, and the spymaster Stenwold must see which of his allies will stand now that the war has finally arrived. This time the Empire will not stop until a black and gold flag waves over Stenwold's own home city of Collegium. Tisamon the Weaponsmaster is faced with a terrible choice: a path that could lead him to abandon his friends and his daughter, to face degradation and loss, but that might possibly bring him before the Wasp Emperor with a blade in his hand - but is he being driven by Mantis-kinden honour, or manipulated by something more sinister?</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY: The war with the Wasp Empire has ended in a bitter stalemate, and Collegium has nothing to show for it but wounded veterans. Cheerwell Maker finds herself crippled in ways no doctor can mend, haunted by ghosts of the past that she cannot appease, seeking for meaning in a city that no longer seems like home. The Empress Seda is regaining control over those imperial cities who refused to bow the knee to her, but she draws her power from something more sinister than mere armies and war machines. Only her consort, the former spymaster Thalric, knows the truth, and now the assassins are coming and he finds his life and his loyalties under threat yet again. Out past the desert of the Nem the ancient city of Khanaphes awaits them both, with a terrible secret entombed beneath its stones...</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Quicksilver is the story of Daniel Waterhouse, fearless thinker and conflicted Puritan, pursuing knowledge in the company of the greatest minds of Baroque-era Europe, in a chaotic world where reason wars with the bloody ambitions of the mighty, and where catastrophe, natural or otherwise, can alter the political landscape overnight. It is a chronicle of the breathtaking exploits of "Half-Cocked Jack" Shaftoe -- London street urchin turned swashbuckling adventurer and legendary King of the Vagabonds -- risking life and limb for fortune and love while slowly maddening from the pox. And it is the tale of Eliza, rescued by Jack from a Turkish harem to become spy, confidante, and pawn of royals in order to reinvent Europe through the newborn power of finance. A gloriously rich, entertaining, and endlessly inventive novel that brings a remarkable age and its momentous events to vivid life, Quicksilver is an extraordinary achievement from one of the most original and important literary talents of our time. And it's just the beginning ...</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>In the year 1689, a cabal of Barbary galley slaves -- including one Jack Shaftoe, a.k.a. King of the Vagabonds, a.k.a. Half-Cocked Jack, lately and miraculously cured of the pox -- devises a daring plan to win freedom and fortune. A great adventure ensues, rife with battles, chases, hairbreadth escapes, swashbuckling, bloodletting, and danger -- a perilous race for an enormous prize of silver ... nay, gold ... nay, legendary gold that will place the intrepid band at odds with the mighty and the mad, with alchemists, Jesuits, great navies, pirate queens, and vengeful despots across vast oceans and around the globe. Meanwhile, back in Europe ... The exquisite and resourceful Eliza, Countess de la Zeur, master of markets, pawn and confidante of enemy kings, onetime Turkish harem virgin, is stripped of her immense personal fortune by France's most dashing privateer. Penniless and at risk from those who desire either her or her head (or both), she is caught up in a web of international intrigue, even as she desperately seeks the return of her most precious possession -- her child. While ... Newton and Leibniz continue to propound their grand theories as their infamous rivalry intensifies, stubborn alchemy does battle with the natural sciences, nobles are beheaded, dastardly plots are set in motion, coins are newly minted (or not) in enemy strongholds, father and sons reunite in faraway lands, priests rise from the dead ... and Daniel Waterhouse seeks passage to the Massachusetts colony in hopes of escaping the madness into which his world has descended.</p>


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<div><p class="description">EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">'Tis done. </p>
<p class="description">The world is a most confused and unsteady place -- especially London, center of finance, innovation, and conspiracy -- in the year 1714, when Daniel Waterhouse makes his less-than-triumphant return to England's shores. Aging Puritan and Natural Philosopher, confidant of the high and mighty and contemporary of the most brilliant minds of the age, he has braved the merciless sea and an assault by the infamous pirate Blackbeard to help mend the rift between two adversarial geniuses at a princess's behest. But while much has changed outwardly, the duplicity and danger that once drove Daniel to the American Colonies is still coin of the British realm. </p>
<p class="description">No sooner has Daniel set foot on his homeland when he is embroiled in a dark conflict that has been raging in the shadows for decades. It is a secret war between the brilliant, enigmatic Master of the Mint and closet alchemist Isaac Newton and his archnemesis, the insidious counterfeiter Jack the Coiner, a.k.a. Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds. Hostilities are suddenly moving to a new and more volatile level, as Half-Cocked Jack plots a daring assault on the Tower itself, aiming for nothing less than the total corruption of Britain's newborn monetary system. </p>
<p class="description">Unbeknownst to all, it is love that set the Coiner on his traitorous course; the desperate need to protect the woman of his heart -- the remarkable Eliza, Duchess of Arcachon-Qwghlm -- from those who would destroy her should he fail. Meanwhile, Daniel Waterhouse and his Clubb of unlikely cronies comb city and country for clues to the identity of the blackguard who is attempting to blow up Natural Philosophers with Infernal Devices -- as political factions jockey for position while awaiting the impending death of the ailing queen; as the "holy grail" of alchemy, the key to life eternal, tantalizes and continues to elude Isaac Newton, yet is closer than he ever imagined; as the greatest technological innovation in history slowly takes shape in Waterhouse's manufactory. </p>
<p class="description">Everything that was will be changed forever ... The System of the World is the concluding volume in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, begun with Quicksilver and continued in The Confusion.</p></div>


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<div><p class="description">EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">Dear Reader,</p>
<p class="description">If you have picked up this book with the hope of finding a simple and cheery tale. I'm afraid you have picked up the wrong book altogether. The story may seem cheery at first, when the Baudelaire children spend time in the company of some interesting reptiles and a giddy uncle, but don't be fooled. If you know anything at all about the unlucky Baudelaire children, you already know that even pleasant events lead down the same road to misery.</p>
<p class="description">In fact, within the pages you now hold in your hands, the three siblings endure a car accident, a terrible odor, a deadly serpent, a long knife, a large brass reading lamp, and the reappearance of a person they'd hoped never to see again.</p>
<p class="description">I am bound to record these tragic events, but you are free to put this book back on the shelf and seek something lighter.</p>
<p class="description">With all due respect,</p>
<p class="description">Lemony Snicket</p></div>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Dear Reader, If you have not read anything about the Baudelaire orphans, then before you read even one more sentence, you should know this: Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are kindhearted and quick–witted, but their lives, I am sorry to say, are filled with bad luck and misery. All of the stories about these three children are unhappy and wretched, and this one may be the worst of them all.If you haven't got the stomach for a story that includes a hurricane, a signalling device, hungry leeches, cold cucumber soup, a horrible villain, and a doll named Pretty Penny, then this book will probably fill you with despair.I will continue to record these tragic tales, for that is what I do. You, however, should decide for yourself whether you can possibly endure this miserable story. With all due respect, Lemony Snicket Ages 10+</p>


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<div><p class="description">EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">*Dear Reader,*</p>
<p class="description">I hope, for your sake, that you have not chosen to read this book because you are in the mood for a pleasant experience. If this is the case, I advise you to put this book down instantaneously, because of all the books describing the unhappy lives of the Baudelaire orphans, *The Miserable Mill* might be the unhappiest yet. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are sent to Paltryville to work in a lumber mill, and they find disaster and misfortune lurking behind every log.</p>
<p class="description">The pages of this book, I'm sorry to inform you, contain such unpleasantries as a giant pincher machine, a bad casserole, a man with a cloud of smoke where his head should be, a hypnotist, a terrible accident resulting in injury, and coupons.</p>
<p class="description">I have promised to write down the entire history of these three poor children, but you haven't, so if you prefer stories that are more heartwarming, please feel free to make another selection. </p>
<p class="description">*With all due respect,* </p>
<p class="description">Lemony Snicket</p></div>


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<div><p class="description">EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">Dear Reader,</p>
<p class="description">If you are looking for a story about cheerful youngsters spending a jolly time at boarding school, look elsewhere. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire arc intelligent and resourceful children, and you might expect that they would do very well at school. Don't. For the Baudelaires, school turns out to be another miserable episode in their unlucky lives.</p>
<p class="description">Truth be told, within the chapters that make up this dreadful story, the children will face snapping crabs, strict punishments, dripping fungus, comprehensive exams, violin recitals, S.O.R.E., and the metric system.</p>
<p class="description">It is my solemn duty to stay up all night researching and writing the history of these three hapless youngsters, but you may be more comfortable getting a good night's sleep. In that case, you should probably choose some other book.</p>
<p class="description">With all due respect,</p>
<p class="description">Lemony Snicket</p></div>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>In their most daring misadventure, the Baudelaire orphans are adopted by very, very rich people, whose penthouse apartment is located mysteriously close to the place where all their misfortune began. Even though their new home in the city is fancy, and the children are clever and charming, I'm sorry to say that still, the unlucky orphans will encounter more disaster and woe. In fact, in this sixth book in A Series of Unfortunate Events, the children will experience a darkened staircase, a red herring, an auction, parsley soda, some friends in a dire situation, a secret passageway, and pinstripe suits.Both literary and irreverent, hilarious and deftly crafted, A Series of Unfortunate Events offers an exquisitely dark comedy in the tradition of Edward Gorey and Roald Dahl. Lemon Snicket's uproariously unhappy books continue to win readers, despite all his warning.Ages 10+</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Dear Reader,You have undoubtedly picked up this book by mistake, so please put it down. Nobody in their right mind would read this particular book about the lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire on purpose, because each dismal moment of their stay in the village of V.F.D. has been faithfully and dreadfully recorded in these pages.I can think of no single reason why anyone would want to open a book containing such unpleasant matters as migrating crows, an angry mob, a newspaper headline, the arrest of innocent people, the Deluxe Cell, and some very strange hats.It is my solemn and sacred occupation to research each detail of the Baudelaire children′s lives and write them all down, but you may prefer to do some other solemn and sacred thing, such as reading another book instead.With all due respect,Lemony Snicket  Ages 10+</p>


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<div><p class="description">Ender's Game Nebula and Hugo Award Winner -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From its first publication in January 1985, Ender's Game quickly became a classic in the science fiction field. It was greeted enthusiastically by the Science Fiction Writers of America, which gave it the Nebula Award for best novel of 1985, and the 1986 World Science Fiction Convention awarded Ender's Game the best novel Hugo. (What really stunned everyone was the following year, when the sequel, Speaker for the Dead, also won both awards -- something no author had ever done before, still less for a book and its sequel!) While Card has gone on to win other awards (two more Hugos, a World Fantasy Award, and in 1996 the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel of the year for his book Alvin Journeyman), Ender's Game continues to be his most popular novel, capturing the imagination of children, teenagers, and adults. Ender's Game has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, and Swedish. Why does the story work so well? Many people call it "the science fiction novel for people who don't think they like science fiction." While the trappings of science fiction are there -- spaceships, aliens, futuristic machinery -- the reason the book works for so many people is that it's first and foremost a human story, of a boy who finds the burdens of the world placed on his back. Isolated and alone, his anguish resonates in the hearts of all readers. Yes, kids who read the book really enjoy the whole idea of the Battle School, a three-dimensional playspace where children in special suits have mock combats between armies. Others are intrigued by the military aspects of the book. When the Marine University at Quantico required students in one class to read Ender's Game, it wasn't for the strategy -- tactics in 3D space aren't really a big deal for the Marines. Rather, it was because Ender's Game is virtually a textbook in how to develop a strong relationship between a commander and his troops -- with plenty of examples also in how to fail as a commander. Other people -- especially in the online community -- love Ender's Game because of the powerful role it shows for computer networks in the world of the future. The Internet has taken a few steps in the direction shown by Ender's Game, but we're still a long way from a time when public discourse takes place primarily on the Internet and e-discussions can influence public policy. So Ender's Game is still a dream. Yet others find the "Mind Game" most appealing. This is the computer game that students in the Battle School play, allowing their teachers to evaluate their emotional state. Ender, however, forces the computer to reprogram itself to allow him to play the game in new, unpredictable ways. The whole idea of a self-altering game that responds to the needs and desires of the player still intrigues many -- though Card has still not been able to persuade any computer game publishers to develop a self-creating game! Above all, though, Ender's Game is the story of growing up alone, trying to find independence when none is allowed, trying to find meaning in a life whose meaning has already been defined. Almost everyone has at some time felt himself or herself to be in the same kind of no-win situation as Ender Wiggin, and the triumph of the book is not that Ender Wiggin "wins," but that he grows up along the way. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 1985 Orson Scott Card A Tor Book - Published by Tom Doherty Associates, Inc. Jacket art by John Harris - Jacket design by Carol Russo<br>EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">**Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards**</p>
<p class="description"></p>
<p class="description"></p>
<p class="description">For the perfect holiday gift for the reader on your list, pick up this special gift edition of one of the most beloved Science Fiction novels ever written.</p>
<p class="description"> </p>
<p class="description">Andrew "Ender" Wiggin thinks he is playing computer simulated war games at the Battle School; he is, in fact, engaged in something far more desperate. Ender is the most talented result of Earth's desperate quest to create the military genius that the planet needs in its all-out war with an alien enemy.</p>
<p class="description"> </p>
<p class="description">Is Ender the general Earth needs? The only way to find out is to throw the child into ever harsher training, to chip away and find the diamond inside, or destroy him utterly. Ender Wiggin is six years old when it begins. He will grow up fast.</p>
<p class="description">But Ender is not the only result of the experiment. The war with the Formics has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings, Peter and Valentine, are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways.</p>
<p class="description"> </p>
<p class="description">Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.</p></div>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>In the aftermath of his terrible war, Ender Wiggin disappeared, and a powerful voice arose: The Speaker for the Dead, who told the true story of the Bugger War. Now, long years later, a second alien race has been discovered, but again the aliens' ways are strange and frightening....again, humans die. And it is only the Speaker for the Dead, who is also Ender Wiggin the Xenocide, who has the courage to confront the mystery....and the truth.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>The War is over, won by Ender Wiggin and his team of brilliant child-warriors. The enemy is destroyed, the human race is saved. Ender himself refuses to return to the planet, but his crew has gone home to their families, scattered across the globe. The battle school is no more.But with the external threat gone, the Earth has become a battlefield once more. The children of the Battle School are more than heros; they are potential weapons that can bring power to the countries that control them. One by one, all of Ender's Dragon Army are kidnapped. Only Bean escapes; and he turns for help to Ender's brother Peter.Peter Wiggin, Ender's older brother, has already been manipulating the politics of Earth from behind the scenes. With Bean's help, he will eventually rule the world.</p>


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<div><p class="description">EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place.</p></div>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>The vendetta in space... had started centuries before "Mouse" Storm was born ... with his grandfather's raid on the planet Prefactlas, the blood bath that freed the human slaves from their Sangaree masters. But one Sangaree survived -- the young Norborn heir, the man who swore vengeance on the Storm family and their soldiers, in a carefully mapped plot that would take generations to fulfill. Now Mouse's father Gneaus must fight for an El Dorado of wealth on the burning half of the planet Blackworld. As the great private armies of all space clash on the narrow Shadowline that divides inferno from life-sheltering shade, Gneaus' half- brother Michael plays his traitorous games, and a man called Death pulls the deadly strings that threaten to entrap them all -- as the Starfishers Trilogy begins.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Return now to a kingdom in constant peril; a land magical, scarred, and wondrous, where great heroes rise up from adversity to battle fearsome enemies who covet the riches within its borders. New York Times bestselling author Raymond E. Feist -- one of the world 's preeminent fantasists -- continues his extraordinary Riftwar Legacy with a sweeping tale of conflict, trial, and grim necessity, as the forces of good join together to staunch the golden lifeblood flowing from the pierced heart of Midkemia.The vile sorcerer Sidi plans to strike the kingdom a fatal blow, setting his creature, the murderous pirate Bear, upon the high seas in pursuit of the vessel that is transporting Midkemia's most holy object: the Tear of the Gods. It is from this miraculous stone that all magic power is believed to flow. And if the Tear becomes the mage's trinket, the future will hold naught but terror, death, and unending night.For Squire James, Lieutenant William, and the able magician Jazhara, the race is on to rescue the remarkable artifact from the bloodthirsty, unpredictable Bear and his despicable master who would use it to bring catastrophe down upon the world. But it will take greater-than-human swiftness. cunning, courage, and skill for the three to prevail. And the flight of her most peerless defenders will leave Krondor more vulnerable than ever to the terrible ambitions of the depraved.For the mysterious criminal known as the Crawler is preparing to wreak bloody havoc to fulfill his dastardly secret agenda. Once again the sewers of Krondor teem with assassins and monsters as the hour of destiny nears. The fate of an imperiled world is in flux, as all manner of dark creatures are gathered for one unspeakable purpose: to breed the chaos that will hasten the destruction of Squire James and his brave companions...and bring about the total corruption of the Tear of the Gods.</p>


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<div><p class="description">EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">New York Times bestselling author Raymond E. Feist *returns us now to a place of unparalleled wonders--a sprawling kingdom coveted by enemies on all sides; a bustling center of commerce and magic, vibrantly alive and eternally in conflict. This is Midkemia, where great heroes are bred, and its glorious center...*</p>
<p class="description">**Krondor**</p>
<p class="description"></p>
<p class="description">Prince Arutha--newly returned from battle--is concerned about a rash of unexplained assassinations that plagues his capital city. And so he commissions his most trusted agent, Squire James--formerly the thief known as "Jimmy the Hand"--to discover the source of the deadly epidemic. The answers seem to lie far beneath the streets in the dank depths of Krondor, where a terrible war rages in secret between two rival criminal gangs: those who call themselves "Mockers" and others in the thrall of a mysterious being known as "The Crawler." But the deeper the Squire delves, the closer he gets to the true nature of the horror that has left untold dead in its wake. And unless James can prevent one last, unthinkable slaying, the nightmare forces of corruption and deceit will destroy his liege and reduce his beloved Krondor to ruins.</p></div>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Arutha, Prince of Krondor, uses an attempted assassination as a ruse to fake his own death so that he may travel north to confront Murmandamus. In his travels to the Northlands, Arutha finds his father's former enemy, Guy du Bas-Tyra, as the Protector of the city Armengar. A historic battle ensues, which ends in the destruction of the city. Murmandamus and his forces then strike south to Sethanon, a city beneath which the Lifestone had been buried in the ancient past.</p>


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<div><p class="description">EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">This is the second volume of Raymond E. Feist's great epic of heroic fantasy. For nearly a year peace reigned the enchanted kingdom of Rillanon. But new challenges awaited Arutha the Prince of Krondor when Jimmy The Hand - youngest thief in the Guild of Mockers - came upon a sinister Nighthawk poised to assassinate him. What evil power raises the dead and makes corpses do battle with the living at the behest of the Guild of Death? And what high magic can defeat it? The new King of Midkemia is threatened - and a life-or-death quest must be undertaken for an antidote to a poison that fells a beautiful Princess on her wedding day! "The best new fantasy concept in years! Has a chance of putting its author firmly on the throne next to Tolkein - and keeping him there" - "Dragon". "Epic scope! vivid imagination!a significant contribution to the growth of the field of fantasy" - "Washington Post".</p></div>


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<div><p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>He held the fate of two worlds in his hands... Once he was an orphan called Pug, apprenticed to a sorcerer of the enchanted land of Midkemia...</p>
<p class="description">Then he was captured and enslaved by the Tsurani, a strange, warlike race of invaders from another world.There, in the exotic Empire of Kelewan, he earned a new name--Milamber. He learned to tame the unnimagined powers that lay withing him. And he took his place in an ancient struggle against an evil Enemy older than time itself.From the Paperback edition.</p></div>


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<div><p class="description">EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">In this thrilling sequel to Daughter of the Empire, Lady Mara faces a vengeful blood enemy who doesn't know Mara has a strategic secret weapon--a rakish Midkemian slave whose real identity will change the rimworld forever. "A tale of love, hate, and sacrifice against the panorama of an alien yet familiar society."--Publishers Weekly. HC: Doubleday.</p></div>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>The world on the other side of the rift: Kelewan, a land seething with political intrigue and deadly conspiracies. Following the opulent panoply of Daughter Of The Empire and the dazzling pageantry of Servant Of The Empire comes the resounding conclusion to the Empire trilogy.Besieged by spies and rival houses, stalked by a secret and merciless brotherhood of assassins, the brilliant Lady Mara of the Acoma faces the most deadly challenge she has ever known. The fearsome Black Robes see Mara as the ultimate threat to their ancient power. In search of allies who will join her against them, Mara must travel beyond civilization's borders and even into the hives of the alien cho-ja. As those near and dear to her fall victim to many enemies, Mara cries out for vengeance. Drawing on all of her courage and guile she prepares to fight her greatest battle of all--for her life, her home, and the Empire itself.</p>


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<div><p class="description">EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">Set ten years after the events in "Prince of the Blood", this book is a remarkable adventure of mystery and magic.  In Amos Trask's ship, Prince Nicholas and Squire Harry set sail for a friendly visit to Uncle Martin in Crydee. But while the two are guests in Crydee, disaster strikes.  Nicholas, third son of Prince Arutha, is a gifted youngster, but sheltered by life at his father's court in Krondor. To learn more of the world outside the palace walls, Nicholas and his squire, Harry, set sail for pastoral Crydee, where Arutha grew up.  Shortly after their arrival, Crydee is brutally attacked. The castle is reduced to ruins, the townspeople slaughtered and two young noblewomen -- friends of Nicholas -- are abducted. As Nicholas ventures further from the familiar landmarks of his home in pursuit of the invaders, he learns that there is more at stake than the fate of his friends, more even than fate of the Kingdom of the Isles, for behind the murderous pirates stands a force that threatens the entire world of Midkemia, and only he is destined to confront this terrifying threat.</p></div>


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<div><p class="description">EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">The last remnants of an ancient advanced race, the Clan of the Seven Stars, are returning at long last to their lost homeworld, Midkemia—not as friends, but as would-be conquerors. Led by the conjurer Laromendis, they are fleeing the relentless demon hordes that are sweeping through their galaxy and destroying the elves' vast empire planet by planet. Only by escaping to Midkemia and brutally overtaking the war-weary world can the last remnants of a mighty civilization hope to survive . . . if the Dread Legion does not pursue them through the rift.  </p>
<p class="description">The magician Pug, Midkemia's brave and constant defender, is all too familiar with the Demon King Maarg and his minions and their foul capacity for savagery and horror, and he recognizes the even graver threat that is following on the heels of the elven invasion. The onslaught to come will dwarf every dire catastrophe his imperiled world has previously withstood, and there is no magical champion in all of Midkemia powerful enough to prevent it. Only one path remains for Pug and Midkemia's clandestine protectors, the Conclave of Shadows: forging an alliance of formidable magical talents, from the demon-dealing warlock Amirantha, brother of Pug's hated foe, and the demon-taming cleric Sandreena, to the elven Queen Miranda, to the warrior Tomas. However, uniting enemies and bitter, vengeful former lovers will be no easy task, and even together they may ultimately be unable to turn the death tide. But a failure to do so will most certainly ensure Midkemia's doom.</p></div>


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<div><p class="description">EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">The second book in Raymond Feist's super-selling quartet: The Serpentwar Saga.  Triumphant but overconfident after his defeat of the reptilian Sauur army, Roo must resist a beguiling seductress who threatens to undo him and all of Midkemia.  Roo Avery, recently returned from a harrowing brush with the armies of the Emerald Queen, is now free to choose his own destiny and his ultimate ambition is to become one of the richest and most powerful merchants in Midkemia. But nothing can prepare him for the dangers of the new life he has chosen, where the repayment of a debt can be as deadly as a knife in the shadows. Even those closest to him are suspect and as Roo struggles to build his financial empire, betrayal is always close at hand. But while Roo works towards achieving his goal, memories of the invasion haunt him still. For the war with the Emerald Queen is far from over and the inevitable confrontation will pose the biggest threat yet to his new found wealth and power.</p></div>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>A loyal soldier and a wealthy merchant have served bravely in the flames of an enduring war that is ravaging their land. But swords, bows, wits and courage will no longer be enough to defeat the scourge that is descending upon their home. For a foul and terrible thing has escaped from a world already devoured to feed on one consumed by chaos—an insatiable nightmare creature of dark and murderous nature which seeks to own and corrupt the very source of life itselfThe final conflict is joined, pitting serpent against man and magician against demon. For those who battle in the cause of good, there will be victory . . . or there will be doom for all.There can be no other outcome.</p>


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<div><p class="description">EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">**The demon is no more.</p>
<p class="description">The enemy has been routed. But all is not well...**</p>
<p class="description">Winter's icy grasp is loosening on the world. The Emerald Queen's vanquished army has its broken back to the Bitter Sea. And treachery is its only recourse. </p>
<p class="description">A lackey has declared himself Lord of the defeated, amassing the still fearsome remnants of a ruthless fighting force together for one final assault on a weakened, vulnerable realm. </p>
<p class="description">For the warriors who remained steadfast against terrible numbers, for the courageous souls who barely survived a devastating onslaught upon their homeland, the time to rebuild and renew has not yet come. The war is not over in Midkemia. And Jimmy and Dash--two young noble brothers who stand at the center of a gathering storm--are impelled to action that could secure a tenuous peace...or turn triumph into catastrophe. </p>
<p class="description">The demon is no more. </p>
<p class="description">The enemy has been routed. But all is not well...</p></div>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>In Midkemia, there are no easy roads . . .   For twenty years the mercenaries Durine, Kethol, and Pirojil have fought other people's battles. Having already defeated the Tsurani, the Bugs, and the goblins, it seems there are no more enemies for them to vanquish—even as the Riftwar rages on in the west. What lies ahead for the able trio are a few welcomed months of restful garrison duty.   When ordered to accompany the promiscuous Lady Mondegreen, her aging husband, and her current lover to a summit in the city of LaMut, the Three Swords willingly comply, expecting an uncomplicated and undemanding assignment. But nothing is straightforward in this land of violence and treachery. And when the fury of a winter's storm traps them inside a castle teeming with ambitious, plotting lords and ladies, the mercenaries suddenly find themselves with a series of cold-blooded murders to solve . . . and the political future of Midkemia resting in their hands.</p>


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<div><p class="description">EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">The third novel of Feist's successful collaborative series.  From the endlessly inventive mind of one of fantasy's all time greats, comes a spellbinding new adventure of high magic, treachery and bloody war.  This time in conjunction with master of alternative US history, Steve Stirling, Feist returns to tell the full tale of one of his fans' favourite most colourful Riftwar characters, pickpocket, montebank and confidence trickster Jimmy the Hand.  Jimmy the Hand, boy thief of Krondor, lived in the shadows of the city. The sewers were his byways and a flea-ridden, rat infested cellar his home. Gifted beyond his peers, he was still but a nimble street urchin, a pickpocket with potential. Until the day he met Prince Arutha.  Aiding the Prince in his rescue of Princess Anita from imprisonment by Duke Guy du Bas-Tyra, Jimmy ran afoul of Black Guy's secret police. Fearing reprisal and seeking an opportunity to advance his place in life, Jimmy fled the city and ventured north to the relatively safe haven of Sarth. Suspecting the rural villagers had never encountered a lad with his talent and nose for finding wealth -- other people's wealth, Jimmy was unprepared for what greeted him.  For Sarth was home to others who trod the dodgy path, and more, to a darker secret, a dangerous presence unknown to even the local thieves and smugglers. Jimmy's youthful bravado and courage plunge him deep into the maw of chaos and death.</p></div>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Young Tal Hawkins was the only survivor of the massacre of his village -- rescued, recruited, and trained by the mysterious order of magicians and spies, the Conclave of Shadows. Already exceptionally skilled in swordsmanship, he has since developed into one of the secret society's most valuable agents, keeping ever alert for the opportunity to arise when he can avenge the craven slaughter of his family and friends. That time is now. Posing as a nobleman from the distant Kingdom of the Isles, he gains entrance into the court of the Duke of Olasko, the bloodthirsty and powerful despot whose armies put Tal's village to the sword. But the enemy is cunning and well protected -- in league with the foul necromancer Leso Varen, dark master of death-magic -- and to gain the Duke's trust and confidence, Tal Hawkins must first sell his soul. Only by swearing an oath of allegiance to his hated nemesis can Tal hope to get close enough to kill the Duke and bring his empire crashing down. But the tyrant demands that his new acolyte prove his loyalty with blood. Sent off to do his "master's" malevolent bidding -- each depraved mission more odious than the last -- the Talon of the Silver Hawk faces a spirit-crushing dilemma. Only through evil can his vengeance succeed, yet his alternatives are more terrible still: madness, torture, damnation, and a slow, lingering death in the Fortress of Despair.</p>


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<div><p class="description">EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">EXILE'S RETURN is the penultimate volume in the CONCLAVE OF SHADOWS from worldwide bestselling author Raymond E Feist. Featuring one of the most fascinating characters and scenarios ever created in the genre. The series promises to become one of the great all-time classics in the field. EXILE'S RETURN concludes the sweeping new epic fantasy series from worldwide bestselling author Raymond E Feist. Featuring one of the most fascinating characters and scenarios ever created in the genre, THE CONCLAVE OF SHADOWS promises to become one of the great all-time classics in the field. Once absolute ruler of his nation Kaspar, former Duke of Olasko, has been cast into exile. Abandoned in the wilds of a continent on the other side of the world and left with nothing but his wits and determination, he must fight merely to survive. Armed with guile, cunning and an iron will, he starts his odyssey with a single goal: to return to his home and revenge himself upon the man who cast him down, Talwin Hawkins. But fate has other plans for Kaspar, and as he struggles against adversity, he encounters dangers greater than any he had imagined.  More is at stake than he realised and Kaspar is but a single player in a far greater game than he imagined, for pitted against the Conclave of Shadows are the agents of the Dark Empire, a looming menace that threatens not only Kaspar's homeland, but the entire world of Midkemia.</p></div>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>The dread plot to destroy the Empire of Great Kesh has failed. The Conclave of Shadows has ended the murderous Nighthawk brotherhood's horrific reign of terror and death. But the mad sorcerer, Leso Varen, has fled, taking refuge among the most powerful men and women on Kelewan—a world now threatened, along with Midkemia, by hordes of the most vicious warriors in the known universe. The great sorcerer Pug knows of no power that will vanquish these invaders. And now he, brave Magnus and Nakor, and a disturbing young stranger named Bek must venture into the poisonous heart of the Dasati realm—the most terrible place they have ever encountered—in a valiant, impossible attempt to turn the tides against the encroaching doom that would swallow their world.</p>


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<div><p class="description">EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">The celebrated *New York Times* bestselling master of fantasy returns with the thrilling conclusion to his enthralling, explosive Darkwar Saga . . .  </p>
<p class="description"> *Wrath of a Mad God* Book three of The Darkwar Saga  </p>
<p class="description"> *"At this very moment, a dome of black energy is being expanded in a vale in the far north. This is not merely an invasion, but the beginning of a colonization, a process that will end with the complete annihilation of every life-form on this world."*   </p>
<p class="description"> The Darkwar rages upon Midkemia and Kelewan, bringing bleak days of destruction and despair. To save the future of both worlds, the powerful sorcerer Pug and select members of the secretive Conclave of Shadows must journey deep into the dangerous realm of the bloodthirsty Dasati, there to carry out an audacious mission that has little, if any, chance of succeeding.  </p>
<p class="description"> In Midkemia, young warriors Tad and Zane, and their fellow soldiers, protect the Kingdom from raiders. And Pug's beloved wife, Miranda, finds herself a prisoner of the Dasati and, even more ominously, of Pug's nemesis, the evil sorcerer Leso Varen.  </p>
<p class="description"> Salvation may come from a friend thought long dead, an unlikely ally whose remarkable powers will be sorely needed in the momentous battle to come . . . a final, fevered onslaught against the most malevolent agents of evil ever known.</p></div>


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<div><p class="description">EDITORIAL REVIEW:</p>
<p class="description">Ten years after the terrible Darkwar finally ended, catastrophe once again threatens to engulf Midkemia and Kelewan, as the demon hordes continue their relentless quest to infiltrate this realm of magic and wonder. . . .  **</p>
<p class="description"> *At the Gates of Darkness* Book Two of the Demonwar Saga   </p>
<p class="description"> To protect their world from the savage demon hordes, the Black Sorcerer Pug and Midkemia's clandestine protectors, the Conclave of Shadows, forged an uneasy alliance of formidable magical talents. Together, this brave band of wizards, demon masters, warriors, and elves defeated the brutal Demon King Maarg and turned back the onrushing death tide.  </p>
<p class="description"> But Maarg's fall has not stopped the demonic onslaught, and danger now looms greater than ever before. Amid the barren ridges of the Valley of Lost Men, in the shadows of an ancient Keshian fortress, the fearsome demon Dahun and the mad necromancer Belasco have joined forces, creating an unstoppable union of deathly black magics that even Pug and a united Conclave may not be strong enough to withstand.  </p>
<p class="description"> Battling the Demon Legion has taken a heavy blood toll on the valiant and dedicated magician, claiming the lives of nearly all those he loves. Though he is racked by despair and rage, Pug knows that the time for mourning must wait. Putting aside his pain, he and the Conclave and their allies—the cold-blooded master spy Jim Dasher; the fearsome young Knight-Adamant Sandreena; her former lover the necromancer Amirantha; two renegade Star Elves; and Pug's surviving son, Magnus—must marshal their resources against this latest threat. None can forget the dozens of worlds overrun by the demon plague and the millions of dead left behind in their wake. At the gates of darkness, where shadows hide even deeper shadows, these magical defenders will face what is sure to be the bloodiest, nastiest fight their land has ever seen. And as evil, mayhem, and dark magic are unleashed, none can predict if they—and Midkemia itself—will survive.</p></div>


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EDITORIAL REVIEW: After bursting onto the fantasy scene with his acclaimed debut novel, *Elantris,* and following up with his blockbuster Mistborn trilogy, Brandon Sanderson proves again that he is today’s leading master of what Tolkien called “secondary creation,” the invention of whole worlds, complete with magics and myths all their own. *Warbreaker* is the story of two sisters, who happen to be princesses, the God King one of them has to marry, the lesser god who doesn’t like his job, and the immortal who’s still trying to undo the mistakes he made hundreds of years ago. Their world is one in which those who die in glory return as gods to live confined to a pantheon in Hallandren’s capital city and where a power known as BioChromatic magic is based on an essence known as *breath* that can only be collected one unit at a time from individual people. By using *breath* and drawing upon the color in everyday objects, all manner of miracles and mischief can be accomplished. It will take considerable quantities of each to resolve all the challenges facing Vivenna and Siri, princesses of Idris; Susebron the God King; Lightsong, reluctant god of bravery, and mysterious Vasher, the Warbreaker.


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<div><p class="description">SUMMARY:</p><p class="description"><br>"New Spring" was originally published as a novella in the speculative fiction anthology edited by Robert Silverberg entitled Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy. Published by Tor Books, this anthology was released on September 15, 1999, between the 1998 publication of The Path of Daggers (Book 8 of The Wheel of Time) and 2000 publication of Winter's Heart (Book 9).<br>Robert Jordan later expanded the novella into a standalone novel (though of significantly shorter length than typical Wheel of Time books), which was then published by Tor Books in January 2004, between the 2003 publication of Crossroads of Twilight (Book 10) and the 2005 publication of Knife of Dreams (Book 11).<br>The New Spring novel was originally conceived of as the first in a trilogy of prequel novels. The second and third were to focus on Tam serving in the Illianer army and finding Rand, and Moiraine and Lan's journeys and discoveries to reach the Two Rivers just before the events of the first novel. Jordan's original plan was to complete this trilogy before books 11 and 12 of the main series, but he was disappointed with New Spring's reception and decided to postpone this until after the main series was completed. However, his death on September 16, 2007 before the completion of the final novel in the series has rendered the fate of any planned follow-up doubtful.<br>The first paperback edition of New Spring, released on June 13, 2005, gave readers the first look at Knife of Dreams (Book 11), as it featured an advance excerpt of part of the prologue of Knife of Dreams.<br>New Spring describes events which take place twenty years before the events of The Eye of the World (Book 1). The story begins in the last days of the Aiel War, and the Battle of the Shining Walls around Tar Valon. It is set primarily in the Borderlands, specifically Kandor.<br>New Spring focuses mainly on Moiraine Damodred and Siuan Sanche, two Aes Sedai new to the sisterhood, and how a young Moiraine became Aes Sedai, met Lan Mandragoran and made him her Warder. The novel also explains how Moiraine and Siuan witnessed a prophecy of the Dragon's rebirth and came to begin investigating the Karaethon Cycle, the Prophecies of the Dragon, decades before discovering Rand al'Thor.</p></div>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>The Wheel of Times turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, and Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.</p>


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<div><h3>SUMMARY:</h3><p>The eagerly awaited 10th installment (after 2000's Winter's Heart) in Jordan's monumental Wheel of Time has all the breadth and depth that have made this fantasy author one of the acknowledged greats of the genre. Like Tolkien's Ring trilogy, Wheel of Time is a single, extended novel rather than a series, and in Crossroads, new characters join the cast and old favorites grow ever more complex. Yet if the scope of Jordan's richly nuanced creation has won him millions of readers, it also forms the saga's biggest obstacle. Here Mat Cauthon is still fleeing the Seanchan; Perrin Goldeneyes still hunts the Shaido to free his beautiful wife, Faile; the cities Caemlyn and Tar Valon are still besieged and the battles have not been joined. Those impatient with the glacial movement of the last four books will find more of the same. As the title suggests, this entry represents a turning point, a time of momentous decisions as the rebel Aes Sedai consider an alliance with the Asha'man and Rand ponders a truce with the Seanchan. Lending perhaps the most recognizable humanity is Mat's love interest, Tuon, the spoiled, adorable Daughter of the Nine Moons, whose kidnapping is concealed by Valan Luca's Grand Traveling Show and Magnificent Display of Marvels and Wonders. She twists Mat around her finger, deliberately annoying him by calling him "Toy." The epilogue suggests Tuon will play a major role in volume 11. Jordan fans who miss the breakneck pace of the earlier books can always hope the action will pick up again.</p><p>The Wheel of Time continues to turn slowly and purposely in the tenth novel in Jordan's popular, epic series. Jordan follows his well-established pattern of tracking the activities of his widely spread characters as he moves them inexorably toward the looming Final Battle between the Dark One and those who oppose it. In this story, Mat flees with the kidnapped Daughter of the Nine Moons, whom he is fated to marry, pursued by the army of the Seanchan Empire as well as by the Dark One. Perrin is trying to rescue his wife, Faile, from the Shaido. Egwene, now Amyrlin of the rebel Aes Sedai, and her forces lay siege to the White Tower, where Elaida wears the Amyrlin shawl. The Aes Sadai must be reunited to defend against the Dark One. And Rand al' Thor, the Dragon Reborn, faces his own demons, even though he has managed to cleanse the Dark One's taint from the males who can channel. As usual, Jordan's canvas is vast and his plotting intricate. Each of the many characters is as distinctively recognizable as any of those in the series' other volumes, while on all fronts, intrigues and dangers intensify.</p>

</div>


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<div><p class="description">SUMMARY:</p><p class="description"><br>The Wheel of Time turns, and Robert Jordan gives us the eleventh volume of his extraordinary masterwork of fantasy. The dead are walking, men die impossible deaths, and it seems as though reality itself has become unstable: All are signs of the imminence of Tarmon Gai'don, the Last Battle, when Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, must confront the Dark One as humanity's only hope. But Rand dares not fight until he possesses all the surviving seals on the Dark One's prison and has dealt with the Seanchan, who threaten to overrun all nations this side of the Aryth Ocean and increasingly seem too entrenched to be fought off. But his attempt to make a truce with the Seanchan is shadowed by treachery that may cost him everything. Whatever the price, though, he must have that truce. And he faces other dangers. There are those among the Forsaken who will go to any length to see him dead--and the Black Ajah is at his side.... Unbeknownst to Rand, Perrin has made his own truce with the Seanchan. It is a deal made with the Dark One, in his eyes, but he will do whatever is needed to rescue his wife, Faile, and destroy the Shaido who captured her. Among the Shaido, Faile works to free herself while hiding a secret that might give her her freedom or cause her destruction. And at a town called Malden, the Two Rivers longbow will be matched against Shaido spears. Fleeing Ebou Dar through Seanchan-controlled Altara with the kidnapped Daughter of the Nine Moons, Mat attempts to court the woman to whom he is half-married, knowing that she will complete that ceremony eventually. But Tuon coolly leads him on a merry chase as he learns that even a gift can have deep significance among the Seanchan Blood and what he thinks he knows of women is not enough to save him. For reasons of her own, which she will not reveal until a time of her choosing, she has pledged not to escape, but Mat still sweats whenever there are Seanchan soldiers near. Then he learns that Tuon herself is in deadly danger from those very soldiers. To get her to safety, he must do what he hates worse than work.... In Caemlyn, Elayne fights to gain the Lion Throne while trying to avert what seems a certain civil war should she win the crown.... In the White Tower, Egwene struggles to undermine the sisters loyal to Elaida from within.... The winds of time have become a storm, and things that everyone believes are fixed in place forever are changing before their eyes. Even the White Tower itself is no longer a place of safety. Now Rand, Perrin and Mat, Egwene and Elayne, Nynaeve and Lan, and even Loial, must ride those storm winds, or the Dark One will triumph.</p></div>


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<div><p class="description">SUMMARY:</p><p class="description"><br>Tarmon Gai’don, the Last Battle, looms. And mankind is not ready.The final volume of the Wheel of Time, A Memory of Light, was partially written by Robert Jordan before his untimely passing in 2007. Brandon Sanderson, New York Times bestselling author of the Mistborn books, was chosen by Jordan’s editor--his wife, Harriet McDougal--to complete the final book. The scope and size of the volume was such that it could not be contained in a single book, and so Tor proudly presents The Gathering Storm as the first of three novels that will cover the outline left by Robert Jordan, chronicling Tarmon Gai'don and Rand al'Thor's final confrontatino with the Dark One. This short sequence will complete the struggle against the Shadow, bringing to a close a journey begun almost twenty years ago and marking the conclusion of the Wheel of Time, the preeminent fantasy epic of our era.In this epic novel, Robert Jordan’s international bestselling series begins its dramatic conclusion. Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn, struggles to unite a fractured network of kingdoms and alliances in preparation for the Last Battle. As he attempts to halt the Seanchan encroachment northward--wishing he could form at least a temporary truce with the invaders--his allies watch in terror the shadow that seems to be growing within the heart of the Dragon Reborn himself.Egwene al’Vere, the Amyrlin Seat of the rebel Aes Sedai, is a captive of the White Tower and subject to the whims of their tyrannical leader. As days tick toward the Seanchan attack she knows is imminent, Egwene works to hold together the disparate factions of Aes Sedai while providing leadership in the face of increasing uncertainty and despair. Her fight will prove the mettle of the Aes Sedai, and her conflict will decide the future of the White Tower--and possibly the world itself.The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.</p></div>


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<div><p class="description">SUMMARY:</p><p class="description"><br>The Last Battle has started. The seals on the Dark One’s prison are crumbling. The Pattern itself is unraveling, and the armies of the Shadow have begun to boil out of the Blight.The sun has begun to set upon the Third Age.Perrin Aybara is now hunted by specters from his past: Whitecloaks, a slayer of wolves, and the responsibilities of leadership. All the while, an unseen foe is slowly pulling a noose tight around his neck. To prevail, he must seek answers in Tel’aran’rhiod and find a way--at long last--to master the wolf within him or lose himself to it forever.Meanwhile, Matrim Cauthon prepares for the most difficult challenge of his life. The creatures beyond the stone gateways--the Aelfinn and the Eelfinn--have confused him, taunted him, and left him hanged, his memory stuffed with bits and pieces of other men’s lives. He had hoped that his last confrontation with them would be the end of it, but the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills. The time is coming when he will again have to dance with the Snakes and the Foxes, playing a game that cannot be won. The Tower of Ghenjei awaits, and its secrets will reveal the fate of a friend long lost.This penultimate novel of Robert Jordan’s #1 New York Times bestselling series--the second of three based on materials he left behind when he died in 2007--brings dramatic and compelling developments to many threads in the Pattern. The end draws near. It’s time to toss the dice.</p></div>


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<div><p class="description"></p><p class="description">SUMMARY:</p><p class="description">The second book in Robert Jordan's internationally bestselling epic fantasy series THE WHEEL OF TIME now reissued with a stunning new cover design. The Forsaken are loose the Horn of Valere has been found and the Dead are rising from their dreamless sleep. The Prophecies are being fulfilled - but Rand al' Thor the shepherd the Aes Sedai have proclaimed as the Dragon Reborn desperately seeks to escape his destiny. Rand cannot run forever. With every passing day the Dark One grows in strength and strives to shatter his ancient prison to break the Wheel to bring an end to Time and sunder the weave of the Pattern. And the Pattern demands the Dragon. </p></div>


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<div><p class="description">SUMMARY:</p><p class="description"><br>The Dragon Reborn--the leader long prophesied who will save the world, but in the saving destroy it; the savior who will run mad and kill all those dearest to him--is on the run from his destiny.Able to touch the One Power, but unable to control it, and with no one to teach him how--for no man has done it in three thousand years--Rand al'Thor knows only that he must face the Dark One. But how?Winter has stopped the war-almost-yet men are dying, calling out for the Dragon. But where is he?Perrin Aybara is in pursuit with Moiraine Sedai, her Warder Lan, and the Loial the Ogier. Bedeviled by dreams, Perrin is grappling with another deadly problem--how is her to escape the loss of his own humanity.Egwene, Elayne and Nynaeve are approaching Tar Valon, where Mat will be healed--if he lives until they arrive. But who will tell the Amyrlin their news--that the Black Ajah, long thought only a hideous rumor, is all too real? They cannot know that in Tar Valon far worse awaits...Ahead, for all of them, in the Heart of the Stone, lies the next great test of the Dragon reborn....</p></div>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>The seals of Shayol Ghul are weak now, and the Dark One reaches out. The Shadow is rising to cover humankind.In Tar Valon, Min sees portents of hideous doom. Will the White Tower itself be broken? In the Two Rivers, the Whitecloaks ride in pursuit of a man with golden eyes, and in pursuit of the Dragon Reborn.In Cantorin, among the Sea Folk, High Lady Suroth plans the return of the Seanchan armies to the mainland.In the Stone of Tear, the Lord Dragon considers his next move. It will be something no one expects, not the Black Ajah, not Tairen nobles, not Aes Sedai, not Egwene or Elayne or Nynaeve.Against the Shadow rising stands the Dragon Reborn.....</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>In this sequel to the phenomenal New York Times bestseller The Shadow Rising, Robert Jordan again plunges us into his extraordinarily rich, totally unforgettable world: ...Into the forbidden city of Rhuidean, where Rand al'Thor, now the Dragon Reborn, must conceal his present endeavor from all about him, even Egwene and Moiraine. ...Into the Amyrlin's study in the White Tower, where the Amyrlin, Elaida do Avriny a'Roihan, is weaving new plans. ...Into the luxurious hidden chamber where the Forsaken Rahvin is meeting with three of his fellows to ensure their ultimate victory over the Dragon. ...Into the Queen's court in Caemlyn, where Morgase is curiously in thrall to the handsome Lord Gaebril. For once the dragon walks the land, the fires of heaven fall where they will, until all men's lives are ablaze. And in Shayol Ghul, the Dark One stirs...</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>In this sequel to the phenomenal New York Times bestseller The Fires of Heaven, we plunge again into Robert Jordan's extraordinarily rich, totally unforgettable world:On the slopes of Shayol Ghul, the Myrddraal swords are forged, and the sky is not the sky of this world;In Salidar the White Tower in exile prepares an embassy to Caemlyn, where Rand Al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, holds the throne--and where an unexpected visitor may change the world....In Emond's Field, Perrin Goldeneyes, Lord of the Two Rivers, feels the pull of ta'veren to ta'veren and prepares to march....Morgase of Caemlyn finds a most unexpected, and quite unwelcome, ally....And south lies Illian, where Sammael holds sway....</p>


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<div><p class="description">SUMMARY:<br></p><p class="description">  The seventh volume of Jordan's bestselling high fantasy series carries on the tradition of colossal, dauntingly complex storytelling established by the previous entries (Lord of Chaos, 1994, etc.). In a richly woven post-holocaust world where magic is normally a woman's monopoly and a man who can use it is a menace, Rand al'Thor, a sheepherder, discovered that he could "channel"; he and his companions have gone on to set their world aflame. Here, Rand is engaged in a fight for control of the weather and of the growing number of men and women who have turned out to be magic-wielders. The narrative employs elements of realism rare in high fantasy, including the sense that innocent bystanders are being mauled in an epic joust of magical giants. There's wit at work here, too, in Jordan's exploration of the possibilities created by women being the magic workers. All this comes at the price of enough characters, institutions, spells, countries and so on to intimidate any reader who hasn't followed Rand's adventures from the beginning?  And the author is still adding complications. A glossary helps, though, and fans of the series will gobble down this generous addition.</p></div>


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<div><p class="description">SUMMARY:<br><br></p><p class="description">The eighth book of Jordan's bestselling The Wheel of Time saga (A Crown of Swords, etc.) opens with a renewed invasion by the Seanchans, a conquering race whose arsenal includes man-carrying flying reptiles and enslaved female magic-workers as well as powerful soldiers, many of whom have joined the Seanchans out of fear of the Dragon Reborn. The Dragon himself, Rand al'Thor, appears in only a small part of the narrative, but during that time he endures the ugly experience of seeing his magic kill his friends, heightening his fear that his destiny is to slay everyone he cares about. The first third of the book is a little slower paced than is usual for Jordan, emphasizing the growth of relationships, but the action picks up soon enough. More compact than some previous volumes in the saga, this one has the virtues readers have come to expect from the author: meticulous world-building; deft use of multiple viewpoints; highly original and intelligent systems of magic; an admirable wit; and a continuous awareness of the fate of the turnip farmer or peddler caught in the path of the heroes' armies. Unlike some authors of megasagas, Jordan chooses his words with care, creating people and events that have earned him an enormous readership.</p></div>


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<div><p class="description">SUMMARY:</p><p class="description"><br>Is Robert Jordan still doing the Light's work? Even loyal fans have to   wonder. (And if you're not a fan yet, you'll have to read the previous 6,789 pages in   this bestselling series to understand what all the fuss is about.)<br>    Everyone's in agreement on the Wheel of Time's first four or five volumes:   They're topnotch, where-have-you-been-all-my-life epic fantasy, the best in   anybody's memory at the time since The Lord of the Rings. But a   funny thing happened on the way to Tarmon Gai'don, and many of those raves have   become rants or (worse) yawns. Jordan long ago proved himself a master at   world-building, with fascinating characters, a positively delicious backstory,   and enough plot and politics to choke a Trolloc, but that same strength has   become a liability. How do you criticize what he's doing now? You want more   momentum and direction in the central plot line, but it's the secondary stories   that have made the world so rich. And as in the last couple of books, (A Crown of Swords and The Path of Daggers), Jordan   doesn't really succeed at pursuing either adequately, leaving a lot of heavily   invested readers frustrated.<br>    Winter's Heart at least shows some improvement, but it's still not The Eye of the World. Elayne's   still waiting to take the crown of Andor; the noticeably absent Egwene is still   waiting to go after the White Tower; Perrin gets ready to pursue the Shaido but   then disappears for the rest of the book. About the only excitement comes with   the long-awaited return of Mat Cauthon and a thankfully rock 'em, sock 'em   finale in which Rand finally, finally changes the balance of power in his   fight against the Dark One. </p></div>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>When struggling riverboat captain Abner Marsh receives an offer of partnership from a wealthy aristocrat, he suspects something's amiss. But when he meets the hauntingly pale, steely-eyed Joshua York, he is certain. For York doesn't care that the icy winter of 1857 has wiped out all but one of Marsh's dilapidated fleet. Nor does he care that he won't earn back his investment in a decade. York has his own reasons for wanting to traverse the powerful Mississippi. And they are to be none of Marsh's concernno matter how bizarre, arbitrary, or capricious his actions may prove. Marsh meant to turn down York's offer. It was too full of secrets that spelled danger. But the promise of both gold and a grand new boat that could make history crushed his resolvecoupled with the terrible force of York's mesmerizing gaze. Not until the maiden voyage of his new sidewheeler Fevre Dream would Marsh realize he had joined a mission both more sinister, and perhaps more noble, than his most fantastic nightmare...and mankind's most impossible dream. Here is the spellbinding tale of a vampire's quest to unite his race with humanity, of a garrulous riverman's dream of immortality, and of the undying legends of the steamboat era and a majestic, ancient river. From the Trade Paperback edition.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all. On the eve of Armageddon, with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hope--and a terrible secret. And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all. On the eve of Armageddon, with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hope--and a terrible secret. And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands. </p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>The multiple-award-winning science fiction master returns to the universe that is his greatest triumph--the world of Hyperion and The Fall ofHyperion --with a novel even more magnificent than its predecessors.Dan Simmons's Hyperion was an immediate sensation on its first publication in 1989. This staggering multifaceted tale of the far future heralded the conquest of the science fiction field by a man who had already won the World Fantasy Award for his first novel (Song of Kali) and had also published one of the most well-received horror novels in the field, Carrion Comfort. Hyperion went on to win the Hugo Award as Best Novel, and it and its companion volume, The Fall of Hyperion, took their rightful places in the science fiction pantheon of new classics.Now, six years later, Simmons returns to this richly imagined world of technological achievement, excitement, wonder and fear. Endymion is a story about love and memory, triumph and terror--an instant candidate for the field's highest honors.</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>The magnificent conclusion to one of the greatest science fiction sagas of our timeThe time of reckoning has arrived. As a final genocidal Crusade threatens to enslave humanity forever, a new messiah has come of age. She is Aenea and she has undergone a strange apprenticeship to those known as the Others. Now her protector, Raul Endymion, one-time shepherd and convicted murderer, must help her deliver her startling message to her growing army of disciples. But first they must embark on a final spectacular mission to discover the underlying meaning of the universe itself. They have been followed on their journey by the mysterious Shrike--monster, angel, killing machine--who is about to reveal the long-held secret of its origin and purpose. And on the planet of Hyperion, where the story first began, the final revelation will be delivered--an apocalyptic message that unlocks the secrets of existence and the fate of humankind in the galaxy.</p>


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A collection of some of the finest stories from Dashiell Hammett, author of The Maltese Falcon.


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The Continental Op first heard Personville called Poisonville by Hickey Dewey. But since Dewey also called a shirt a shoit, he didn't think anything of it. Until he went there and his client, the only honest man in Poisonville, was murdered. Then the Op decided to stay to punish the guilty. And that meant taking on the entire town...


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Everything about the Leggett diamond heist indicated to the Continental Op that it was an inside job. From the stray diamond found in the yard to the eyewitness accounts of a "strange man" casing the house, everything was just too pat. Gabrielle Dain-Leggett has enough secrets to fill a closet, and when she disappears shortly after the robbery, she becomes the Op's prime suspect. But her father, Edgar Leggett, keeps some strange company himself and has a dark side the moon would envy. Before he can solve the riddle of the diamond theft, the Continental Op must first solve the mystery of this strange family. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>One of the Continental Op's most bizarre cases, as he is faced with Miss Gabrielle Dain Leggett, who has an unfortunate effect on the people around her - they have a habit of dying violently. </p>


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Paul Madvig was a cheerfully corrupt ward-heeler who aspired to something better: the daughter of Senator Ralph Bancroft Henry, the heiress to a dynasty of political purebreds. Did he want her badly enough to commit murder? And if Madvig was innocent, which of his dozens of enemies was doing an awfully good job of framing him? Dashiell Hammett's tour de force of detective fiction combines an airtight plot, authentically venal characters, and writing of telegraphic crispness.A one-time detective and a master of deft understatement, Dashiell Hammett virtually invented the hard-boiled crime novel.  This classic Hammet work of detective fiction combines an airtight plot, authentically venal characters, and writing of telegraphic crispness.


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A corpse. A missing Man. Can't an ex-detective retire in peace? Nick Charles sips a stiff drink. With his sassy wife Nora, his dog and a case of scotch the ex-sleuth prepares to enjoy Christmas in New York. But a few bullets, a murder, a missing man and a junked-up hoodlum in his bedroom soon send him back into business. As the couple are plunged into a world of gangsters, manipulators, corpses and speakeasies, who can they trust and how can they find the truth?


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Who was that masked woman? That's the question plaguing the perpetually inquiring mind of Perry Mason. No one loves a good mystery more than Mason--but being asked to represent a client who's concealing her identity, not to mention the particulars of her case, has given even the legendary legal eagle a case of ruffled feathers.


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Block has been getting better and better in recent Matt Scudder novels, but as this first hardcover version of a 16-year-old paperback shows, he was pretty good from the start. King's admiring introduction is generous but by no means overstated. This tale, which introduced the then-hard-drinking ex-cop, is spare and lean and full of dark insights into lonesomeness and anguish. The father of murdered Wendy Hanniford comes to Scudder to try to find out more about his errant daughter--not to find her killer, who was apparently her living partner, a brittle young man who was found in the street raving and covered with her blood and who killed himself shortly after he was arrested. In his dour, methodical, oddly empathetic way, Scudder finds out a great deal, altering several lives in the process. As always in the Scudder books, New York City--its small-hours bars, its jokey, edgy encounters--is a major character; as in the later books, too, Block's style is admirable: free of gimmicks, plain but utterly telling in every line. This is a fine opportunity to get in on the start of what has become one of the most rewarding PI series currently in progress. <br />Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From Kirkus Reviews</h3><p>The 1976 paperback that introduced Block's melancholy, alcoholic shamus Matt Scudder finally gets a well-deserved hardcover edition--as well as a charming fan letter of an introduction from Stephen King. King pinpoints why the nine-book Scudder series (A Dance at the Slaughterhouse, 1991, etc.) is among mystery's most popular and finest: <code>The absence of cats,'' i.e.,</code>tricks.'' As King says, Scudder is a <code>pure'' detective who</code>is real because his milieu is real.'' The fascinating ordinariness of Scudder and the harsh realness of his New York City arrive full force here as the p.i. is hired by a distraught father to look into the recent stabbing murder of his estranged daughter. Not to solve it, because the apparent killer, the girl's gay male roommate, has already been arrested--and punished: he's hung himself in his jail cell; but to find out more about the girl and why anyone would want to kill her. Scudder accepts the job reluctantly, as is his dour way, and during the course of his brief digging exhibits the sort of brave yet flawed behavior that sets him apart from other literary p.i.s: doggedly following the victim's trail down unexpected alleys as he learns that she was a moderately happy hooker who in fact was loved like a sister by her alleged killer; as he tithes 10% of his earnings to random churches; casts a cynical yet kindly eye on his fellow citizens; seeks release from the evil he finds in some through booze, the hired love of call-girl Elaine, and stunning bursts of violence, particularly against a mugger whose fingers he carefully snaps one by one. And, of course, Scudder turns up the real killer. Not as richly textured as most of the later cases, but, still, as haunting and mournful as the baying of a hound at the moon--and a must for Block/Scudder fans. -- <em>Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.</em></p>


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Mason suspects that a ravishing blonde with a millionaire father is being duped by an agent who promises to turn her into a high-fashion model, and who soon turns up dead. Reissue.


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>This is the third of Block's superb Matt Scudder series to appear (it was first issued by Dell in paperback back in 1977), and its return now in hardcover from Dark Harvest (which did the first, Sins of the Fathers , last year) is great news for admirers. The story is swift, complicated and elegant, and Kellerman gets it right when he says that the Scudder novels "are the best New York crime novels ever written." In this one Scudder, still in his drinking days, is paid by "Spinner" Jablon, a small-time hood, to hold an envelope for him, with instructions to open it only when he dies, and then do what's necessary. What's necessary turns out to be determining which of Jablon's three eminent blackmail victims did the little man in. One is a wealthy businessman who's been covering up for his teenage daughter, whose car killed a child; there's a society wife with a past in porn movies and prostitution; another is a candidate for governor with a taste for hurting small boys in sadistic sex. How Scudder finds out who had Jablon killed, and the sometimes tragic consequences of his investigation, provide the meat of this outstanding thriller, which moves effortlessly through sleazy bars, skyscraper suites and luxury hotels. The dialogue is, as always, dead on and rivetingly entertaining, and the atmosphere--Kellerman has it right again--is "wonderfully morose." Not to be missed. <br />Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>Named after a line from Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock , this 1976 novel features Block's popular detective Matt Scudder. The plot finds Scudder investigating the death of a small-time hood who, knowing he was marked for death, paid Scudder in advance to solve his murder. All libraries where Block is popular will want to have this first hardcover edition, which also contains an introduction by fellow mystery writer Jonathan Kellerman.<br />Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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*Erle Stanley Gardner is cited by the "Guinness Book of World Records" as the #1 bestselling writer of all time. In his will, Peter Laxter guaranteed his faithful caretaker a job and a place to live for life. But Laxter's grandson Sam says the deal doesn't include the caretaker's cat. When Perry Mason takes the case, he finds there's much more at stake than an old man's cat -- a million dollars to be exact. And as he investigates, he finds a web of greed and treachery among the heirs. But which one actually pulled off the almost perfect crime?


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In the dark days, in a sad and lonely place, ex-cop Matt Scudder is drinking his life away -- and doing "favors" for pay for his ginmill cronies. But when three such assignments flow together in dangerous and disturbing ways, he'll need to change his priorities from boozing to surviving.


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A reissue of an original Perry Mason novel finds the legal eagle in the hire of a man whose missing glass eye is found in the hands of a slain millionaire businessman surrounded by suspects. Reissue.


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Stalking the tawdry neon wilderness of forties and fifties Los Angeles, Raymond Chandler's hard-drinking, wise-cracking Phillip Marlowe is one of the world's most famous fictional detectives. "Playback" finds Marlowe mixing business with pleasure - getting paid to follow a mysterious and lovely red-head named Eleanor King. And wherever Miss King goes, trouble seems to follow. But she's easy on the eye and Marlowe's happy to do as he's told, all in the name of chivalry, of course. But one dead body later and what started out as a lazy afternoon's snooping soon becomes a deadly cocktail of blackmail, lies, mistaken identity - and murder...</p>


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After con man Greg Moxley married Rhoda Lorton, he took her money and flew -- only to have his plane crash. Years later, Rhoda wed millionaire scion Carl Montaine. But now Moxley has turned up alive and well . . . with plans to pocket the Montaine fortune -- or else make Rhoda's bigamy public. Desperate to protect the good name of Montaine, Rhoda seeks out Perry Mason. But before Mason can reel in Moxley, somebody murders the scheming blackmailer. In a case that abounds in lethal twists, Mason suddenly finds himself on a collision course with a cold-blooded killer.


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Raymond Chandler created the fast - talking, trouble - seeking Californian private eye Philip Marlowe for his first great novel The Big Sleep in 1939. Marlowe's entanglement with the Sternwood family - and an attendant cast of colourful underworld figures - is the background to a story reflecting all the tarnished glitter of the great American Dream. The detective's iconic image burns just as brightly in Farewell, My Lovely, on the trail of a missing nightclub crooner. And the inimitable Marlowe is able to prove that trouble really is his business in Chandler's brilliant epitaph, The Long Good - Bye. 'One of the greatest crime writers, who set standards that others still try to attain.' Sunday Times


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Mason, tasked by a dowager with buying back the IOU's signed by her niece on a gambling ship, climbs aboard only to discover the ship's owner dead of a bullet wound and the dowager close by. Reissue.


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(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)Raymond Chandler’s first three novels, published here in one volume, established his reputation as an unsurpassed master of hard-boiled detective fiction. The Big Sleep, Chandler’s first novel, introduces Philip Marlowe, a private detective inhabiting the seamy side of Los Angeles in the 1930s, as he takes on a case involving a paralyzed California millionaire, two psychotic daughters, blackmail, and murder. In Farewell, My Lovely, Marlowe deals with the gambling circuit, a murder he stumbles upon, and three very beautiful but potentially deadly women. In The High Window, Marlowe searches the California underworld for a priceless gold coin and finds himself deep in the tangled affairs of a dead coin collector.In all three novels, Chandler’s hard-edged prose, colorful characters, vivid vernacular, and, above all, his enigmatic loner of a hero, enduringly establish his claim not only to the heights of his chosen genre but to the pantheon of literary art.


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Perry Mason is in the middle again, in the case of the house divided--literally--by a barbed wire fence. And when the house is racked by murder, and both its warring occupants are suspects, which side will Perry choose? The Perry Mason mysteries have been entertaining readers for 60 years. HC: Morrow.


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A wealthy Pasadena widow with a mean streak, a missing daughter-in-law with a past, and a gold coin worth a small fortune—the elements don't quite add up until Marlowe discovers evidence of murder, rape, blackmail, and the worst kind of human exploitation."Raymond Chandler is a star of the first magnitude."-- Erle Stanley Gardner"Raymond Chandler has given us a detective who is hard-boiled enough to be convincing . . . and that is no mean achievement." -- The New York Times


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A couple of missing wives—one a rich man's and one a poor man's—become the objects of Marlowe's investigation. One of them may have gotten a Mexican divorce and married a gigolo and the other may be dead. Marlowe's not sure he cares about either one, but he's not paid to care.


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>In the readers' court, no one objects to a full docket of Perry Mason. Virginia Baxter is the only witness still living who can vouch for the authenticity of Lauretta Trent's will. Now, Lauretta has been murdered on the highway--after almost being poisoned. Confused? Just think how Virginia's lawyer, Perry Mason, must feel. HC: Morrow.</p>


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A movie starlet with a gangster boyfriend and a pair of siblings with a shared secret lure Marlowe into the less than glamorous and more than a little dangerous world of Hollywood fame. Chandler's first foray into the industry that dominates the company town that is Los Angeles.


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Arthur Cartwright's official complaint about a neighbor's noisy dog leads Perry Mason and his associates into a case involving a poisoned police dog, a missing wife, and murder.


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Marlowe befriends a down on his luck war veteran with the scars to prove it. Then he finds out that Terry Lennox has a very wealthy nymphomaniac wife, who he's divorced and re-married and who ends up dead. and now Lennox is on the lam and the cops and a crazy gangster are after Marlowe.


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MURDER WITH COMPLICATIONSWhen Perry Mason receives two mysterious checks from Lola Allred, a woman he's never heard of, he smells trouble. A visit from Lola's husband reveals that she has run away with her daughter's boyfriend--a key witness in an ongoing lawsuit.The mystery deepens when the bank finds that one of the checks is forged. Yet when homicide finally does rear its head, even the unexpected victim isn't as surprised as Perry Mason.


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<h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>Chandler is not only the best writer of hardboiled PI stories, he's one of the 20th century's top scribes, period. His full canon of novels and short stories is reprinted in trade paper featuring uniform covers in Black Lizard's signature style. A handsome set for a reasonable price. <br />Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>"Raymond Chandler is a master." --_The New York Times_<br />_<br /><em>?[Chandler] wrote as if pain hurt and life mattered.? --</em>The New Yorker  </p><p><em>?Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious.? --Robert B. Parker, </em>The New York Times Book Review  </p><p><em>?Philip Marlowe remains the quintessential urban private eye.? --</em>Los Angeles Times<br />_<br />?Nobody can write like Chandler on his home turf, not even Faulkner. . . . An original. . . . A great artist.? ?_The Boston Book Review<br />_<br />?Raymond Chandler was one of the finest prose writers of the twentieth century. . . . Age does not wither Chandler?s prose. . . . He wrote like an angel.? --_Literary Review<br />_<br />?[T]he prose rises to heights of unselfconscious eloquence, and we realize with a jolt of excitement that we are in the presence of not a mere action tale teller, but a stylist, a writer with a vision.? --Joyce Carol Oates, _The New York Review of Books  </p><p>_?Chandler wrote like a slumming angel and invested the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence.? ?Ross Macdonald<br />_<br />_?Raymond Chandler is a star of the first magnitude.? --Erle Stanley Gardner<br />_<br />_?Raymond Chandler invented a new way of talking about America, and America has never looked the same to us since.? --Paul Auster   </p><p>?[Chandler]?s the perfect novelist for our times. He takes us into a different world, a world that?s like ours, but isn?t. ? --Carolyn See<br />_<br />_ -- <em>Review</em></p>


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Tall, heavy-set, dignified and handsome, Frank Patton was a promoter. He was also a crook. His racket of running contests for girls with beautiful legs was technically within the law, and gullible, small-town chambers of commerce were his victims. There were complaints, but no prosecutions. Frank was a very careful man. But when Perry Mason finally caught up with him, Frank Patton was a very dead man...


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In the four long stories in this collection, Marlowe is hired to protect a rich old guy from a gold digger, runs afoul of crooked politicos, gets a line on some stolen jewels with a reward attached, and stumbles across a murder victim who may have been an extortionist.


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<div><div><h3>Review</h3><p>Every so often Stout thins the ranks of the Wolfe entourage - a while back he bumped off one of the stable of free-lance operatives, leaving only Saul, Fred and Orrie. Another gets pruned in the course of the latest Rusterman's Restaurant murder investigation, after a faintly mechanical sequence of leads including Watergate, Women's Lib and a horny widow. Not one of Stout's zippiest, but the old pro still has a lot of polish. (Kirkus Reviews) </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Published only a month before Rex Stout’s death, this case is regarded as one of the author's truest. When Nero Wolfe's favorite waiter is murdered in an explosion just feet from him, the detective takes it as a personal affront and waives his trademark fee. As Wolfe and his sidekick Archie track down the culprit, a second murder is committed and Wolfe realizes that this case is a family affair. </p>

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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Nero and Archie become personally involved when their favorite waiter is killed in their New York brownstone</p></div>


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Ellen Robb does more than just sing for her supper -- she also dances and sells cigarettes in a two-bit gambling parlor in a one-horse town. But when she hits a sour note with her scheming employer by refusing to help fleece a fat-cat customer in a crooked card game, she finds herself out of all three jobs. That's when she sings her song of woe to Perry Mason, who promises to turn her blues into greenbacks with the help of his crack team, Della Street and Paul Drake, and a hefty lawsuit.Things are humming along just fine -- until murder interrupts the merry melody of Mason's crafty legal maneuvers. When the vindictive wife of Ellen Robb's not-so-secret lover turns up shot to death, Mason is certain it's a frame-up -- and that his songbird client's belligerent boss is to blame. Until his own gun is found at the scene. The cocksure Mason will have to change his tune -- and do some quick thinking -- or else this case could be his swan song.The Perry Mason NovelsCriminal lawyer and all-time #1 mystery author Erle Stanley Gardner wrote close to 150 novels that have sold 300 million copies worldwide. Today, the great Gardner tradition continues with many of his classics back in print, as well as brand-new additions to the ever-popular series starring the incomparable Perry Mason.


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When a bright young heiress with a flair for romance and one too many enemies is found brutally murdered, Nero Wolfe and his sidekick, Archie, find themselves embroiled in a case that is not as black and white as it first appears.Susan Brooke has everything going for her.  Men would have killed themselves to marry her, and, in fact, one did.Susan came to New York to find love and fulfillment, and ended up dead on a tenement floor.  The police say her black fiance did it, but Wolfe has other ideas.  Before he's done, he'll prove that good intentions and bad deeds often go hand in hand and that the highest ideals can sometimes have the deadliest consequences.


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Peter Kent's niece hires Perry Mason to help protect him from the attempts of his wife and business partner to take control of his assets, but when a bloody knife is found under Kent's pillow, he becomes a murder suspect


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Nero Wolfe, the 286 pound beer consuming marvel, who wears yellow silk pajamas, loves orchids and rarely leaves home has been a popular character for seventy years in Rex Stoutâ¬"s books, films and recently a successful television series. His sidekick Archie Goodwin helps prod Wolfe into action.


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When a stuttering bishop comes to Perry Mason's office for help, Mason becomes involved in a battle of wills with a woman and the long-lost daughter she believes to be a fraud. The key to the puzzle lies in the bishop--who, unfortunately, has disappeared. Reissue.


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In this ingenious whodunit, a perfume company offers a million dollars for correctly identifying certain women in history who used cosmetics. When the advertising genius behind the campaign is murdered and the answers stolen, Nero Wolfe is called in to find both. Archie Goodwin tries bravely to keep Wolfe away from the irritating women involved and focused on the case. But with puzzling phone calls and conflicting instructions from the ad company, it's anybody's guess when - or even if - Wolfe will find the killer.


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Unable to marry due to a stipulation in her late father's will--which states that she will lose his millions if she does wed--headstrong Frances hires Perry Mason to get around the clause, and soon he ends up solving a family murder. Reprint.


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"It is always a treat to read a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore".--The New York Times Book Review. Incomparable sleuth Nero Wolfe and his perennially hardy sidekick, Archie Goodwin, find themselves trying to weed out a garden-variety killer at the annual flower show.


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An erstwhile young man has his hands full as trustee of a wild young woman's inheritance. But his love and her money don't mix. Perry Mason may be able to prove his client is no embezzler--but what happens when murder rears its head? HC: William Morrow and Co.


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Whoever administered the deadly dose of champagne isn't talking, and neither is the victim, as Nero Wolfe searches for the antidote to the perfect crime. Includes never-before-published memorabilia from the life of Rex Stout.


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Criminal lawyer and all-time #1 mystery author Erle Stanley Gardner wrote close to 150 novels that have sold 300 million copies worldwide. His most popular books starred the incomparable attorney-sleuth Perry Mason. And the first time the world heard the name Perry Mason was in 1933 with the publication of the novel that has become an enduring classic... The Case of the Velvet Claws Thanks to a bungled robbery at a fancy hotel, the already-married Eva Griffin has been caught in the company of a prominent congressman. To protect the politico, Eva's ready to pay the editor of a sleazy tabloid his hush money. But Perry Mason has other plans. He tracks down the phantom fat cat who secretly runs the blackmailing tabloid -- only to discover a shocking scoop. By the time Mason's comely client finally comes clean, her husband has taken a bullet in the heart. Now Perry Mason has two choices: represent the cunning widow in her wrangle for the dead man's money -- or take the rap for murder.


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With a rich man footing the bills and a handsome lover on the side, Isabel Kerr was taken care of well. When someone takes care of her in a more final sense, her murder is pinned on a detective friend of Nero Wolfe's. Agreeing to help clear his buddy's name, Wolfe winds up entertaining a party of fools and lovers connected with the doxy's death.


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It's not easy being NYPD detective Lincoln Rhyme, the world's foremost criminalist. First of all, he's a quadriplegic. Secondly, he's forever being second-guessed and mother-henned by his ex-model-turned-cop protégé, Amelia Sachs, and his personal aide, Thom. And thirdly, it seems that he can't motor his wheelchair around a corner without bumping into one crazed psycho-killer after another. In The Empty Chair, Jeffery Deaver's third Rhyme outing--after 1997's The Bone Collector and 1998's The Coffin Dancer--Rhyme travels to North Carolina to undergo an experimental surgical procedure and is, a jot too coincidentally, met at the door by a local sheriff, the cousin of an NYPD colleague, bearing one murder, two kidnappings, and a timely plea for help. It seems that 16-year-old Garrett Hanlon, a bug-obsessed orphan known locally as the Insect Boy, has kidnapped and probably raped two women, and bludgeoned to death a would-be hero who tried to stop one of the abductions. Rhyme sets up shop, Amelia leads the local constabulary (easily recognized by their out-of-joint noses) into the field, and, after some Holmesian brain work and a good deal of exciting cat-and-mousing, the duo leads the cops to their prey. And just as you're idly wondering why the case is coming to an end in the middle of the book, Amelia breaks the boy out of jail and goes on the lam. Equally convinced of the boy's guilt and the danger he poses to Amelia, Rhyme has no choice but to aid the police in apprehending the woman he loves--no easy task, as she's the one human being who truly knows the methods of Lincoln Rhyme. Rhyme's specialty combines the minute scientific analysis of physical evidence gathered from crime scenes and his arcane knowledge of, it would seem, every organic and inorganic substance on earth. Deaver combines engaging narration, believable characters, and his trademark ability to repeatedly pull the rug out from under the reader's feet. Lincoln Rhyme's back all right, and the smart money's betting that his run has just begun. --Michael Hudson


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Sedentary sleuth Nero Wolfe and his sidekick, Archie Goodwin, leave West Thirty-fifth Street for a Montana dude ranch to clear an innocent man of a murder charge. Reissue. </p><h3>From the Publisher</h3><p>The mountain couldn't come to Wolfe, so the great detective came to the mountain--to Lame Horse, Montana, to be exact. Here a city slicker got a country girl pregnant and then took a bullet in the back. Wolfe's job was to get an innocent man exonerated of the crime and catch a killer in the process. But when he packed his silk pajamas and headed west, he found himself embroiled in a case rife with local cynicism, slipshod police work, and unpleasant political ramifications. In fact, Nero Wolfe was buffaloed until the real killer struck again, underestimating the dandified dude with an unerring instinct for detection. </p>


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Michael Hrubek, the man who murdered two of Lis Atcheson's students, has escaped the institution where he was sentenced. But Hrubek isn't just any killer- e knows Lis's name. He knows her face. He knows where she lives. He knows she's the one who put him away, and he'll make her pay. And in the next 24 hours, he knows what she'll be doing-praying for mercy. Praying for revenge, psycho killer Michael Hrubek has escaped to find the woman who put him away. He'll show her what killing is all about-praying for salvation. Lis knows he's out there. He's haunted every sleepless night, watching and waiting to take her to hell with him. And now Lis is Praying for Sleep .


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As any herpetologist will tell you, the fer-de-lance is among the most dreaded snakes known to man.  When someone makes a present of one to Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin knows he's getting dreadully close to solving the devilishly clever murders of an immigrant and a college president.  As for Wolfe, he's playing snake charmer in a case with more twists than an anaconda -- whistling a seductive tune he hopes will catch a killer who's still got poison in his heart.


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In his most gripping thriller yet, Jeffery Deaver takes readers on a terrifying ride into two ingenious minds...that of a physically challenged detective and the scheming killer he must stop. The detective was the former head of forensics at the NYPD, but is now a quadriplegic who can only exercise his mind. The killer is a man whose obsession with old New York helps him choose his next victim. Now, with the help of a beautiful young cop, this diabolical killer must be stopped before he can kill again!


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A deadly trio of Nero Wolfe classics. It's a wily killer who dares to strike on Nero Wolfe's hallowed turf. It's a gun-toting wife who serves up a confession of homicidal intent--only to become the suspect when the corpse is found. And it's murder a la carte when a cop-hating landlady brings Wolfe counterfeit cash that leads to genuine murder.


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Kathryn Dance, an investigator with the California Bureau of Investigation, returns from Deaver's <em>The Cold Moon</em> (where she was a secondary) in this post–prison break pulse-pounder. Dance is the lead cop handling the escape of psychopathic killer Daniel Pell, dubbed "Son of Manson" by the press for his "family" of young runaways and his most horrendous crime, the murders of computer engineer William Croyton, Croyton's wife and two of their three children. The only child left alive, nine-year-old Theresa, is known as the Sleeping Doll. Pell, charismatic and diabolically intelligent, continually eludes capture, but Dance, a specialist in interrogation and kinesics (or body language), is never more than a few suspenseful minutes behind. Dance is nicely detailed, and procedural scenes where she uses somatic cues to ferret out liars are fascinating. The book sags in its long middle, but toward the end Deaver digs into his bottomless bag of unexpected twists and turns, keeping readers wide-eyed with surprise, and leaving them looking forward to more of the perspicacious Dance. <em>(June)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>When Special Agent Kathryn Dance -- a brilliant interrogator and kinesics expert with the California Bureau of Investigation -- is sent to question the convicted killer Daniel "Son of Manson" Pell as a suspect in a newly unearthed crime, she feels both trepidation and electrifying intrigue. Pell is serving a life sentence for the brutal murders of the wealthy Croyton family in Carmel years earlier -- a crime mirroring those perpetrated by Charles Manson in the 1960s. But Pell and his cult members were sloppy: Not only were they apprehended, they even left behind a survivor -- the youngest of the Croyton daughters, who, because she was in bed hidden by her toys that terrible night, was dubbed the Sleeping Doll. </p><p>But the girl never spoke about that night, nor did the crime's mastermind. Indeed, Pell has long been both reticent and unrepentant about the crime. And so with the murderer transported from the Capitola superprison to an interrogation room in the Monterey County Courthouse, Dance sees an opportunity to pry a confession from him for the recent murder -- and to learn more about the depraved mind of this career criminal who considers himself a master of control, a dark Svengali, forcing people to do what they otherwise would never conceive of doing. In an electrifying psychological jousting match, Dance calls up all her skills as an interrogator and kinesics -- body language -- expert to get to the truth behind Daniel Pell.</p><p>But when Dance's plan goes terribly wrong and Pell escapes, leaving behind a trail of dead and injured, she finds herself in charge of her first-ever manhunt. But far from simply fleeing, Pell turns on his pursuers -- and other innocents -- for reasons Dance and her colleagues can't discern. As the idyllic Monterey Peninsula is paralyzed by the elusive killer, Dance turns to the past to find the truth about what Daniel Pell is really up to. She tracks down the now teenage Sleeping Doll to learn what really happened that night, and she arranges a reunion of three women who were in his cult at the time of the killings. The lies of the past and the evasions of the present boil up under the relentless probing of Kathryn Dance, but will the truth about Daniel Pell emerge in time to stop him from killing again? </p>


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A New York Times Bestseller. Famed criminologist Lincoln Rhyme and his beautiful protege Amelia Sachs have been recruited by the FBI and the INS to help perform the nearly impossible: track down a cargo ship carrying two dozen illegal Chinese immigrants and the notorious human smuggler and killer known as "the Ghost."


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The legendary Nero Wolfe is hired by a despicable millionaire named Otis Jarrell who is trying to prove that his daughter-in-law is an information-leaking, double-crossing snake. In spite of Wolfe’s reluctance, his assistant Archie brashly agrees to perform as Jarrell’s personal secretary - under an assumed identity - to gather information about the possible misdeeds of said daughter-in-law. Everything turns serious when one of the detectives' associates is found shot dead - and the evidence points to Jarrell’s own missing revolver.


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Geneva Settle is a bright young high school student from Harlem writing a paper about one of her ancestors, a former slave called Charles Singleton. Geneva is also the target of a ruthless professional killer. Criminalist Lincoln Rhyme and his policewoman partner Amelia Sachs are called into the case, working frantically to anticipate where the hired gun will strike next and how to stop him, all the while trying to get to the truth of Charles Singleton, and the reason that Geneva has been targeted. For Charles Singleton had a secret a secret that may strike at the very heart of the United States constitution, and have disastrous consequences for human rights today. And Sachs is going to have to search a crime scene that's 140 years old before she can stop the killer.


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In the 13th installment of Audio Partners' Rex Stout mystery series, an old woman asks eccentric sleuth Nero Wolfe to uncover the mysterious source of her husband's money. When the case leads Wolfe to a confrontation with a racketeer, he resigns from the job and goes into hiding. His wise-guy assistant, Archie, must solve the case without help. Wolfe's career seems to have ended in disgrace. Or has it?


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Forensic expert Lincoln Rhyme and his protégée Amelia Sachs are called in to work the high-profile investigation of a killer who seemingly disappeared into thin air just as the police closed in. As the homicidal illusionist baits them with grisly murders that grow more diabolical with each victim, Rhyme and Sachs must go behind the smoke and mirrors to prevent a horrific act of vengeance that could become the greatest vanishing act of all....


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>I've promised myself for the past decade that, when I finally retire, my first major project will be to reread the entire Nero Wolfe canon in chronological order, a worthwhile occupation if ever there was one. </p><p>Although entirely different and not nearly as literary as Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer series or the Philip Marlowe novels of Raymond Chandler, the Wolfe saga deserves to be ranked with them as among the finest series of detective stories ever written by an American. <em>Fer-de-lance</em> introduces the brilliant, idiosyncratic, and obese armchair detective to the world and, while it may not be the best book of the series, it provides a wonderful murder set on a golf course and a cast of characters and laundry list of eccentricities that are an integral part of each novel and novella. </p><p>Rex Stout has managed to pull off a feat unparalleled to this day: the perfect combination of deductive reasoning--as exemplified by the classic Golden Age writers such as Christie, Sayers, Van Dine, and Queen--with the hard-boiled attitude and dialogue of the more realistic tough guy writers such as Chandler, Macdonald, Hammett, and Robert B. Parker. </p><p>The toughness is brought to the books by Wolfe's leg man and amanuensis, Archie Goodwin. The structure and ambience of the books is, quite deliberately, very much like the Sherlock Holmes stories that Stout so admired. The house on West 35th Street is as familiar as the sitting room at 221B Baker Street; his cook Fritz pops up as regularly as Mrs. Hudson; and his irritant, Inspector Cramer of the NYPD, serves the same role as several Scotland Yard detectives, notably Inspector Lestrade, did for Holmes. Fair warning: It is safe to read one Nero Wolfe novel, because you will surely like it. It is extremely unsafe to read three, because you will forever be hooked on the delightful characters who populate these perfect books. <em>--Otto Penzler</em></p><h3>Review</h3><p>"_Fer-de-Lance_ will be welcomed by the legions of Rex Stout fans, and serve as welcome introduction to a whole new generation of mystery buffs." -- <em>_</em>The Midwest Book Review_, May 1997  </p><p>"I've noticed books by Rex Stout (1886-1975) for many years but never have purchased or read one. You know, so many books, so little time. I've been missing the company of the ever-eccentric Nero Wolfe and his faithful legman, Archie Goodwin...I don't want to tell you too much about this classic tale and spoil your fun. This version is expertly performed by Michael Prichard, who has also brought novels by Clive Cussler and Tom Clancy to life." -- <em>Jim Clark, Publisher</em>  </p><p>"In the annals of eccentric private detectives, one of the most famous is Nero Wolfe. Wolfe is an obese, misanthropic, arrogant orchid fancier who solves mysteries while never leaving his New York brownstone. His eyes and ears to the world is Archie Goodwin, the narrator of the books. In this well-read audio edition of Stout's first Wolfe novel, Goodwin is asked to find out who murdered a young Italian immigrant. The path leads to upscale Westchester County and to the body of a recently deceased philanthropist who has a crazy wife, a jealous son, and a beautiful daughter. Throw into the mix an attempt on Wolfe's life using a poisonous snake and the listener is entertained with a 1934 period mystery that is remarkably fresh." -- <em>_</em>The Roanoke Times_, November 16, 1997  </p><p>"It is always a treat to [hear] a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore." -- <em>_</em>The New York Times Book Review_  </p><p>Originally published in 1934, Fer-de-Lance is the first mystery novel ever written by Rex Stout. This classic crime story (complete and unabridged) introduces one of the great fictional detectives, Nero Wolfe. Wolfe, the arrogant, gormandizing, sedentary sleuth who raises orchids in his Manhattan brownstone, solving his case with help from his assistant, Archie Goodwin, was to become one of American literature's most recognizable charecters. When a fer-de-lance (one of the most deadly snakes know to man) is delivered to Nero Wolfe, Archie knows he is getting very close to solving the clever murders of an immigrant and a college president. The denouement brings forth all of Nero Wolfe's talents as he gathers the suspects together. Fer-de-Lance will be welcomes by the legions of Rex Stout fans, and serve as welcome introduction to a whole new generation of mystery buffs. -- <em>Midwest Book Review</em></p>


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Manhattan Police Inspector Cramer asks for Wolfe’s help in solving the suspicious death of a law office clerk who has been fished out of the Hudson River. His probable homicide-causing offense? Submitting a manuscript for publication! With the manuscript missing and the only two to read it dead, the only clues are a cryptic quotation from the Bible and a list of names in the dead man’s pocket.


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When Cyril Orchard is poisoned during a radio talk show, the brilliant detective, Nero Wolfe, is hired to investigate the murder


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Archie, Nero Wolfe's assistant, goes undercover to investigate a murder at a Wall Street firm, where he discovers a fringe benefit: hundreds of women work there. Everyone's alibi is air-tight, so Archie and Wolfe set a trap. Which woman will fall into it? A Classic Nero Wolfe Mystery. Complete and unabridged. 6 cassettes.


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Louis Pinell, the recently apprehended "Icepick Prowler," freely admits to having slain seven young women nine years ago -- but be swears it was a copycat who killed Barbara Ettinger Matthew Scudder believes him. But the trail to Ettinger's true murderer is twisted, dark and dangerous...and even colder than the almost decade-old corpse the p.i. is determined to avenge. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>A Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, Lawrence Block is a four-time winner of the Edgar Allan Poe and Shamus Awards, as well as a recipient of prizes in France, Germany, and Japan. The author of more than fifty books and numerous short stories, he is a devout New Yorker who spends much of his time traveling. </p>


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Called upon to investigate a sinister "accident" involving national security, Nero Wolfe must set the traps that will catch the pair of wily killers responsible. Reissue. NYT.


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>A call girl warns former cop Matthew Scudder that a homicidal psycho he helped convict is out of jail and seeking revenge. "The New York settings are superbly authentic, the dialogue is hip . . . and the resolution . . . is hair-raising," said PW. <br />Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>"A Smooth, Chilling Suspense Novel That Stretches Nerves Wire-Tight" -- <em>--</em>_ Boston Herald_  </p><p>"Absolutely Riveting . . . Non-Stop Tension And A Finish That Will Leave You Bug-Eyed" -- <em>--</em>_ Washington Post Book World_  </p><p>"This Is Primo Stuff" -- <em>--</em>_ The New York Times Book Review_</p>


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When a Balkan beauty is accused of stealing diamonds, she turns to the world-famous Nero Wolfe, claiming to be his long-lost adopted daughter. The stakes are raised when a fencing student ends up skewered through the heart. Once again, Wolfe and Archie thrust and parry into a tangle of documents, identities, and political intrigue. 6 cassettes.


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Nero Wolfe and his sidekick, Archie Goodwin, are called in by a consortium of publishers and writers to investigate several cases of false plagiarism, but the probe soon becomes complicated by murder. Reissue. </p><h3>From the Inside Flap</h3><p>Nero Wolfe hat es wieder einmal mit einem komplizierten Fall zu tun. Vier beruehmte Schriftsteller werden beschuldigt, bei unbekannten Nachwuchsautoren abgeschrieben zu haben. Empoert weisen die vier den Vorwurf zurueck - offenbar will ihnen hier jemand vermittels hoher Schadenersatzklagen viel Geld aus der Tasche ziehen. An Verdaechtigen mangelt es zunaechst nicht, doch als einer nach dem anderen stirbt, wird die Sache immer raetselhafter. Und Nero Wolfe muss erkennen, dass er es bei dem Taeter mit einem echten Genie zu tun hat.   </p><p>Nero Wolfe has another a complicated case. Four famous writers are accused of plagiarism. They are outraged. Things become increasingly suspicious and Nero realizes the intelligence of the criminals he is working against. </p>


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A ruthless, ingenious pair of entrepreneurial monsters is preying on the loved ones of those who live outside the law. Though he has no love for drug dealers and poison peddlers, ex-cop-turned-p.i. Matthew Scudder now must help them put two thrill-kill extortionists out of business—before another drop of innocent blood is spilled.


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<h3>From</h3><p>There's a new trend afoot in the series mystery. Mickey Spillane, Nero Wolfe, Sherlock Holmes, and their investigating cohorts seldom changed from book to book. Part of their appeal, in fact, was their consistency. Contemporary series authors, however, such as Bill Pronzini, Robert P. Parker, Joseph Hansen, and Lawrence Block, have taken the series character a step further, allowing growth and change to occur to the hard-boiled hero just as they do to ordinary mortals. Block's recovering alcoholic Matt Scudder is a perfect example. Once isolated by guilt, angst, and booze, Scudder was the quintessential loner. Now, as his never-ending recovery continues, his world has begun to expand. He has a true friend in Mick Ballou, a sidekick in street urchin T. J., and a lover in former hooker Elaine. Hired by the brother of a mentally handicapped vet accused of the murder of attorney Glenn Holtzmann, Scudder finds that the victim was both less and more than he appeared to be. Much to his surprise--because he loves Elaine--Scudder becomes involved with Holtzmann's widow. The resolution of the case is a logical surprise that will leave readers contemplating an indifferent universe. Though Scudder's world is as bleak as it's ever been, he's letting a little sun shine through. It's nice to see a friend happy. <em>Wes Lukowsky</em></p><h3>From Kirkus Reviews</h3><p>Mysteries of the heart eclipse those of the street in Matt Scudder's quietly compelling new case, which finds the p.i. avoiding the wrenching physical violence of his last few outings (A Walk Among the Tombstones, etc.) but falling prey to all sorts of emotional havoc. The crime on which Block hangs Scudder's latest study in angst is the apparent shooting death of attorney Glenn Holtzmann by deranged homeless vet George Sadecki. Despite strong evidence of Sadecki's guilt, the accused's brother hires Scudder to look into the case--which the unlicensed p.i. does, discovering that Holtzmann, far from being a clean-cut yuppie, was actually a professional rat for various federal agencies and may have been slain by one of his targets. Scudder's gumshoeing is dogged but not very exciting--lots of phone calls and interviews--and serves mostly to put him in contact with old series regulars and one likely new one, a sympathetic transvestite, as well as with Holtzmann's widow, with whom he starts an affair despite his commitment to longtime girlfriend Elaine: The widow proves as addictive as booze and in fact may drive Scudder back to drink, especially if he keeps indulging in moody midnight gabfests with Irish gangster Mick Ballou and brooding over a WW I poem about breaking faith with those who've died. Meanwhile, in an equally introspective subplot, Scudder's old flame Jan Keane is dying of cancer and asks Scudder to get her a suicide-gun, which he does. Will she choose life, however painful, instead of the bullet's oblivion? Will Scudder resist the bottle and widow and do the same? The murder finally resolves through a quirk of fate: Can Scudder command his own fate? Those who can take or leave Scudder will probably leave this gathering of shadows: loyalists, though, will hang on every word as Scudder makes his fascinatingly uncertain way through an increasingly uncertain world. -- <em>Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.</em></p>


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This mystery from one of America's best-loved writers features one of the greatest fictional detectives of all time-Nero Wolfe. Wolfe is an orchid growing, gourmandizing, eccentric genius who solved this case with the able assistance of his legman, Archie Goodwin. It is told from Archie's viewpoint and with wry humor. A beautiful model's untimely death from a chocolate candy leads to the supreme insult of Nero Wolfe's career: another murder occurs in his own home. He must solve the case to save his pride. 6 cassettes.


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Nobody knows better than Matthew Scudder how far down a person can sink in the city of New York. Except a young prostitute named Kim—and she wanted out. Maybe Kim didn't deserve the life fate had dealt her. She surely didn't deserve her death.   The alcoholic ex-cop turned P.I. was supposed to protect her, but someone slashed her to ribbons in a seedy hotel room. Now, finding Kim's killer will be Scudder's penance. But there are lethal secrets hiding in the slain hooker's past that are far dirtier than her trade. And there are many ways of dying in this cruel and dangerous town—some quick and brutal . . . and some agonizingly slow.   With this book, which won the Shamus Award and was short-listed for the Edgar, Lawrence Block elevated the Matthew Scudder series to the top tier of American detective fiction. This special hardcover edition features an afterword by the author. Read Eight Million Ways to Die, the novel that proves Block to be one of the best mystery writers working today.


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<h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>It has been years since the orchid-growing eccentric Nero Wolfe has been outside his beloved home. This novel finds him in upstate New York with Archie Goodwin where he must endure poor food, uncomfortable chairs, warm beer, and three dead bodies. A family feud over the fate of a prize bull (send him to a stud farm or a steak house) plus tacky publicity stunts and blackmail all fit into the situation, told from Archie's point of view. Michael Prichard's reading is clear and adds to the atmosphere and overall enjoyment of the story. Recommended.?Denise A. Garofalo, Mid-Hudson Lib. System, Poughkeepsie, NY<br />Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>"It is always a treat to [hear] a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore." -- <em>_</em>The New York Times Book Review_  </p><p>"Nero Wolfe, the fat detective of Rex Stout's novels, towers over his rivals...he is an exceptional character creation." -- <em>_</em>The New Yorker_  </p><p>"Rex Stout...raised detective fiction to the level of art. He gave us genius of at least two kinds, and a strong realist voice that was shot through with hope." -- <em>Walter Mosley</em></p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>This is far from the best of Lawrence Block's landmark Scudder series-too little action or suspense, too much domestic bliss--so I'll just use its publication as an excuse to introduce newcomers to some past glories. The best of them all is still </p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Marriage to his old flame, Elaine, seems to have mellowed Block's veteran PI, Matt Scudder. He still continues to get his man with a combination of doggedness and occasional flashes of inspiration, but his life has become too cozy to make him the absorbing companion he used to be. Quiet domestic evenings spent talking things over with Elaine in Block's patented delightful dialogue alternate with thoughtful discussions, in this case, with the two perpetrators in the book, who give themselves up without a murmur. Voices are never raised; not even a roscoe barks. It's all too civilized, as if Scudder's formerly gritty world were moving closer to that of Block's much slighter series hero, the daffy burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr. There are two plots here, ingeniously intertwined: one involves a serial killer taking out notable bad guys to the delight of the New York press, particularly a pushy columnist who gets to publish the man's gloating notes; the other concerns the mysterious killing, in broad daylight on a park bench, of a friend of a friend of Scudder's who's in the last stages of AIDS and has a complicated insurance arrangement. As usual, Block's ingenuity in finding new motives for crime is endless, his narration polished, his entertainment value high. What is missing here is the violence, or the constant threat of it, that made Scudder's earlier appearances memorable. The ending, involving Scudder's streetwise sidekick TJ, is downright sentimental. Brace up, Block! <br />Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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When Rachel Bruner sends out copies of a book critical of the FBI to 10,000 influential people, the agency begins harassing her. Then she hires Nero Wolfe to make them stop, and once he's discovered the bureau's weak spot, he sets in motion a scheme guaranteed to force the FBI to leave both him and Rachel alone.


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>You would think that by the 14th novel in a series, an author might become a bit bored with his characters, a bit sloppy in his writing. Thankfully, Lawrence Block is no such writer. Matt Scudder, in his 14th appearance, is as sharp and entertaining as he is in such mysteries as <strong> and </strong>. Scudder is one of the few dicks out there with a fully fleshed-out personality; he's not insensitive to the mayhem around him, and his fears are well founded and realistic. After all, as the title boldly states, we live in a world where everybody dies.</p><p>Settled into married life, sober, and finally a legit private eye (the state granted his license), Scudder is prepared to become a respectable high-priced detective working for New York City lawyers. But when his old buddy, Mick Ballou, comes to him because two of his runners end up murdered, Scudder finds himself sinking back into the muck of the underworld. While dodging thugs who are out to put a stop to his investigation, Scudder must figure out who has it in for Ballou.</p><p>The writing in this novel is elegant--equally supple in describing the gibbous moon as it is in sorting out Scudder's feelings on the murder of a close friend, or when recounting a rather gory eye plucking. The dialogue is snappy and true to life. Lawrence Block once again proves he's worthy of the title Grand Master of Mystery. So be sure to set aside a chunk of time before you sit down to read this novel, because you're not going to be able to tear yourself away. <em>--Jenny Brown</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>The body count is indeed high in this latest Matt Scudder tale, which is also the best since A Walk Among the Tombstones (1993)?resonant, thoughtful, richly textured and capped by a slam-bang windup. At the center of the case is Matt's old buddy, Mick Ballou, the murderous and hard-drinking Irish mobster with a deeply philosophical streak who is one of Block's most enduring creations. Two of Mick's henchmen have been killed in what should have been a routine liquor hijacking. After Scudder helps Mick bury the bodies at the mobster's upstate farm, he finds he has been targeted himself. Two hoods try to rough him up on the street, then an old friend, Matt's sponsor at Alcoholics Anonymous, is gunned down in a restaurant after being mistaken for Matt. It soon becomes clear that someone from Ballou's past is aiming to destroy him, and Matt, caught in the crossfire, has to try to determine who's behind the mayhem. He does so in his usual ruminative way, working it out with wife Elaine, streetwise sidekick TJ and old cop comrades who are now, because of his friendship with Ballou, against him. In the end, Matt has to stand alone with Ballou to put a stop to the vendetta in a blaze of gunfire. Block's seamless weave of thought and action, and his matchless gift for dialogue that is true, funny and revealing, have seldom been on more effective display. The pages leading up to the climax have an almost Shakespearean feel for human resignation in the face of mortality. <br />Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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Twenty-two-year-old Amy Denovo needs Nero Wolfe's help. She is determined to learn the identity of her father, a secret her mother scrupulously guarded - and took to her grave when struck by a hit-and-run driver. Now Wolfe and his sidekick, Archie, have just one clue to go on; a note from Amy's mother and a box with over $250,000. Seems every month since Amy's birth, her mother received $1,000 from an unknown source and saved it for Amy's future. It's easily enough for Amy to afford Wolfe's services, and he grudgingly agrees. But as the weeks go by, Wolfe realizes this may be one of his most challenging cases ever. Someone doesn't want Amy's pedigree discovered, and that someone appears to wield great power. It isn't long before Wolfe and Archie come to believe that Amy's mother was murdered - and that Amy could be next. Michael Prichard gives another of his masterful readings to this cleverly plotted tale.


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Byrne and Susan Hollander stroll home from a concert on a fine summer's evening in New York. Some hours later, their daughter Kristin arrives home to discover her parents brutally killed and the house ransacked. She also finds she is now a very young millionaire. A few days later the police trace the two killers to an apartment in Coney Island, and both are dead. One killed the other before turning the gun on himself - at least that's the way it looks. So that's another case solved. But for Matt Scudder it's only the beginning. The more he looks into it, the more things look wrong to him. There's a murderer out there, and he's just getting started. Pitted in a deadly game of cat and mouse, Scudder is up against the most resourceful and diabolical killer of his career.


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As the usual suspects in Nero Wolfe's latest case - involving taxes and kidnapping - become victims, Wolfe breaks tradition, leaving his comfortable New York brownstone to do some legwork of his own.


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Bad cop Jerry Broadfield didn't make any friends on the force when he volunteered to squeal to an ambitious d.a. about police corruption. Now he'saccused of murdering a call girl. Matthew Scudder doesn't think Broadfield's a killer, but the cops aren't about to help the unlicensed p.i. prove it -- and they may do a lot worse than just get in his way.


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<h3>Review</h3><p>"It is always a treat to [hear] a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore." -- <strong><em>The New York Times Book Review</em></strong>  </p><p>"Prichard's hefty voice and condescending tone are perfect for Nero Wolfe, the neurotic orchid-growing gourmand and detective who weigh nearly 300 pounds and never leaves the house...The '50s-era mystery...is worth the six-hour commitment...The listener has the pleasure of trying to sort the red herrings from the real clues. Wolfe's eccentricities and Goodwin's ironic observations lend humor to the otherwise dark and serious tale." -- <em>_</em>The San Diego Union-Tribune_, October 19, 1997 _s the house...The '50s-era mystery...is worth the six-hour commitment...The listener has the pleasure of trying to sort the red herrings from the real clues. Wolfe's eccentricities and Goodwin's ironic observations lend humor to the otherwise dark and serious tale." -- <em>_</em>The San Diego Union-Tribune_, October 19, 1997 _</p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Trying to determine why his last two clients were ruthlessly murdered, Nero Wolfe wonders if the answer is linked to a young boy who turns up at his brownstone apartment and finds clues in a gray Cadillac, a mysterious woman, and spider-shaped earrings. Reissue. </p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>"It is always a treat to [hear] a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore." -- <em>_</em>The New York Times Book Review_  </p><p>Rex Stout's <em>League of Frightened Men</em> presents a fascinating new Nero Wolfe mystery read by L.A. actor Michael Prichard, who brings to life this fine story of an eccentric detective's investigation of a classmate's potential for murder. A man left crippled by a college hazing prank seems out for revenge upon his fellows in this gripping saga." -- <em>_</em>The Midwest Book Review_, August 1997 </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Paul Chapin's college cronies never forgave themselves for the prank that crippled their friend. Yet with Harvard days behind them, they thought they were forgiven -- until a class reunion ends in a fatal fall. </p><p>This league of frightened men seeks Nero Wolfe's help. But are Wolfe's brilliance and Archie's tenacity enough to outwit a most cunning killer? </p><p>"Always a treat to read a Nero Wolfe mystery." (The New York Times) </p>


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When a baby is abandoned on the doorstep of a young socialite widow, the woman thinks she knows the identity of the father: her deceased writer husband, the cad! But who is the mother? Reluctantly, Nero Wolfe accepts the case, and Archie identifies the first clue: unusual buttons on the babys overalls. "Vintage Stout: lots of grumbling and fine dining and brilliant thinking on Wolfes part."  Marilyn Wallace, mystery writer


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In all his years of detecting, the unflappable Nero Wolfe has never encountered an investigation as damnably messy as this one. For what began as a clean case of larceny quickly sank into a quagmire of blackmail and broken promises, international scandal and cold-blooded murder. Now Wolfe and his assistant, Archie Goodwin must bridge eras and oceans to find the link between a Wild West lynching and a respected British peer. Only then can they save Wolfe's beautiful young client -- and a hotly disputed stake of a cool million dollars.


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When a powerful government official turns up dead, the great Nero Wolfe takes notice. On the edge of financial ruin, the orchid-loving detective grudgingly accepts the case. Soon another victim is found, a stenographer's tape disappears, and the dead man speaks -- after a fashion. As the business world clamors for a solution, Wolfe patiently lays a trap.


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One by one they knocked on Nero Wolfe's door, each with a case more perplexing than the last: a suicide victim who turns up alive, only to be murdered anew; a murder victim's family who provides his killer with an alibi; and a master horticulturalist who finds the woman of his dreams--dead and cooling in his hothouse. Previous publisher: Viking.


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Three witnesses hold all the clues in three crimes of passion that have even the great Nero Wolfe guessing to the very end. A dead million comes back to life, only to wind up dead again; a black Labrador retriever becomes a killer's worst enemy; and an answering service with three untalkative operators may mean an innocent man will get the chair.


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As the great detective prepares to speak at a gathering of the world's great chefs, one is found indelicately murdered. When the target for killing shifts to himself, Wolfe must close this case quickly or his next meal may be his last.


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If Nero Wolfe and his sidekick, Archie, would ever admit to an Achilles' heel-which they wouldn't-it would be a weakness for damsels in distress. In these three charming chillers the duo answer the call of helpless heroines with nothing to lose-except their lives. First a beautiful young Aphrodite comes to Nero looking for a hero-and the answer to the mystery of her father's death....Then an old flame of Archie's reignites with a plan that may corner him into a lifetime commitment-behind bars....And finally a detective's work is never done, as a hot tip leads the team into the sizzling center of a sexy scandal that could leave them cold-dead cold.


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A repackaged Nero Wolfe mystery--the perfect companion for anyone who savors a good murder served up with true flair. Features an introduction by noted writer Randy Russell and never-before-published memorabilia from the life of Rex Stout.


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Following on the heels of Comeback, a New York Times Notable Book, a new Parker adventure finds the master thief deep in troubled waters when his plan to hijack a riverboat casino goes awry. 20,000 first printing.


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For master criminal Parker the only thing worse than a jailbird is becoming one, in this latest caper from beloved master of suspense Richard Stark.Parker's back in jail, but not just any old jail; it's the correctional center, where people without bail wait before and during their trial. So Parker's first order of business is to build a network among these cons and break on through to the other side. Once out, he gets involved in a heist set up by one of his co-conspirators, but the deal heads south, and Parker and his fellow escapees are running for their lives. A cast of cops, busybodies, snitches, and weak links quickly have the walls closing in on him. For Parker, the ultimate jailbreak is about to begin.


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Deadly Edge bids a brutal adieu to the 1960s as Parker robs a rock concert, and the heist goes south. Soon Parker finds himself—and his woman, Claire—menaced by a pair of sadistic, drug-crazed hippies. Parker has a score to settle while Claire’s armed with her first rifle—and they’re both ready to usher in the end of the Age of Aquarius.   “Richard Stark’s Parker novels . . . are among the most poised and polished fictions of their time and, in fact, of any time.”—John Banville, Bookforum   “The Parkers read with the speed of pulp while unfolding with an almost Nabovokian wit and flair.”—Richard Rayner, Los Angeles Times


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One of the most notorious figures in crime fiction, Parker returns to seek revenge on the criminals who betrayed him as Melander and his gang head for Palm Beach to score a fortune in stolen jewelry. Reprint.


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This classic by Stark, the celebrated alter ego of MWA Grandmaster Westlake, tells the story of professional thief Alan Grofield, who turns down a heist, then has to defend himself and his wife against the attacks of a fellow thief he spurned.


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The hunter becomes prey, as a heist goes sour and Parker finds himself trapped in a shuttered amusement park, besieged by a bevy of local mobsters. There are no exits from Fun Island. Outnumbered and outgunned, Parker can't afford a single miscalculation. He’s low on bullets—but, as anyone who’s crossed his path knows, that definitely doesn’t mean he’s defenseless.   “Nobody tops Stark in his objective portrayals of a world of total amorality.” — New York Times    “Energy and imagination light up virtually every page, as does some of the best hard-boiled prose ever to grace the noir genre.” — Publishers Weekly


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Three guys wearing black suits and holding guns were giving Parker a lesson in economics. All about the haves and the have-nots. The good guys in a new African nation were missing a treasury full of diamonds. They were the have-nots. The nation's corrupt leader had stashed the rocks somewhere in New York City. He and his henchmen were the haves. Now the good guys needed a specialist to get their diamonds back. So they came to the best in the business: Parker. Only the three mysterious tough guys came to Parker, too. They figured three hands filled with .38s could convince him to pass up this international gem game. But leaning on Parker was like pressuring a box of TNT with a short fuse. "Cunning...courage...imagination...Parker is in action once more." (New York Times)


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       Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark’s eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor-sharp prose style—and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency—Stark is a master of crime writing, his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover—and become addicted to. This season’s offerings include volumes 7–9 in the series: The Seventh, The Handle, and The Rare Coin Score.            In The Seventh, the heist of a college football game goes bad, and the take is stolen by a crazed, violent amateur. Parker must outrun the cops—and the killer—to retrieve his cash.  In The Handle, Parker is enlisted by the mob to knock off an island casino guarded by speedboats and heavies, forty miles from the Texas coast.  The Rare Coin Score features the first appearance of Claire, who will steal Parker’s heister’s heart—while together they steal two million dollars of rare coins. “Parker . . . lumbers through the pages of Richard Stark’s noir novels scattering dead bodies like peanut shells. . . . In a complex world [he] makes things simple.”—William Grimes, New York Times “Whatever Stark writes, I read. He’s a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude.”—Elmore Leonard  “Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible.”—Washington Post Book World  “Donald Westlake’s Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you’ve been telling yourself about War and Peace and Proust—these are the books you’ll want on that desert island.”—Lawrence Block Also available from the University of Chicago Press:The HunterThe Man with the Getaway FaceThe OutfitThe MournerThe JuggerThe Score


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You probably haven’t ever noticed them. But they’ve noticed you. They notice everything. That’s their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers’ work habits, the positions of the security guards. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack.They’re thieves. Heisters, to be precise. They’re pros, and Parker is far and away the best of them. If you’re planning a job, you want him in. Tough, smart, hardworking, and relentlessly focused on his trade, he is the heister’s heister, the robber’s robber, the heavy’s heavy. You don’t want to cross him, and you don’t want to get in his way, because he’ll stop at nothing to get what he’s after.Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark’s eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir.  Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor-sharp prose-style—and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency—Stark is a master of crime writing, his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover—and become addicted to.In The Hunter, the first volume in the series, Parker roars into New York City, seeking revenge on the woman who betrayed him and on the man who took his money, stealing and scamming his way to redemption. “Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible.”—Washington Post Book World “Elmore Leonard wouldn’t write what he does if Stark hadn’t been there before. And Quentin Tarantino wouldn’t write what he does without Leonard. . . . Old master that he is, Stark does all of them one better.”—Los Angeles Times “Donald Westlake’s Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you’ve been telling yourself about War and Peace and Proust—these are the books you’ll want on that desert island.”—Lawrence Block


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Not many men knew what Parker did for a living, because what he did was steal. But Joe Sheer, a retired safecracker-also known in the business as a jugger-knew. He knew Parker's alias, his whereabouts, his plans...and because he knew too much, he knew to keep his mouth shut. Or die. But Joe was more than ready to trade what he knew for a soft mattress, windows without bars on them, and what every man needs-his freedom. So Parker had come to Nebraska to find the old jugger...and probably murder him. But what Parker found was trouble: Joe was already six feet under; something very valuable was missing; and somebody was planning a funeral...Parker's. Too bad for somebody-that Parker wasn't an easy man to kill.


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<h3>Review</h3><p>“Whatever Stark writes, I read. He’s a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude.”—Elmore Leonard  </p><p>(Elmore Leonard )  </p><p>“Richard Stark’s Parker novels . . . are among the most poised and polished fictions of their time and, in fact, of any time.”—John Banville, <em>Bookforum</em><br />__ <br />__ <br />__ <br />__   </p><p>(John Banville <em>Bookforum</em> )  </p><p>“Richard Stark writes a harsh and frightening story of criminal warfare and vengeance with economy, understatement and a deadly amoral objectivity—a remarkable addition to the list of the shockers that the French call romans noirs.”—Anthony Boucher, <em>New York</em>_ Times Book Review_<br />__ <br />__ <br />__ <br />__   </p><p>(Anthony Boucher <em>New York Times Book Review</em> )  </p><p>“Parker is a true treasure. . . . The master thief is back, along with Richard Stark.”—Marilyn Stasio, <em>New York</em>_ Times Book Review_<br />__ <br />__   </p><p>(Marilyn Stasio <em>New York Times Book Review</em> )  </p><p>“Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible.”—_Washington__ Post Book World_<br />__ <br />__   </p><p>(_Washington Post Book World_ )  </p><p>“Elmore Leonard wouldn’t write what he does if Stark hadn’t been there before. And Quentin Tarantino wouldn’t write what he does without Leonard. . . . Old master that he is, Stark does all of them one better.”—_Los Angeles__ Times_<br />__ <br />__ <br />__   </p><p>(_Los Angeles Times_ )  </p><p>“Donald Westlake’s Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you’ve been telling yourself about <em>War and Peace</em> and Proust—these are the books you’ll want on that desert island.”—Lawrence Block  </p><p>(Lawrence Block )  </p><p>“If you’re looking for crime novels with a lot of punch, try the very, very tough novels featuring Parker. . . . <em>The Hunter</em>, <em>The Outfit</em>, <em>The Mourner</em>, and _The Man with the Getaway Face <em>are all beautifully paced,</em> <em>tautly composed, and originally published in the early 1960s."—</em>Christian Science Monitor_  </p><p>__ <br />__   </p><p>(_Christian Science Monitor_ ) </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>You probably haven’t ever noticed them. But they’ve noticed you. They notice <em>everything</em>. That’s their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers’ work habits, the positions of the security guards. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack.</p><p>They’re thieves. Heisters, to be precise. They’re pros, and Parker is far and away the best of them. If you’re planning a job, you want him in. Tough, smart, hardworking, and relentlessly focused on his trade, he is the heister’s heister, the robber’s robber, the heavy’s heavy. You don’t want to cross him, and you don’t want to get in his way, because he’ll stop at nothing to get what he’s after.</p><p>Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark’s eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir.  Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor-sharp prose-style—and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency—Stark is a master of crime writing, his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover—and become addicted to.</p><p>Parker goes under the knife in <em>The Man with the Getaway Face</em>, changing his face to escape the mob and a contract on his life. Along the way he scores his biggest heist yet: an armored car in New Jersey, stuffed with cash.</p><p>“Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible.”—_Washington__ Post Book World_<br /><em> </em><br />“Elmore Leonard wouldn’t write what he does if Stark hadn’t been there before. And Quentin Tarantino wouldn’t write what he does without Leonard. . . . Old master that he is, Stark does all of them one better.”—_Los Angeles__ Times_<br /><em> </em><br />“Donald Westlake’s Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you’ve been telling yourself about <em>War and Peace</em> and Proust—these are the books you’ll want on that desert island.”—Lawrence Block</p>


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Blackmailed into stealing a priceless French statue in the hands of Lepas Kapor, a Russian spy, Parker finds himself caught in a web involving the Mob, the Soviets, a two-timing blond, a double cross, and a competitor


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<h3>Review</h3><p>“Whatever Stark writes, I read. He’s a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude.”—Elmore Leonard  </p><p>(Elmore Leonard )  </p><p>“Richard Stark’s Parker novels . . . are among the most poised and polished fictions of their time and, in fact, of any time.”—John Banville, <em>Bookforum</em><br />__   </p><p>__ <br />__   </p><p>(John Banville <em>Bookforum</em> )  </p><p>“Richard Stark writes a harsh and frightening story of criminal warfare and vengeance with economy, understatement and a deadly amoral objectivity—a remarkable addition to the list of the shockers that the French call romans noirs.”—Anthony Boucher, <em>New York</em>_ Times Book Review_  </p><p>__ <br />__   </p><p>(Anthony Boucher <em>New York Times Book Review</em> )  </p><p>“Parker is a true treasure. . . . The master thief is back, along with Richard Stark.”—Marilyn Stasio, <em>New York</em>_ Times Book Review_<br />__ <br />__ <br />__ <br />__   </p><p>(Marilyn Stasio <em>New York Times Book Review</em> )  </p><p>“Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible.”—_Washington__ Post Book World_<br />__ <br />__ <br />__ <br />__   </p><p>(_Washington Post Book World_ )  </p><p>“Elmore Leonard wouldn’t write what he does if Stark hadn’t been there before. And Quentin Tarantino wouldn’t write what he does without Leonard. . . . Old master that he is, Stark does all of them one better.”—_Los Angeles__ Times_<br />__ <br />__ <br />__   </p><p>(_Los Angeles Times_ )  </p><p>“Donald Westlake’s Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you’ve been telling yourself about <em>War and Peace</em> and Proust—these are the books you’ll want on that desert island.”—Lawrence Block</p><p>(Lawrence Block )  </p><p>“If you’re looking for crime novels with a lot of punch, try the very, very tough novels featuring Parker. . . . <em>The Hunter</em>, <em>The Outfit</em>, <em>The Mourner</em>, and _The Man with the Getaway Face <em>are all beautifully paced,</em> <em>tautly composed, and originally published in the early 1960s."—</em>Christian Science Monitor_<br />__ <br />__   </p><p>(_Christian Science Monitor_ ) </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>You probably haven’t ever noticed them. But they’ve noticed you. They notice <em>everything</em>. That’s their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers’ work habits, the positions of the security guards. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack.</p><p>They’re thieves. Heisters, to be precise. They’re pros, and Parker is far and away the best of them. If you’re planning a job, you want him in. Tough, smart, hardworking, and relentlessly focused on his trade, he is the heister’s heister, the robber’s robber, the heavy’s heavy. You don’t want to cross him, and you don’t want to get in his way, because he’ll stop at nothing to get what he’s after.</p><p>Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark’s eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir.  Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor-sharp prose-style—and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency—Stark is a master of crime writing, his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover—and become addicted to.</p><p>In <em>The Outfit, </em>Parker goes toe-to-toe with the mob—hitting them with heist after heist after heist—and the entire underworld learns an unforgettable lesson: whatever Parker does, he does deadly.  </p><p>“Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible.”—_Washington__ Post Book World_<br /><em> </em><br />“Elmore Leonard wouldn’t write what he does if Stark hadn’t been there before. And Quentin Tarantino wouldn’t write what he does without Leonard. . . . Old master that he is, Stark does all of them one better.”—_Los Angeles__ Times_<br /><em> </em><br />“Donald Westlake’s Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you’ve been telling yourself about <em>War and Peace</em> and Proust—these are the books you’ll want on that desert island.”—Lawrence Block</p>


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<h3>Review</h3><p>"Parker... lumbers through the pages of Richard Stark's noir novels scattering dead bodies like peanut shells.... In a complex world he makes things simple." - William Grimes, New York Times "Whatever Stark writes, I read. He's a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude." - Elmore Leonard "Donald Westlake's Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you've been telling yourself about War and Peace and Proust - these are the books you'll want on that desert island." - Lawrence Block "The Parkers read with the speed of pulp while unfolding with an almost Nabokovian wit and flair." - Richard Rayner, Los Angeles Times "Parker is refreshingly amoral, a thief who always gets away with the swag." - Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly" </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>      Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark’s eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor-sharp prose style—and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency—Stark is a master of crime writing, his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover—and become addicted to. This season’s offerings include volumes 7–9 in the series: <em>The Seventh</em>,_ The Handle_, and <em>The Rare Coin Score.</em></p><p>            In <em>The Seventh</em>, the heist of a college football game goes bad, and the take is stolen by a crazed, violent amateur. Parker must outrun the cops—and the killer—to retrieve his cash.  In <em>The Handle</em>, Parker is enlisted by the mob to knock off an island casino guarded by speedboats and heavies, forty miles from the Texas coast_.  The_ <em>Rare Coin Score</em> features the first appearance of Claire, who will steal Parker’s heister’s heart—while together they steal two million dollars of rare coins.</p><p>“Parker . . . lumbers through the pages of Richard Stark’s noir novels scattering dead bodies like peanut shells. . . . In a complex world [he] makes things simple.”—William Grimes, <em>New York Times</em></p><p>“Whatever Stark writes, I read. He’s a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude.”—Elmore Leonard </p><p>“Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible.”—_Washington Post Book World_</p><p>“Donald Westlake’s Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you’ve been telling yourself about <em>War and Peace</em> and Proust—these are the books you’ll want on that desert island.”—Lawrence Block</p><p>Also available from the University of Chicago Press:</p><p><em>The Hunter</em></p><p><em>The Man with the Getaway Face</em></p><p><em>The Outfit</em></p><p><em>The Mourner</em></p><p><em>The Jugger</em></p><p><em>The Score</em></p><p>__ </p>


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You probably haven’t ever noticed them. But they’ve noticed you. They notice everything. That’s their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers’ work habits, the positions of the security guards. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack. They’re thieves. Heisters, to be precise. They’re pros, and Parker is far and away the best of them. If you’re planning a job, you want him in. Tough, smart, hardworking, and relentlessly focused on his trade, he is the heister’s heister, the robber’s robber, the heavy’s heavy. You don’t want to cross him, and you don’t want to get in his way, because he’ll stop at nothing to get what he’s after.Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark’s eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir.  Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor-sharp prose-style—and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency—Stark is a master of crime writing; his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover—and become addicted to. This season’s offerings include volumes 4–6 in the series: The Mourner, The Score, and The Jugger. The Mourner is a story of convergence—of cultures and of guys with guns. Hot on the trail of a statue stolen from a fifteenth-century French tomb, Parker enters a world of eccentric art collectors, greedy foreign officials, and shady KGB agents. Next, Parker works with a group of professional con men in The Score on his biggest job yet—robbing an entire town in North Dakota. In The Jugger, Parker travels to Nebraska to help out a geriatric safecracker who knows too many of his criminal secrets. By the time he arrives, the safecracker is dead and Parker’s skeletons are on the verge of escaping from their closet—unless Parker resorts to lethal measures.  “Whatever Stark writes, I read. He’s a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude.”—Elmore Leonard “Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible.”—Washington Post Book World “Donald Westlake’s Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you’ve been telling yourself about War and Peace and Proust—these are the books you’ll want on that desert island.”—Lawrence Block


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Bank robberies should run like clockwork, right? If your name's Parker, you expect nothing less. Until, that is, one of your partners gets too greedy for his own good. The four-way split following a job leaves too small a take for George Uhl, who begins to pick off his fellow hoisters, one by one. The first mistake? That he doesn't begin things by putting a bullet in Parker. That means he won't get the chance to make a second. One of the darkest novels in the series, this caper proves the adage that no one crosses Parker and lives "Whatever Stark writes, I read. He's a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude."Elmore Leonard "The non-hero: the ruthless, unrepentant, single-minded operator in a humorless and amoral world. . . . No one depicts this scene with greater clarity than Richard Stark."The New York Times


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When Spenser's closest ally, Hawk, is brutally injured and left for dead while protecting bookie Luther Gillespie, Spenser embarks on an epic journey to rehabilitate his friend in body and soul. Hawk, always proud, has never been dependent on anyone. Now he is forced to make connections: to accept the medical technology that will ensure his physical recovery, and to reinforce the tenuous emotional ties he has to those around him. Spenser quickly learns that the Ukrainian mob is responsible for the hit, but finding a way into their tightly knit circle is not nearly so simple. Their total control of the town of Marshport, from the bodegas to the police force to the mayor's office, isn't just a sign of rampant corruption-it's a form of arrogance that only serves to ignite Hawk's desire to get even. As the body count rises, Spenser is forced to employ some questionable techniques and even more questionable hired guns while redefining his friendship with Hawk in the name of vengeance.


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Mystery fans will delight in matching wits with Spencer, Robert B. Parker's critically acclaimed P.I., in this fast-paced, highly entertaining novel. "The sassiest, funniest, most enjoyable-to-read private eye around today".--Cincinnati Post. Striking new cover treatment.


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Appie Knoll is the kind of suburb where kids grow up right. But something is wrong. Fourteen-year-old Kevin Bartlett disappears. Everyone thinks he's run away -- until the comic strip ransom note arrives. It doesn't take Spenser long to get the picture -- an affluent family seething with rage, a desperate boy making strange friends...friends like Vic Harroway, body builder. Mr. Muscle is Spenser's only lead and he isn't talking...except with his fists. But when push comes to shove, when a boy's life is on the line, Spenser can speak that language too. "Spenser is everyman's fantasy: social critic, gourmet cook, physically fit, sculptor, and of course, unabashed participant in a non-destructive sexual relationship. Parker has taken his place beside Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald." (The Boston Globe)


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Who on the planet doesn't know that Elvis Presley gave electrifying performances and enthralled millions? Who doesn't know that he was the King of Rock 'n' Roll? But who knows that the King himself lived in the thrall of one dominant person? </p><p>This was Gladys Smith Presley, his protective, indulgent, beloved mother. </p><p>Elvis and Gladys, one of the best researched and most acclaimed books on Elvis's early life, reconstructs the extraordinary role Gladys played in her son's formative years. </p><p>Uncovering facts not seen by other biographers, Elvis and Gladys reconstructs for the first time the history of the mother and son?s devoted relationship and reveals new information about Elvis---his Cherokee ancestry, his boyhood obsession with comic books, and his early compulsion to rescue his family from poverty. </p><p>Coming to life in the compelling narrative is the poignant story of a unique boy and the maternal tie that bound him. It is at once an intimate psychological portrait of a tragic relationship and a mesmerizing tale of the early years of an international idol. </p><p>"For once, a legend is presented to us by the mind and heart of a literate, careful biographer who cares," wrote Liz Smith in the New York Daily News when Elvis and Gladys was originally published in 1985. This is the book, Smith says, "for any Elvis lover who wants to know more about what made Presley the man he was and the mama's boy he became." </p><p>The Boston Globe called this thoughtful, informative biography of one of popular music's most enduring stars "nothing less than the best Elvis book yet." </p><h3>From the Inside Flap</h3><p>A intimate story of the King of Rock 'n' Roll and his adoring mother </p>


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TV reporter Candy Sloan has eyes the color of cornflowers and legs that stretch all the way to heaven. She also has somebody threatening to rearrange her lovely face if she keeps on snooping into charges of Hollywood racketeering. Spenser's job is to keep Candy healthy until she breaks the biggest story of her career. But her star witness has just bowed out with three bullets in his chest, two tough guys have doubled up to test Spenser's skill with his fists, and Candy is about to use her own sweet body as live bait in a deadly romantic game--a game that may cost Spenser his life.


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In this 30th entry in one of mystery fiction's longest-running and best-loved series, Spenser--the tough yet sensitive Boston private eye with no first name--takes on an unsolved murder nearly three decades old. The client, an actress, is a friend of Paul Giacomin, Spenser's surrogate son (who first appeared in 1981's Early Autumn). Her mother was slain by leftist radicals at a bank holdup in 1974, and now she wants to know who fired the shot. As Spenser digs into the past, he soon learns that powerful people on both sides of the law want the case left alone--badly enough to kill. These death threats provide a fine excuse for Hawk, Spenser's extremely scary (yet sensitive) bad-guy pal, to tag along in nearly every scene as bodyguard. The interaction of the two friends is one of this series's familiar pleasures, as is the presence of Susan Silverman, Spenser's longtime love interest. Another pleasure is Parker's stripped-down prose, a marvel of craftsmanship as smooth as 18-year-old Scotch. (Plus we get the first meeting between Spenser and Jesse Stone, hero of another Parker series.) Alas, the whole enterprise feels a little tired. The plot never generates much sustained suspense, and the author's adoration for his central characters renders them at times almost cartoonesque. Still, Back Story is excellently prepared comfort food, even if it isn't five-star cuisine. --Nicholas H. Allison


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Mafia princess Shirley Meeker wants her husband back. So does her father, kingpin Julius Ventura, and a few other shady characters. Spenser and Hawk head to Vegas to find Anthony Meeker--and confirm their suspicion that all these people aren't just missing Anthony's smile. And when bodies start turning up, Spenser has to make sense of some very disorganized crime.


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>In Parker's ( Pastime ) 23rd Spenser novel, our hero finds himself, at the behest of his pal Hawk, defending the residents of a gang-terrorized Boston housing project known as Double Deuce. The drive-by shooting of a teenage mother and her child brings the duo into a confrontation with gangleader Major Johnson and his posse. At the same time, Spenser's longtime relationship with psychologist Susan is escalating, and the two agree to live together. The contrast between Spenser's cozy domestic situation (and a new relationship for the enigmatic Hawk, who reveals some of his background) and the poverty and violence of the urban projects reinforces the authenticity of this series, and its quirky appeal. The plot is nothing new--it might be described as Spenser meets New Jack City --but Deuce 's snappy dialogue, timely, fast-paced action and quick characterizations make it classic Spenser. Mystery Guild main selection; Doubleday Book Club and Literary Guild alternate selection; condensation rights to Time-Life Books; audio rights to Dove Audio. <br />Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>The still-popular Spenser ( Playmates , LJ 4/1/89) helps sidekick Hawk solve the seemingly random murders of a teenaged mother and baby in a violent housing project.<br />Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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A bitter divorce is only the beginning. First the father hires thugs to kidnap his son. Then the mother hires Spenser to get the boy back. But as soon as Spenser senses the lay of the land, he decides to do some kidnapping of his own.With a contract out on his life, he heads for the Maine woods, determined to give a puny 15 year old a crash course in survival and to beat his dangerous opponents at their own brutal game.


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Why is somebody shooting Walter Clive's horses at Three Fillies Stables in Lamarr, Georgia? That's what toothy, patrician Walter wants the droll, hulking Boston detective Spenser to find out. Walter worries that his racetrack phenomenon Hugger Mugger, worth millions, is next. So Spenser goes south to a place where "the heat felt like it could be cut into squares and used to build a wall," as he puts it in the crisp Chandleresque lingo that made him famous in dozens of novels.</p><p>The Clive clan is one weird bunch. Take Walter's daughters, his three "fillies." Penny is like her dad, all impeccable looks and icy efficiency. Stonie and SueSue take after their sinister mom, who left the family to live with a guitarist in San Francisco and changed her name to Sherry Lark. Penny helps Dad run the business, while her soused sisters cheat on their pathetic husbands, Cord and Pud. (Pud's short for Puddle; his dad was named Poole.) As unsightly family secrets spill, Spenser feels like he's in a Tennessee Williams play. Then someone on two legs takes a bullet, and the mystery gets tense. Spenser gets plenty of sarcastic mileage out of upper-class horse-country twits, crooked security guards, dumb jocks gone to seed, and wily Southern lawyers, and the story saunters well. What's best are the endless wisecracks, the unflattering thumbnail character sketches, and sharp sentences like this one: "Like all jockeys, he was about the size of a ham sandwich, except for his hands, which appeared to be those of a stonemason." <em>--Tim Appelo</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Despite frequent appearances by Susan Silverman (longtime love of Boston PI Spenser) and the absence of Hawk (his enigmatic sidekick), the latest entry in Parker's estimable series is a worthy one. Missing is the sap that can stickie-up scenes between Spenser and Susan, and in Hawk's place strides a new sidekick, Tedy Sapp, who's gay and as tough as they come. Tedy's only a temp replacement, though, because the reason he's here and Hawk's not is that most of the action takes place in rural Georgia, where Tedy owns a gay bar. Spenser travels there on his own temp job--to find out who's been shooting horses at Three Fillies Stables, owned by Walter Clive, the most powerful man in the county, and to keep that someone from shooting Clive's prize thoroughbred, Hugger Mugger. Spenser roots through the highly dysfunctional family of Clive's three daughters and their husbands (one a pedophile, one a drunk), annoys Clive's security men and befriends both Tedy and the local sheriff, with whom the PI discusses doughnuts. When Clive is shot dead, Spenser is fired by the alpha daughter, only to be rehired by Clive's mistress, who believes there's more to the mayhem than horseplay. This novel offers more traditional mystery elements than many Spenser tales, although most readers will finger the prime villain way before Spenser does. The pacing is strong, the characters are fresh as dew and the prose is Parker-perfect. The Spenser-specific personal drama that drives the best of the tales is lacking, but overall, the story will fit Parker fans like an old shoe. (Apr.) FYI: Parker's most recent novel, Family Honor, will be filmed starring Helen Hunt. <br />Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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Twenty-five years and 26 books into the Spenser series, Hush Money dishes up another solid installment that is sure to fulfill the cravings of Parker fans new and old. This time Spenser and his buddy Hawk are helping a couple of troubled friends (i.e., they're working without a fee). The first case involves the denial of tenure for Professor Robinson Nevins. While tenure meetings are always closed-door affairs, Nevins assumes that the recent suicide of graduate student Prentice Lamont (who some claim was having an affair with Nevins) ruined his chances for a coveted permanent position. Spenser and Hawk cut a brawl-strewn path through the members of the tenure committee on their way to the surprising truth of the Nevins case. The other investigation pits Spenser against the unknown stalker of K.C. Roth. Spenser's girlfriend, Susan, has known K.C. for a while, and while the PI finds Ms. Roth a bit melodramatic, he's always eager to help a damsel in distress. The only problem is that after he's apparently resolved the case, K.C. begins a little stalking of her own--of Spenser. The book is driven by the controversies surrounding political correctness that Parker always loves to confront, and it's fun to watch Spenser struggle (a little) to resist K.C.'s advances. It's also a (slightly disturbed) pleasure to see Spenser and Hawk address some academic hypocrisy with their own special brand of reasoning. Not a mystery for the cozy-loving palette, Hush Money's literate, tough-guy dialogue shows why Parker is the rightful heir to the throne of Chandler. --Patrick O'Kelley


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Spenser fans will delight in the Boston PI's latest adventure, after Pastime and Double Deuce , as Parker, restraining a penchant for arch characterization, returns his attention to plotting. Spenser is hired by Boston Brahmin Loudon Tripp to find the murderer of his conventionally impeccable wife, Olivia Nelson, whom the police consider a victim of random urban violence. After consulting with the police detective assigned to the case, a gay man whose lover is dying of AIDS, Spenser travels to Olivia's hometown in South Carolina, where his questions land him in jail, uncharged, and at the mercy of some Northern thugs. Rescued at the last minute by Boston police Lt. Quirk, the burly detective soon finds himself taken into the confidence of a sleazy but powerful Massachusetts senator. The case builds on a nicely woven mix of false identity, self-delusion and, unexpectedly, the powerful attachment of two old Southern gentlemen, one black and one white. Spenser's lover, the elegant psychiatrist Susan, and his pal Hawk stay pretty much in the background as the tough-but-sensitive PI hews mainly to the mystery at hand. Mystery Guild Main selection, Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates. <br />Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Boston aristocrat Loudon Tripp hires Spenser to investigate his wife's murder, and Spenser soon uncovers high-class scandals and a corpse who might not be dead after all. 150,000 first printing. $135,000 ad/promo. Mystery Guild Main. Lit Guild &amp; Doubleday Alt. </p>


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After the stellar success of Stardust, Robert B. Parker's sleuth Spenser returns in a bittersweet thriller, mixing memory, desire--and danger. The sequel to his acclaimed Early Autumn, Parker's Pastime tells a constantly surprising tale of past crimes and present perils. Robert B. Parker is also the author of Perchance to Dream, a sequel to Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep.


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Spenser, America's favorite iron-pumping, gourmet-cooking private eye, smells corruption in college town. Taft University's hottest basketball star is shaving points for quick cash, and if Spenser doesn't watch his own footwork, the guilty parties will shave a few years off his life. HC: Putnam.


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'Robert B Parker's Spenser is one of the best private eyes in fiction' - The Sunday Telegraph Boston PI Spenser returns - heading west to the rich man's haven of Potshot, Arizona, a former mining town reborn as a paradise for LA millionaires looking for the idyllic life. But when their life-style is threatened by a 21st century gang of desert rats, misfits, drunks and scavengers, led by a charismatic leader known as The Preacher, it looks as if their dream of the beautiful life will end up a nightmare. Enter Spenser, called in to beat the gang at their game.


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While the rest of us grow older, Spenser seems suspended in perpetual early middle age. Oh, he talks about getting older, but his body is still firm, his muscles toned, and his reflexes are still hair-trigger fine. Even so, it is Spenser's body that betrays him when he is almost killed by an assassin's bullet two-thirds of the way through Robert B. Parker's latest Spenser adventure, Small Vices. Hired to discover the truth behind a four-year-old murder, Spenser soon runs afoul of "the Gray Man," who eventually shoots and partially paralyzes him. Spenser, his stalwart girlfriend Susan, and his almost mythical friend Hawk then hole up in Santa Barbara until the detective can get back on his feet again. There's never any doubt that Spenser will get back on his feet, or that he will eventually track down the man who shot him and solve the mystery that started the whole ball rolling in the first place. What makes the Spenser mysteries interesting is Spenser himself, the thinking person's private eye, a man of honor and of conscience who understands that every action has consequences.


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<div><p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>"Parker's finest in years . . . one can't-put-it-down story. Again . . ." proclaimed San Francisco Chronicle of Robert B. Parker's most recent New York Times bestseller, Small Vices . And The Washington Post Book World agreed, "Small Vices deserves instant inclusion in the Spenser canon." In Sudden Mischief, Parker's stouthearted hero unwillingly takes a case that tests his sleuthing skills-and his commitment to the woman he loves. Brad Sterling-former Harvard football player, ne'er-do-well, and Susan Silverman's long out-of-touch ex-husband-is, by all appearances, a successful businessman. But when, in the course of running a vast fundraiser called Galapalooza, he is charged with sexual harassment, he turns to Susan for help. Though Brad denies the charge, he's desperate, behind in alimony and child-support payments to other exes, and on the verge of dissolution. When Spenser reluctantly agrees to take the case, however, Sterling claims everything is fine-he's free of debt and free of problems. While the harassment charge begins to look more and more specious, Spenser senses there is something wrong with Galapalooza, as leads to charities turn into dead ends. Susan, meanwhile, becomes steadily more problematic as she wrestles with demons reinvigorated by the resurrection of her ex-husband. As the questions mount, Brad disappears, a body is found, and clues to a shadowy mob connection begin to coalesce. Spenser finds himself fighting a two-front war: against some very bad men, on the one hand, and against an increasingly difficult Susan, on the other. Dark, contemplative, and morally complex, Sudden Mischief is a brilliant meditation on the meaning of justice, love, and passion.</p>
<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><em>Sudden Mischief</em>, the 25th Spenser novel, finds Robert B. Parker's seemingly ageless sleuth once again engaging Boston's bad guys and sorting out life's moral dilemmas, all (or mostly) in the name of love. When Spenser's girlfriend, psychiatrist Susan Silverman, asks him to investigate charges of sexual harassment leveled against her ex-husband, Brad Sterling, the detective agrees, though the assignment "shows every sign of not working out well." As the sexual harassment allegations melt like April snow, Sterling drops out of sight, a dead body appears in his office, and Spenser discovers a murky slush of clues that suggest Sterling's work as a marketing genius for local charities has been a front for some truly despicable criminal activities. As always, the more-than-slightly-shady Hawk is on hand to help Spenser sort the good from the bad, but Spenser is left to his own devices when it comes to making sense of the emotional havoc the case creates in his relationship with Susan. And what devices they are: emotionally mature and physically dynamic, Spenser once again proves himself as detective, friend, lover, and human being as Sterling's reappearance forces Susan to examine her past and her conscience while searching for her own autonomy. As always, Spenser endures as an intelligent, ethical, and poetic private eye, even if his endless middle age seems a bit supernatural. Parker's nimble, Spartan prose suits a character who carries his years in wisdom rather than body fat. If the heart of any truly great detective series is a truly great detective, <em>Sudden Mischief</em> and the rest of Parker's Spenser novels surely fit the bill. <em>--L.A. Smith</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>The 25th Spenser novel isn't a romance, but it's all about love. In early springtime, Susan Silverman, the elegant psychologist and lover who long ago softened the heart of Boston's preeminent thug-sized PI, asks Spenser to investigate the sexual harassment suit that has been filed against her first husband, Brad Sterling. Susan's ambivalence about Brad's predicament doesn't make the case easy for Spenser; nor does the gradually disclosed involvement of the noted Harvard Law School professor whose young wife is one of the plaintiffs. As Spenser and his sidekick, Hawk, trace Brad's business dealings (he's a professional fund-raiser who's hired to run mammoth charity events), they also come up against a lawyer employed by the local organized crime crowd and some hired muscle associated with same, one of whom is found fatally shot in Brad's office. The next murder victim, a woman, turns out to be the director of a counseling service for ex-cons, which was also listed as benefiting from the most recent charity bash. What's more, the dead woman had her own connection to the still-missing Brad. Threatened repeatedly with fists and guns while coping with Susan's rare emotional uncertainty, Spenser stays the course to a resolution in which he and Susan both prevail. The mystery in this valentine may be insubstantial, but readers who pick up Parker's bestselling series for its characters and atmosphere will be delighted. BOMC main selection. <br>Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>

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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>The TV series Spenser: For Hire is adding to the fame of Parker's Boston private eye, star of 12 book thrillers. The witty, tough, idealistic Spenser recounts his latest exploits in this 13th tale, starting when he meets April Kyle again. The young prostitute settled in a safe New York City bordello at the end of the novel Ceremony, April leaves to hook for Rambeaux. She refuses to believe the man who "loves her" is a pimp supported by sad girls Spenser finds walking the streets. One of these victims and Rambeaux himself are murdered. At the same time, April vanishes, involving the detective in a search that takes him to Maine (where the dead girl was first sold), to St. Thomas and finally to a playboy-type mansion in Boston. Spenser's lover Susan and their intrepid friend Hawke team up against a virtual army of hitmen ordered to protect the profits from prostitution, among other lucrative operations run by mobsters through hirelings fronting for them in legal enterprises. The suspense never slackens in the swift, eventful novel until its surprisingly touching close. Mystery Guild main selection; Literary Guild alternate; author tour. <br />Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>In his latest highly acclaimed Spenser novel, Robert B. Parker takes readers into the murky big-city underground where Spenser undertakes an intense search for a beautiful, missing prostitute, and finds himself traveling amidst the sleaze of Times Square where sex is a commodity, and young girls are the currency. This phenomenal bestseller, with a million-copy paperback first printing is supported by national TV advertising and a 6-month backlist reissue program. HC:Delacorte. </p>


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Spenser earned his degree in the school of hard knocks, so he is ready when a Boston university hires him to recover a rare, stolen manuscript. He is hardly surpised that his only clue is a radical student with four bullets in his chest. The cops are ready to throw the book at the pretty blond coed whose prints are all over the murder weapon but Spenser knows there are no easy answers. He tackles some very heavy homework and knows that if he doesn't finish his assignment soon, he could end up marked "D" -- for dead. "Spenser is Boston's answer to James Bond -- irreverent, witty, worldy. His first-person recital of his detective work makes for fast, amusing reading." (The Pittsburgh Press)


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Spencer had gone to London--and not to look at the Queen. He'd gone to track down a bunch of bombers who'd blown his client's wife and kids away. His job was to catch them. Or kill them. His client wasn't choosy.


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>The adoring wife of a senatorial candidate has a smile as sweet as candy and dots her 'i's' with little hearts. A blond beauty, she is the perfect mate for an ambitious politician, but she has a little problem with sex and drugs - a problem someone has managed to put on videotape. The big boys figure a little blackmail will put her husband out of the race. Until Spenser hops on the candidate's bandwagon. But getting back the tape of the lady's X-rated indiscretion is a nonstop express ride to trouble - trouble that is deep, wide and deadly.</p>


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A beautiful woman is kidnaped, leaving PI Spenser of Boston to probe the mysteries of her past. She is Lisa St. Claire, disk jockey and wife of a Boston policeman, a woman with a history of drugs and prostitution. The abductor turns out to be a former Latino lover.


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With an unbroken string of bestselling suspense novels behind him, Robert B. Parker is nothing if not world-class. Now, after the success of Paper Doll, applauded by The Boston Globe as "one of the best Spensers in a decade," Parker returns with his two-fisted sleuth in Walking Shadow - a twisty, ambitious whodunit, which finds them both breaking new ground. A Massachusetts waterfront town. A small repertory theater with a big reputation. A soupcon of scandal. And Spenser is on hand to steal the scene. Hired by the Port City Theater Company's board of trustees to investigate the director's claim that he is being followed, Spenser feels like a fish out of water - until an actor is gunned down during a performance of a politically controversial play. Then Boston's premier private cop and his cohort, Hawk, go into action, plunging straight into a maze of motives that constitutes a master class in the difficulty of judging reality from appearances. Spenser soon discovers that solving the actor's murder is only a piece of the puzzle. From covert carnal connections within the community to municipal corruption with international tentacles; from petty troublemakers to major malefactors for whom murder is merely a day at the office - this case has everything it takes to stump the sharpest of Sherlocks. And nobody loves a challenge more than Spenser. Heady and sardonic, with an unpredictable cast of lovers, liars, killers, and clowns, Walking Shadow entertains even as it ponders the instability of identities. It is a thoroughly engrossing performance by a classic talent.


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When Nathan Smith is found in bed with a hole in his head, it's hard not to imagine his young bride as the one with the finger on the trigger. Thanks to Nathan's millions she can afford the best defense money can buy and Spenser is hired to investigate Mary's bona fides.


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Everybody loves a winner, and the Rabbs are major league. Marty is the Red Sox star pitcher, Linda the loving wife. She loves everyone except the blackmailer out to wreck her life. </p><p>Is Marty throwing fast balls or throwing games? It doesn't take long for Spenser to link Marty's performance with Linda's past...or to find himself trapped between a crazed racketeer and an enforcer toting an M-16. </p><p>America's favorite pastime has suddenly become a very dangerous sport, and one wrong move means strike three, with Spenser out for good! </p><h3>From the Publisher</h3><p>6 1-hour cassettes </p>


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Wheaton is a typical New England small-college town, not the sort of place for drugs and murder. But when a reporter gets too inquisitive, he finds both -- the latter on his own. Spenser's call comes when the local cops work a cover. He needs help to solve this one -- Hawk for back-up and Susan for insight on the basics of jealousy, passion and hate! What the trio finds is a cutthroat cocaine ring, where drugs have value supreme and human life has none at all.


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Spenser is good at finding things. But this time he has a client out on Cape Cod who is in over his head. Harvey Shepard has lost his pretty wife -- and a very pretty quarter million bucks in real estate. Now a loan shark is putting on the bite. Spenser finds himself doing a slow burn in the Cape Cod sun. The wife has turned up as a hot suspect in a case of murder one...the in-hock hubby has 24 hours before the mob makes him dead...and suddenly Spenser is in so deep that the only way out is so risky it makes dying look like a sure thing. "Spenser is the sassiest, funniest, most-enjoyable-to-read private eye around today." (The Cincinnati Post)


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This is a city that seduces dreamers . . . then eats their dreams. Matthew Scudder understands the futility of his search for a longtime missing Midwestern innocent who wanted to be an actress in the vast meat-grinder called New York City. But her frantic father heard that Schudder is the best—and now the ex-cop-turned-p.i. is scouring the hell called Hell's Kitchen looking for anything that might resemble a lead. And in this neighborhood of the lost, he's finding love—and death—in the worst possible places.


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The most dangerous man to cross is one who isn't afraid to die. But the most deadly is one who doesn't want to live. And Spenser has just lost the woman who made life his #1 priority. So when a religious sect kidnaps a pretty young dancer, no death threat can make Spenser cut and run. Now a hit man's bullet is wearing Spenser's name. But Boston's big boys don't know Spenser's ready and willing to meet death more than halfway. "Tough, wisecracking, unafraid and unexpectedly literate --in many respects the very exemplar of the species." (The New York Times)


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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>“Like Orson Scott Card's <em>Ender's Game</em>, this sequel to <em>The Forge of God</em> explores the issues of morality and justice, using children as its vehicle. Bear's treatment differs, however, in that his characters have already lost their innocence and face their destiny with open eyes. As a stylist, Bear writes with a heady brilliance that communicates a sense of immediacy and credibility.” </p><p>--_Library Journal_ on <em>Anvil of Stars</em></p><p>__ </p><p>“One of the outstanding sf novels of the current year is also the best book so far from an author whose versatility is continually growing.  Literate hard-science or alien invasion novels are no longer rare, but a book such as this, which effectively blends these concepts and is also compellingly written, is a joy to behold.”     </p><p>_--ALA Booklist <em>on</em> The Forge of God_</p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>A Ship of the Law travels the infinite enormity of space, carrying 82 young people: fighters, strategists, scientists; the Children. They work with sophisticated non-human technologies that need new thinking to comprehend them. They are cut off forever from the people they left behind. Denied information, they live within a complex system that is both obedient and beyond their control. They are frightened. And they are making war against entities whose technologies are so advanced, so vast, as to dwarf them. Against something whose psychology is ultimately, unknowably alien. </p>

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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>If anyone is the complete master of the grand-scale SF novel, it's Bear.—Booklist "Greg Bear is one of the freshest writers to break into the science fiction and fantasy field in many a year."—Dragon Magazine "Bear is one of the few SF writers capable of traveling beyond the limits of mere human ambition and geological time… . Whether he's tinkering with human genetic material or prying apart planets, Bear goes about the task with intelligence and a powerful imagination."—Locus "His wonders are state-of-the-art." —New York Newsday </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The P.O.W. who owned his prison: Fighter pilot, samurai, shogun - Yoshio Kawashita had lived hundreds of years... and thousands. Captured by aliens during WWII, he was held on an empty world and forced to re-enact Japan's past. Suddenly, the aliens were gone, stranding Kawashita 400 years into the future, sole inhabitant and owner of his planet prison. The woman who brokered worlds: Anna Nestor was the roving merchant queen of a space empire where data was cash, planets mere poker chips, and fortunes rose and fell faster than the speed of light. At first Kawashita was an oddity, an investment... then the galaxy's riches woman and oldest man fell in love. But for all their power and experience, they could never be free so long as Anna and Yoshio were trapped by a cosmic mystery: what creatures - or gods - had torn Kawashita from time and space? And why? </p>

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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>An unusual 'invasion' by intelligent smaller beings who are changing the structure and definition of 'humanity' are at the heart of Bear's classic story which has been newly reprinted in paper for new audiences. Blood Music is one of his finest works and its appearance in this new edition assures that new audiences will relish his talents. -- <em>Midwest Book Review</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>In the tradition of the greatest cyberpunk novels, Blood Music explores the imminent destruction of mankind and the fear of mass destruction by technological advancements. Blood Music follows present-day events in which the fears concerning the nuclear annihilation of the world subsided after the Cold War and the fear of chemical warfare spilled over into the empty void of nuclear fear. An amazing breakthrough in genetic engineering made by Vergil Ulam is considered too dangerous for further research, but rather than destroy his work, he injects himself with his creation and walks out of his lab, unaware of just quite how his actions will change the world. Author Greg Bear's treatment of the traditional tale of scientific hubris is both suspenseful and a compelling portrait of a new intelligence emerging amongst us, irrevocably changing our world. </p>

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<div><p class="description"></p><h3 class="productDescriptionSource">From Publishers Weekly</h3>
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  Starred Review. In his triumphant return to large-scale SF, Nebula and Hugo–winner Bear (<i>Quantico</i>)
 links three young drifters in present-day Seattle with an unimaginably 
distant future. When the drifters answer an odd newspaper advertisement,
 they soon find themselves caught up in a war between mysterious and 
powerful forces. Two not-quite-humans, creations of a million-year 
experiment, have discovered that their ancient fortress/city, perhaps 
the last refuge of intelligence in a dying universe, is about to fall 
before the onslaught of chaos. They have been chosen by beings evolved 
far beyond mere matter to undertake a dangerous mission to preserve the 
universe's last vestiges of consciousness. Somehow the two groups engage
 in telepathic communication despite the eons that separate them. 
Something of an homage to William Hope Hodgson's classic <i>The Night Land</i>,
 this complex, difficult and beautifully written tale will appeal to 
sophisticated readers who prefer thorny conundrums to fast-paced action.
 <i>(Aug.)</i> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
  <em>--This text refers to the 




<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345448391/sr=8-1/qid=1297283596/ref=dp_proddesc_1?ie=UTF8&amp;n=283155&amp;qid=1297283596&amp;sr=8-1" class="product">Hardcover</a>
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      <h3 class="productDescriptionSource">From <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?docId=1000027801">Booklist</a></h3>
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  In a post-human future, one city, guarded by reality generators and 
surrounded by the terrible maelstrom of Chaos, is the sole bastion of 
order. In our time, three people who can alter the course of fate, a 
murky past, and the dreams of a decaying city at the end of time are 
brought together by a newspaper ad and into the hands of collectors of 
their kind. Back in the future, the strange characters include keepers 
and the Librarian, who seek to protect history, and others who welcome 
Chaos. As the lines of fate and possibility collapse toward 
inevitability, the three fateshifters resort to the tenuous protection 
of a Seattle warehouse full of books as a storm that threatens to 
destroy everything approaches. If the trio survives and holds onto 
memory through the disaster, memory will begin again, the long decay of 
reality will end, and mysteries will be solved in the eye of the storm. 
Fascinating. --Regina Schroeder
  <em>--This text refers to the 




<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345448391/sr=8-1/qid=1297283596/ref=dp_proddesc_2?ie=UTF8&amp;n=283155&amp;qid=1297283596&amp;sr=8-1" class="product">Hardcover</a>
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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><em>Darwin's Children</em>, Greg Bear's follow-up to <em>Darwin's Radio</em> is essential to nonbiologists trying to understand what's going on. The next stage of human evolution has arrived, announced by the birth of bizarre "virus children." Now the children with the hypersenses and odd faces are growing up, and the world has to figure out what to do with them. The answer is evil and all too human, as governments put the kids in camps to protect regular folks from imagined dangers. Mitch and Kaye, scientists whose daughter Stella is swept up in the fray, become unwillingly involved in the politics that erupt around the issue of the new humans. Harrowing chases, gun battles, epidemics, and tense meetings about civil rights ensue, all brilliantly narrated. But just when you think you've got the book figured out, Bear throws a massive curveball by introducing... religion. That's right, a good old-fashioned epiphany, plopped down in the middle of a hard science fiction novel. But even skeptical readers will be swept along with Kaye as she tries to deal with what's happening to her and how it relates to the fate of her daughter's species. Keep reading past the words that make you uncomfortable--the hot science, the cool spirituality--and you'll be rewarded with a story of complete and moving humanity. <em>--Therese Littleton</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>In this masterful sequel to his Nebula Award-winning Darwin's Radio, Bear takes us into a near future forever changed by the birth of millions of genetically enhanced babies to mothers infected with the SHEVA virus. These children may represent the next great evolutionary leap, but some fear their appearance rings a death knell for traditional humanity. Geneticist Kaye Lang, archeologist Mitch Rafelson and their daughter, Stella Nova, have been hiding from an increasingly repressive U.S. government that wants to put the so-called "virus children" in what are essentially concentration camps. Eventually, the family is captured, and when Mitch resists he's arrested on a trumped-up charge of assaulting a federal officer. In later years, Kaye returns to genetics and Mitch, once he's out of jail, to archeology, but neither gives up hope of finding and freeing their daughter. Meanwhile, Stella, imprisoned but surrounded by her own kind, begins to explore the full significance of what it means to be post-human. Though cast in a thriller mode, like much of Bear's recent work, this novel may contain too much complex discussion of evolutionary genetics to appeal to Michael Crichton or Robin Cook fans. Nonetheless, Bear's sure sense of character, his fluid prose style and the fascinating culture his "Shevite" children begin to develop all make for serious SF of the highest order.<br>Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>

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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>All the best thrillers contain the solution to a mystery, and the mystery in this intellectually sparkling scientific thriller is more crucial and stranger than most. Why are people turning against their neighbors and their newborn children? And what is causing an epidemic of still births? A disgraced paleontologist and a genetic engineer both come across evidence of cover-ups in which the government is clearly up to no good. But no one knows what's really going on, and the government is covering up because that is what, in thrillers as in life, governments do. And what has any of this to do with the discovery of a Neanderthal family whose mummified faces show signs of a strange peeling? </p><p>Greg Bear has spent much of his recent career evoking awe in the deep reaches of space, but he made his name with __, a novel of nanotechnology that crackled with intelligence. His new book is a workout for the mind and a stunning read; human malignancy has its role in his thriller plot, but its real villain, as well as its last best hope, is the endless ingenious cruelty of the natural world and evolution. <em>--Roz Kaveney, Amazon.co.uk</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Is evolution a gradual process, as Darwin believed, or can change occur suddenly, in an incredibly brief time span, as has been suggested by Stephen J. Gould and others? Bear (Dinosaur Summer and Foundation and Chaos) takes on one of the hottest topics in science today in this riveting, near-future thriller. Discredited anthropologist Mitch Rafelson has made an astonishing discovery in a recently uncovered ice cave in the AlpsAthe mummified remains of a Neanderthal couple and their newborn, strangely abnormal child. Kaye Lang, a molecular biologist specializing in retroviruses, has unearthed chilling evidence that so-called junk DNA may have a previously unguessed-at purpose in the scheme of life. Christopher Dicken, a virus hunter at the National Center for Infectious Diseases in Atlanta, is hot in pursuit of a mysterious illness, dubbed Herod's flu, which seems to strike only expectant mothers and their fetuses. Gradually, as the three scientists pool their results, it becomes clear that Homo sapiens is about to face its greatest crisis, a challenge that has slept within our genes since before the dawn of humankind. Bear is one of the modern masters of hard SF, and this story marks a return to the kind of cutting-edge speculation that made his Blood Music one of the genre's all-time classics. Centered on well-developed, highly believable figures who are working scientists and full-fledged human beings, this fine novel is sure to please anyone who appreciates literate, state-of-the-art SF. (Sept.) FYI: Bear has won two Hugos and four Nebulas. <br>Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>

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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>In this taut ghost story set in the California of everyone's dreams-and nightmares-from Hugo and Nebula winner Bear (_Darwin's Children_), anything-goes hardcore porn films have blasted softcore screenwriter Peter Russell's career. The horrifying abduction and murder of his young daughter has destroyed Russell's marriage; his best friend has just died; and Joseph Weinstein, the reclusive sugar daddy who employs Russell as a dogsbody, seems to be descending into senility. Worse follows. In pursuit of financial security, Russell sells Weinstein on "Trans," a seductive new gadget promising unlimited instant broad-band communication, and all too soon reaching out and touching via Trans even wakes the dead, whose path to the hereafter is now so clogged with spam and unlimited phone calls that they return to haunt the living. Bear's ability to incorporate scientific concepts into tightly woven, fast-paced story lines reaches menacing new proportions here, because it draws on that nagging suspicion that the ubiquitous, innocent-appearing cell phone may really be killing off its users. By deftly extrapolating that doubt into everyone's most dreaded fears-loss of job, loss of friends, loss of children-Bear reanimates the old story of Faust, who sold his soul for unlimited knowledge and power, hinting ominously that the price of rampant technology may be dearer than we think. <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>In perhaps his most mainstream novel to date, Nebula Award winner Bear envisions what might happen should a new technology open the floodgates on another dimension. In the near future, the technology in question is the "trans," a sort of souped-up cell phone with near-infinite bandwidth and perfect reception anywhere in the world. Peter Russell is a washed-up director of soft porn, living on handouts and reeling from the death of his closest friend, when the device's manufacturers offer him a chance to revamp his career and film their promotional videos. One of the assignment's perks is, of course, a batch of free trans phones--a blessing that may actually harbor a curse. For Peter begins to unravel and to see ghostly simulacra of both the living and the dead. Is he losing his mind, or have the trans' inventors tapped into a force that literally bends minds and even reality? Bear's masterful prose, effectively chilling and reminiscent of Koontz at his best, makes this a good pick for sf and horror fans. <em>Carl Hays</em><br><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p>

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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Remember Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's <em>Dinosaur Summer</em>, Greg Bear assumes that Challenger's expedition really took place, and that for nearly 50 years dinosaurs have been relatively commonplace in zoos and circuses throughout the world. But the beasts are not easily kept in captivity, and slowly but surely their numbers are dwindling. Now there is only one dinosaur circus left, and it's shutting down. The dinosaur trainer wants to return his animals to the wild, so an expedition is organized to return the dinos to their nearly inaccessible plateau. Accompanying the group (which includes special-effects master Ray Harryhausen) is 15-year-old Peter Belzoni, the son of the <em>National Geographic</em> photographer covering the story. The boy is about to have the adventure of a lifetime. </p><h3>From Kirkus Reviews</h3><p>Fantasy built on a fantasyin Bear's alternative 1947, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World wasn't fiction, but fact!mingling real and imaginary characters with a quite unbelievable hodgepodge of defiantly unextinct beasties from the Carboniferous on up. Circus Lothar, the last dinosaur circus, is closing down, and its animal trainer, Vince Shellabarger, is determined to return his charges to their home, the isolated Venezuelan plateau of El Grande discovered by Professor Challenger in 1912. National Geographic's Anthony Belzoni will cover the event, assisted by his 15-year-old son Peter. Filming the cavalcade will be Willis <code>OBie'' O'Brien (of King Kong fame) and special effects/animation genius Ray Harryhausen. The tough journey is made more difficult by the Venezuelan Army's quarrel with both the politicos and the local Indians. Still, the expedition reaches the rickety bridge leading on to El Grande, and most of the animals cross safely. But Dagger, a vicious predator, escapes from his cage; predictably, the bridge falls, marooning Peter, Anthony, OBie, Ray, and Billie, an Indian pursuing a spirit quest. After various adventuresthe group is menaced by critters ranging from giant salamanders and hungry therapsids to huge</code>death eagles''they make it back, minus assorted limbs and teeth, bearing a couple of precious eggs. Amiable, sometimes stirring incident-packed baloney: a yarn that screams I wanna be a movie! (illustrations) -- <em>Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.</em></p>

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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>The 21st century was on the brink of nuclear confrontation when the 300 kilometer-long stone flashed out of nothingness and into Earth's orbit. NASA, NATO, and the UN sent explorers to the asteroid's surface...and discovered marvels and mysteries to drive researchers mad.For the Stone was from space--but perhaps not our space; it came from the future--but perhaps not our future; and within the hollowed asteroid was Thistledown. The remains of a vanished civilization. A human--English, Russian, and Chinese-speaking--civilization. Seven vast chambers containing forests, lakes, rivers, hanging cities...And museums describing the Death; the catastrophic war that was about to occur; the horror and the long winter that would follow. But while scientists and politicians bickered about how to use the information to stop the Death, the Stone yielded a secret that made even Earth's survival pale into insignificance. Greg Bear was born in San Diego in 1951. His father was in the navy, and by the time Greg was twelve years old, he had traveled with his parents to Japan, the Philippines, and various parts of the United States. He is the author of over twenty books, which have been translated into a dozen languages. He has won four Nebulas and two Hugos for his SF writing and was awarded the 2006 Robert A. Heinlein Award for outstanding published work in hard science fiction or technical writings inspiring the human exploration of space. In this novel, Bear offers what "may be the best constructed hard SF epic yet" (The Washington Post).The 21st century was on the brink of nuclear confrontation when a 300-kilometer-long stone flashed out of nothingness and into Earth's orbit. NASA, NATO, and the UN sent explorers to the asteroid's surface. They discovered enough marvels and mysteries to drive all researchers mad.The strange Stone was from space—but perhaps not our space; it came from the future—but perhaps not our future. Within the hollowed asteroid was Thistledown, the telling remains of a vanished civilization. Indeed, a human civilization—English, Russian, and Chinese-speaking—with seven vast chambers containing forests, lakes, rivers, and hanging cities. Thistledown also contained museums describing the Death; the catastrophic war that was about to occur; the horror and the long winter that would follow. But while scientists and politicians bickered about how to use the information to stop the approaching Death, the Stone yielded a secret that made even Earth's survival pale into insignificance. "Sharing aspects of Clarke's Rendevouz with Rama, [this novel's] uniqueness arises from Bear's bold imagination. Bear is a writer of passionate vision. Eon is his grandest work yet."—Locus</p>


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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Bear's popular novel Eon introduced The Way, an infinite tunnel in space-time opening on other universes. Following a nuclear holocaust on Earth and the 40-year-long Jart Wars against rapacious aliens, the entrances were sealed. That decision is reconsidered in this sequel. On the asteroid/spaceship Thistledown, scientist Olmy investigates the mental processes of the little-known Jarts while on Gaia, a Greek-dominated alternate Earth, young Rhita Vaskayza herself enters The Way. A partially recovered Earth witnesses the reappearance of The Way's designer, Pavel Mirsky, who now describes it as a tapeworm winding through the guts of the universe and urges that it be reopened so that it can be destroyed. This slow, visionary tale is less than compelling, but its portrait of the different responses of intricate, interlocking cultures is striking. <br>Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>A messenger from the end of time topples the precarious balance of power that exists between the Old Natives of Earth and their benefactors, the human members of the Hexamon who live inside the asteroid Thistledown. As political rivals, inhuman alien intelligences, and travelers from alternate worlds meet in a corridor of possibilities, the destiny of the world hinges on the fragility of human choice. Showcasing Bear's imagination and considerable storytelling talent, this sequel to Eon is highly recommended. JC<br>Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>

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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>On September 28th, a geologist working in Death valley finds a mysterious new cinder cone in very well-mapped area.On October 1st, the government of Australia announces the discovery of an enormous granite mountain. Like the cinder cone, it wasn't there six months ago....Something is happening to Planet Earth, and the truth is too terrifying to consider....</p>


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Isaac Asimov's renowned Foundation Trilogy pioneered many of the familiar themes of modern science fiction and shaped many of its best writers. With the permission and blessing of the Asimov estate, the epic saga left unfinished by the Grand Master himself now continues with this second masterful volume. With Hari Seldon on trial for treason, the Galactic Empire's long-anticipated migration to Star's End is about to begin. But the mission's brilliant robot leader, R. Daneel Olivaw, has discovered a potential enemy far deadlier--and closer--than he ever imagined. One of his own kind. A freak accident erases the basic commandments in humaniform robot Lodovik Trema's positronic brain. Now Lodovic's service to humankind is no longer bound by destiny, but by will. To ensure his loyalty, Daneel has Lodovic secretly reprogrammed. But can he be trusted? Now, other robots are beginning to question their mission--and Daneel's strategy. And stirrings of rebellion, too, are infecting their human counterparts. Among them is a young woman with awesome psychic abilities, a reluctant leader with the power to join man and robot in a quest for common freedom.or mutual destruction.The Foundation Saga Continues  Read Gregory Benford's Foundation's Fear, the first novel in this bold new series and Secret Foundation, the concluding volume from David Brin.</p>


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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>"If anyone is the complete master of the grand-scale SF novel, it's Bear."-Booklist "Greg Bear is one of the freshest writers to break into the science fiction and fantasy field in many a year."-Dragon Magazine "Bear is one of the few SF writers capable of traveling beyond the limits of mere human ambition and geological time- . Whether he's tinkering with human genetic material or prying apart planets, Bear goes about the task with intelligence and a powerful imagination."-Locus "His wonders are state-of-the-art." -New York Newsday </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The planet Hegira is the universe's melting pot. Hundreds of tribes in dozens of cities intermingle in the vast uncharted territory. The only thing holding the people together are the massive Obelisks, the chronicles of the all the truths and falsehoods each tribe has brought to Hegira. Young Bar-Woten is in search of knowledge and he knows the key to the truth about his homeland is contained in the writings of the Obelisks. With his fellow companions, Bar-Woten must travel through Hegira's exotic cities to discover the lies within the words of thousands.</p>

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SUMMARY: A starship hurtles through the emptiness of space. Its destination-unknown. Its purpose-a mystery. Now, one man wakes up. Ripped from a dream of a new home-a new planet and the woman he was meant to love in his arms-he finds himself wet, naked, and freezing to death. The dark halls are full of monsters but trusting other survivors he meets might be the greater danger.All he has are questions-- Who is he? Where are they going? What happened to the dream of a new life? What happened to Hull 03?All will be answered, if he can survive the ship.HULL ZERO THREE is an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride through the darkest reaches of space.


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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>The Way is a tunnel through space and time. The entrance is through the hollow asteroid Thistledown and the space station Axis City that sits at the asteroid's center. From there the Flawships ride the center of the Way, traveling to other worlds and times. Now the rulers of Axis City have discovered that a huge group of colonists has secretly entered one of the interdicted worlds along the Way. In some ways Lamarkia is very Earth-like--but its biology is extraordinary. A single genetic entity can take many forms, and span a continent. There are only a few of these "ecos" on Lamarkia, and the effect of human interaction on them is unknown. Olmy Ap Sennon has been sent to secretly assess the extent of the damage. But he will find far more than an intriguing alien biology--for on their new world the secret colonists have returned to the old ways of human history: war, famine, and ecological disaster. On this mission, Olmy will learn about the basics: love, responsibility, and even failure...</p>


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<div><h3 class="productDescriptionSource">From Publishers Weekly</h3>
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  In bestseller Bear's intriguing near-future thriller, a powerful 
financier stands ready to seize control of America as the nation teeters
 on the brink of economic collapse. The Texas-based Talos Corp., helmed 
by CEO Axel Price, specializes in security technology software and the 
training of mercenaries. Standing between Price and the downfall of 
America are a few hardy FBI agents, notably Rebecca Rose, one of the 
stars of the previous book in the series, <i>Quantico</i>. Besides the 
nefarious Price, dangers include a supercomputer, Jones Zero, that may 
or may not be acting on the side of justice, and the fact that Rebecca 
and others have been used as guinea pigs for a powerful mind- and 
body-altering drug, Mariposa. Under less capable hands, the 
extraordinarily complicated plot, numbers of characters and the constant
 explanations of future technologies might lead to terminal turgidity, 
but SF veteran Bear keeps everything whizzing right along to the 
slam-bang conclusion. <i>(Nov.)</i> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
  
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  Following Quantico (2007), this second novel in sf veteran Bear’s 
Rebecca Rose series continues his dystopian, near-future vision of the 
U.S. and its failing economy. Rebecca Rose returns from an extended 
vacation to complete the FBI agent team introduced in the earlier book. 
They’re up against a clever megalomaniac, Axel Price, who is one step 
away from a takeover of the U.S. government. Under the guise of a 
medical-treatment program for post-traumatic stress disorder victims, 
Price is using the code-named Mariposa Project to build a personal army 
of sociopaths. A fast-moving thriller that posits an absolutely 
convincing and utterly frightening future. --Elliott Swanson      </div></div>


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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>In this 1995 </p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Nebula Award winner Bear has long been known for novels of stunning scientific extrapolation and high literary quality from his early novel Blood Music to his more recent Queen of Angels . This new novel of Mars is his finest yet. Bear follows the unlikely career of Casseia Majumdar of the Majumdar Binding Multiple (a sort of cross between an extended family and a corporation) as she goes from lukewarm student activist to president of the fledgling Federal Republic of Mars. Beginning as a coming-of-age story, with Casseia encountering corruption as well as courage and determination in a student uprising, the narrative then becomes a fine, taut and realistic political novel, as Casseia travels to Earth as part of an ambassadorial retinue, and later serves as second in leader Ti Sandra's push for Martian unification. As conflict heats up between upstart Mars and Mother Earth, Bear introduces a wildly intriguing hard-science idea, and the novel spins into a tense science fiction thriller. Bear offers a fast-moving plot; realistic, appealing characters; a vividly imagined future Earth awash in "tailored microbes," nanotechnology and dirty dealing; and the most believable evocation of the workings of politics and science in any recent science fiction novel. It all adds up to a blowout of a book, perhaps the best of the recent Mars novels, and certainly one of the best sf novels of the year. <br>Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>

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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>"Bear is one of our very best."--_New York Daily News_<br>-- <em>Review</em></p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>The nuclear bomb is the only weapon so terrible that it destroys not only the human body, but the human soul. But what of those souls that were not destroyed, but maimed and ruptured by the blast at Hiroshima? They are coming, across the Pacific ocean, leaving blood and destruction in their wake, searching for revenge. They are the Psychlone! </p><p>Larry Fowler is a scientist—he doesn't want to be frightened by things he doesn't understand. However, he can't stop asking questions—questions that will bring him face to face with psychlone. </p>

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<div><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>This thought-provoking near-future thriller from bestseller Bear (_Dead Lines_) focuses on two young FBI agents: William Griffin, the son of a legendary FBI lawman, struggles through training; Fouad Al-Husam, who expects suspicion for his heritage and Muslim faith, finds himself instead sent on super-secret missions to the Middle East. Playing a minor supporting role is their Quantico classmate, Jane Rowland. When a quiet man with mismatched eyes starts telling certain fanatics that he can make gene-keyed anthrax to destroy their hereditary enemies, Griffin and Al-Husam form an unlikely team, headed by veteran agent Rebecca Rose, to handle the threat. Bear's near-future science is, as always, eerily plausible, and while he doesn't stint on sharp criticism of political infighting and its potential to hinder antiterrorism efforts, his would-be terrorists become surprisingly sympathetic as the complex details of their true plan are slowly (sometimes too slowly) revealed. <em>(Mar.)</em> <br>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Veteran science-fiction author Bear proves here that he is as comfortable in the near future as he is centuries or millennia down the road. Just a handful of years from today, global terrorism has escalated out of control. In Jerusalem, a sacred religious site is destroyed. Another attack on U.S. soil has taken the lives of thousands. New killing technologies are being developed in secret labs around the world. America is losing the war on terror. Enter three young FBI agents, raw recruits whose hunt for an American terrorist could either save the world or destroy it. This chillingly plausible story displays Bear's storytelling gifts to their fullest: his ability to extrapolate from current technologies and political trends; his knack for creating flesh-and-bone characters; his capacity for keeping us on the edges of our seats. His legion of fans will be lining up for this one, and the novel's cross-genre appeal should guarantee it an even wider readership than usual. <em>David Pitt</em><br><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p>

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<div><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>The motivation of the mass-murderer--in this case a noted poet--becomes the subject of investigation by an ambitious policewoman, a renegade psychologist, and the murderer's closest friend. Twenty-first century Los Angeles provides the surrealistic setting for a remarkable exploration of human guilt and fears in the latest novel by the author of Blood Music and Eternity (LJ 10/15/88). Bear's blending of high-tech gloss with penetrating insights into human nature results in a complex and challenging speculative vision of the "country of the mind." Highly recommended.<br>Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>In a perfect future a famous poet commits terrible murder. WHY? That crime and that question lead a biotransformed policewoman to a jungle of torture and forgotten gods; a writer to the Bohemian shadows of a vast city; and a scientist directly into the mind - into the nightmare soul - of the psychopath himself. This is science fiction at its best: a detective story, a story of virtual reality entrapments and the coming to consciousness of an Artificial Intelligence ... </p>

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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>This is the sequel to Greg Bear's popular __, and, like most of this award-winning author's works, it's a stunner. Bear is right at home with the computer and nano technologies that underlie his near-future society. With most of the world's ills having been cured by nanotech, humanity is free to turn its explorations inward, to the mind. Advanced therapies have all but eliminated emotional imbalance, and things have never been better. But when public defender Mary Cho begins investigating a double-murder, she uncovers the truth: all of the high tech is failing, and things will never be worse. </p><h3>From School Library Journal</h3><p>YA?In the sixth decade of 21st-century America, violence has been eradicated and advanced therapies have relieved the suffering of the emotionally unstable. It is almost a sane and perfect world. But when Public Defender Mary Choy is called in to investigate the grizzly death of two prostitutes who were illegally transforming themselves with nano-technology (plastic surgery of the future), and an epidemic of "fallbacks" and suicides occurs as people who had gone through therapy revert to their previous states, Bear begins a complex tale that offers a vision of a society in which "dataflow" rules. The entertainment business, particularly pornography, has gone virtual, militia sympathizers and neo-Luddites are isolated in the separatist republic of Green Idaho, and the most advanced artificial intelligence in the world, Jill, is hacked by an unknown AI that is perhaps the creation of a vast conspiracy. Weaving in multiple plots, this sequel to Queen of Angels (Warner, 1994) adeptly shows the potential effects of new technology on our imagined future. Young adults will enjoy both the practical and philosophical underpinnings of this intriguing world in which bathroom fixtures diagnose illnesses, virtual film stars of the past are guests at 21st-century galas, and happiness and even the stability of society depends on nano-monitors imbedded in the soul.?Pat Bangs, Fairfax County Public Library, VA<br>Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>

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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>-This is an excellent novel. It came on me as a surprise, and it knocked me out!- -Harlan Ellison -Greg Bear is one of the freshest writers to break into the science fiction and fantasy field in many a year.- -Dragon Magazine </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong>In a theocratic world far into the future, cities control their own movements and organization. Constantly moving, growing and decaying, taking care of every need their inhabitants might think of, the cities have decided that humans are no longer a necessary part of their architecture, casting them out to wander in the wilderness and eke out a meager subsistence. To the exiled humans, the cities represent a paradisiacal Eden, a reminder of all they cannot attain due to their sinful and unworthy natures. </strong></p><p>But things are beginning to change. People are no longer willing to allow the cities to keep them out, choosing instead to force an entry and plunder at will. The cities are starting to crumble and die because they have no purpose or reason to continue living without citizens. </p><p>One woman, called mad by some and wise by others, is the only human allowed to inhabit a city. From her lonely and precarious position at the heart of one of the greatest cities ever, she must decide the fate of the relationship between human society and the ancient strongholds of knowledge, while making one last desperate attempt to save the living cities. </p>

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<div><h3>Review</h3><p>"Greg Bear's first short story collection confirms him as one of the field's distinctive new voices...he has a real flair for new ideas, and he knows how to write convincingly about real people in strange situations...sooner, rather than later, Bear is li </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>This is the first published collection of short stories by one of the foremost voices in science fiction today. This significant volume contains many characters and situations that later evolved into their own novels. "Mandala" features technologically perfect cities that eject their sinful human occupants, a premise that can be found at the root of Bear's later novel, Strength of Stones. In "Hardfought", Bear brilliantly handles the classic science fiction dilemma of human communication with aliens. Other stories include "The Wind From a BurningWoman" in which a woman holds the world hostage by controlling a giant asteroid; "Scattershot", in which the inhabitants of many universes meet in an undefined limbo space; and "Petra", a story of a world where chaos rules, stone moves and the mind controls reality. Hailed by readers and critics alike, The Venging has been described as "an excellent collection" and its author praised as "one of the freshest writers to break into the science fiction field in many a year". </p>

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<div><h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Reading <em>Vitals</em>, Greg Bear's dark, suspenseful, paranoid thriller of high-tech bioterrorism, would be terrifying even without real-world anthrax attacks. But the news stories of late 2001 add layers of resonance to the book.</p><p>You'd think the secret of eternal life would be an eagerly awaited boon to humanity. Yet when cutting-edge researcher Hal Cousins travels deep below the ocean's surface in a two-man submersible, seeking primitive lifeforms that may hold the key to immortality, his pilot attacks him. Barely surviving, Hal maneuvers the sub to the surface--and finds a fellow scientist has shot up his research ship. Then his lab is destroyed, his twin brother leaves a mysterious message saying they're both being pursued by an unknown force, and his sister-in-law calls to tell him his twin, who is also researching life extension, has been murdered. Someone or something has already discovered the secret of eternal life. It has immense power and influence, and it will stop at nothing to protect its secret. <em>--Cynthia Ward</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Bear's last novel, Darwin's Radio, won the 2000 Nebula for Best Novel. This inspired but disjointed SF thriller probably won't, though you wouldn't know that from rave blurbs by Tess Gerritsen, Stephen Baxter and David Brin. The book starts strong, with narrator Hal Cousins deep ocean diving in search of Vendobionts, primitive organisms harboring primitive bacteria that he hopes will catalyze his scientific quest for human immortality. Hal finds his Vendobionts, but as the sphere carrying him and his pilot ascends toward the surface, the pilot inexplicably attacks Hal, then the sphere. All survive, but soon after Hal learns that his twin brother, Rob, has been murdered. Both Hal and Rob had been pursuing similar paths to immortality, involving research into bacteria that colonize our bodies and that factor greatly in human life span; this research has brought them both into contact with a vast conspiracy called Silk, engineered by ex-Soviet scientists, that permits mind control through bacterial manipulation, with the trigger bacteria now infecting much of the world's population, including the U.S. president. If all this sounds far-fetched, it is, though the science is sound, and Bear doesn't make it more believable with flourishes such as a spooky Silk research facility in the middle of Manhattan hiding the immortal bodies of Russian elite including Stalin, and a book-ending assault on the seaborne headquarters of Silk; these and other narrative gambits smack of the Bond ethos at its hokiest. The novel is further undercut by Bear's confusing choice to alternate narrative duties between Hal and the former naval intelligence officer whom he turns to for help. Still, Bear creates strong characters and makes his pages fly, and his many fans will likely wallow happily in his paranoid vision. 8-city author tour; simultaneous BDD Audio. </p><p>Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.</p>

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<p class="description">SUMMARY:<br>Presents the author's visions of the universe and future human cultures, in "Wind From a Burning Woman," "The White Horse Child," "Petra," "Scattershot," "Mandala," and "Hardfought"</p>


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<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p>Alastair Reynolds's first novel is "hard" SF on an epic scale, crammed with technological marvels and immensities. Its events take place over a relatively short period, but have roots a billion years old--when the Dawn War ravaged our galaxy.</p><p>Sylveste is the only man ever to return alive and sane from a Shroud, an enclave in space protected by awesome gravity-warping defenses: "a folding a billion times less severe should have required more energy than was stored in the entire rest-mass of the galaxy." Now an intuition he doesn't understand makes him explore the dead world Resurgam, whose birdlike natives long ago tripped some booby trap that made their own sun erupt in a deadly flare.</p><p>Meanwhile, the vast, decaying lightship <em>Nostalgia for Infinity</em> is coming for Sylveste, whose dead father (in AI simulation) could perhaps help the Captain, frozen near absolute zero yet still suffering monstrous transformation by nanotech plague. Most of <em>Infinity</em>'s tiny crew have hidden agendas--Khouri the reluctant contract assassin believes she must kill Sylveste to save humanity--and there are two bodiless stowaways, one no longer human and one never human. Shocking truths emerge from bluff, betrayal, and ingenious lies.</p><p>The trail leads to a neutron star where an orbiting alien construct has defenses to challenge the Infinity's planet-wrecking superweapons.</p><p>At the heart of this artifact, the final revelations detonate--most satisfyingly. Dense with information and incident, this longish novel has no surplus fat and seems almost too short. A sparkling SF debut. <em>--David Langford, Amazon.co.uk</em></p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>This distant-past/far-future, hard sci-fi tour de force probes a galaxy-wide enigma: why does spacefaring humanity encounter so few remnants of intelligent life? Excavating the 900,000-year-old Amarantin civilization on its home world, Resurgam, archaeologist Dan Sylveste discovers evidence of a splinter cult that abandoned Resurgam for the stars but returned, only to be swallowed up by a mysterious cataclysm that destroyed all the Amarantins. Aboard the Nostalgia for Infinity, a vast light-hugger ship in interstellar space, the ominous Triumvirate of cyborg starfarers seeks Sylveste to heal its captain, afflicted by the deadly Melding Plague, which turns once-humans into their own semisentient spaceships. In Chasm City on the slum-ridden world of Yellowstone, assassin Ana Khouri joins the Nostalgia's crew intent on killing Sylveste. Clearly intoxicated by cutting-edge scientific research in bioengineering, space physics, cybernetics Reynolds spins a ravishingly inventive tale of intrigue. Hard SF addicts will applaud the author's talent for creating convincing alien beings and the often uneasy merging of human and machine intelligence, depicted here as nearly too frighteningly real for comfort. Others, however, may find these human-cybernetic hybrid characters chilling, dispassionate (except for their built-in drives toward revenge and murder) and foreboding. Reynolds's vision of a future dominated by artificial intelligence trembles with the ultimate cold of the dark between the stars. </p><p>Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.</p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>As this spectacular, large-scale space opera opens, Janus, a moon of Saturn, now revealed as an alien artifact, has suddenly left orbit and headed for interstellar space. The Rockhopper, a comet miner commanded by Capt. Bella Lind, is the only spacecraft in the solar system positioned to catch the huge alien machine. Though a short exploration is all that's planned, the Rockhopper soon finds itself trapped in Janus's time- and distance-distorting slipstream. Determining that Janus is heading toward an even more gigantic artifact orbiting the star Spica, the comet miners settle down to form their own castaway civilization, a process marred by the bad blood between those who support Captain Lind and those who blame her for their fate. Janus soon proves itself to be an incredibly strange and ever changing environment. Eventually, the castaways reach the Spica artifact, encounter several very alien species and discover that their fate is even stranger than they could have imagined. Reynolds (Century Rain) is occasionally clumsy in his character interactions, but he has a genius for big-concept SF and fans of Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama and Larry Niven's Ringworld will love this novel.<br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Alastair Reynolds, an astrophysicist and the author of six previous novels, including the critically acclaimed <em>Revelation Space</em> series (beginning with the title novel in 2000), has established a reputation as the purveyor of big ideas in science fiction, particularly in the space-opera genre. Critics admire the author for his storytelling abilities and his grasp of hard science fiction, as well as for his willingness to explore issues that, in the hands of a less confident writer, might fall flat. By bringing developed characters and clearly articulated scenarios to the page, Reynolds has cultivated a growing audience of devoted readers. So he's not yet Arthur C. Clarke. Who is?</p><p><em>Copyright © 2004 Phillips &amp; Nelson Media, Inc.</em></p>


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SUMMARY: This is a superb collection of stories from Peter Hamilton, set in the same universe as his excellent, bestselling epics Reality Dysfunction (Emergence and Expansion) and The Neutronium Alchemist (Consolidation and Conflict). It's hard to pick favorites here, because every one of the stories is superbly plotted, exciting, and full of fresh ideas. The novella "A Second Chance at Eden" is a classic detective story with unpredictable twists and turns. "Escape Route," which also appeared in The Year's Best Science Fiction, marks the reappearance of the starship Lady Macbeth and her crew, who must figure out a xenoc relic before they run afoul of some heavies. Hamilton favorites like bitek, affinity genes, xenocs, and Edenists are threaded throughout the collection, weaving detail into the epic tapestry of his universe. A Second Chance at Eden is perfect for Hamilton aficionados and novices alike.


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SUMMARY: Space is not the only void...In AD 2600 the human race is finally beginning to realize its full potential. Hundreds of colonized planets scattered across the galaxy host a multitude of prosperous and wildly diverse cultures. Genetic engineering has pushed evolution far beyond nature's boundaries, defeating disease and producing extraordinary spaceborn creatures. Huge fleets of sentient trader starships thrive on the wealth created by the industrialization of entire star systems. And throughout inhabited space the Confederation Navy keeps the peace. A true golden age is within our grasp.But now something has gone catastrophically wrong. On a primitive colony planet a renegade criminal's chance encounter with an utterly alien entity unleashes the most primal of all our fears. An extinct race which inhabited the galaxy aeons ago called it "The Reality Dysfunction." It is the nightmare which has prowled beside us since the beginning of history. THE REALITY DYSFUNCTION is a modern classic of science fiction, an extraordinary feat of storytelling on a truly epic scale.


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<div><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Galactic empires clash, elemental beings devastate whole planetary systems, and the factions of humanity are pitted against each other. Heroes rise and enemies make their last stands in the climax of an epic tale seven years in the making. </p><p>Acclaim for The Saga of Seven Suns </p><p>"Anderson weaves action, romance, and science with a rousing plot reflecting the classic SF of Clarke and Herbert and the glossy cinematic influence of Lucas and Spielberg." --- <em>Publishers Weekly</em> <em>Starred Review</em> </p><p>"Kevin Anderson has created a fully independent and richly conceived venue for his personal brand of space opera, a venue that nonetheless raises fruitful resonances with Frank Herbert's classic <em>Dune</em> series." --- Scifi.com </p><p>"Everything about Anderson's latest is BIG-the war, the history, the aliens. These are elemental forces battling here, folks. Yet the characters are always the heart of the story, and their defeats and triumphs give perspective to it all." --- <em>Starlog</em> </p><p>"A soaring epic . . . a space opera to rival the best the field has ever seen." --- <em>Science Fiction Chronicle</em> </p><p>"Colorful stuff . . . bursting with incidents, concepts, and a massive cast of characters, matching well-thought-out SF ideas with melodrama and interfamily strife." --- <em>SFX</em></p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Kevin J. Anderson has written 46 national bestsellers and has over 20 million books in print worldwide in thirty languages. He has been nominated for the Nebula Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the SFX Readers' Choice Award. Find out more about Kevin Anderson at www.wordfire.com. </p> </div>


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<h3>Product Description</h3><p>Five years after attacking the human-colonized worlds of the Spiral Arm, the hydrogues maintain absolute control over stardrive fuel...and their embargo is strangling human civilization. </p><p>On Earth, mankind suffers from renewed attacks by the hydrogues and decides to use a cybernetic army to fight them. Yet the Terran leaders don't realize that these military robots have already exterminated their own makers - and may soon turn on humanity. Once the rulers of an expanding empire, humans have become the galaxy's most endangered species. But the sudden appearance of incredible new beings will destroy all balances of power. </p><p>Now for humans and the myriad alien factions in the universe, the real war is about to begin...and genocide may be the result. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p>Kevin J. Anderson has written 41 national bestsellers and has over 20 million books in print worldwide in thirty languages. He has been nominated for the Nebula Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the SFX Readers' Choice Award. Find out more about Kevin Anderson at www.wordfire.com. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>In this stellar launch of a new series, bestseller Anderson (Dune spinoffs with Brian Herbert; X-Files and Star Wars books) delivers action, engaging characters and credible fantastic worlds in spades or ekti, the fuel vital for spaceships in the year 2427. The Terran Hanseatic League, in a heady rush of manifest destiny, turns Oncier, a huge gas planet, into a sun so its four moons can be used for colonization. In the process, the Terrans disturb the ancient but dwindling Ildirans, their uneasy allies, whose leader, the Mage-Imperator, suspects that Terrans are far too eager to take over the spiral arm. Still worse, by inadvertently destroying Oncier's hitherto unknown colonists, the powerful hydrogues, the conversion of Oncier sets off a catastrophic conflict that threatens the existence of all Terrans and Ildirans. The Earth Defense Forces of the Terran Hanseatic League, the Worldtrees and Green Priests of Theroc, the gypsy Roamers who mine ekti all must unite with the Ildirans to fight the alien menace. Book one sizzles with a fast-moving plot woven tightly with vivid characterizations: the space cowboys Jess, Ross and Tasia Tamblyn; the exotic Ildirans; the grotesque Mage-Imperator and his handsome Prime Designate son, Jora'h; Beneto Theron, his clan and the bewitching Nira Khali; the appealing and not-so-appealing humans, Raymond/Peter and Chairman Basil Wenceslas; and many others, all conspiring to make this fascinating future epic one not to be missed.<br />Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From Library Journal</h3><p>An experiment in converting a gas giant into a star with the potential for transforming the former planet's moons into environments suitable for human colonies awakens a heretofore hidden civilization and plunges the galaxy into a war for the survival of humanity. The latest novel by the author of Star Wars: Darksaber and the coauthor (with Brian Herbert) of Dune: House Atreides launches a dynamic space opera featuring political intrigue and intense personal drama. Anderson's skill in delivering taut action scenes and creating well-rounded human and alien characters adds depth and variety to a series opener that belongs in most sf collections. <br />Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>The interstellar conflict between hydrogues (aliens that live at the core of gas-giant planets) and faeros (fire entities that dwell within stars) and its impact on a dazzling array of alien and human species propel bestseller Anderson's third thrilling installment in his Seven Suns saga (after 2003's <em>Hidden Empire</em> and 2002's <em>A Forest of Stars</em>). In the third wave of this SF tsunami, an important Earth Defense Force asset, ekti star fuel, is compromised when rebels refuse to donate all ekti to the defense effort, leading Terran Hanseatic League Chairman Basil Wenceslas (the power behind semi-puppet monarchs King Peter and Queen Estarra) to declare war on the rebels. Adding to the fireworks are human-hating Klikiss robots who break an old Ildiran peace pact, a brewing Ildiran civil war and Ildiran secret experiments that impinge on Mage-Imperator Jora'h's relationship with green priest Nira Khali. Crackling with energy and buzzing with action, this hot summer read bodes well for future nail-biting episodes. <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Caught in the middle of a titanic struggle between two alien superpowers, the factions of humanity and their allies, the Ildirans, are under siege. Can they resolve their differences to fight a common threat? </p><p>For the leader of the Roamers, survival means extending a helping hand to others, while the chairman of the Terran Hansa plans to use a new, untested alien weapon regardless of the consequences. And for the new Ildiran Mage-Imperator, survival involves throwing off the choking traditions of the Empire - even if it might trigger a civil war. </p><p>As old intrigues and dark secrets come to light, a man who is believed to be long dead returns with an ally who may save mankind. But this new fragile hope will be threatened by a fresh betrayal - the most bitter and brutal of them all... </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Bestseller Anderson's super-size mosaic of intergalactic, Darwinian conflict has been compared to some of the genre's grandest epics with good reason, but the breakneck sixth book (after 2006's <em>Of Fire and Night</em>) of this shelf-bending space opera fails to satisfy on its own merits. The quickly deteriorating Terran Hanseatic League (Hansa), the formidable Ildiran Empire and the newly created Confederation of Hansa's ex-colonies and rivals are in a fight for their very existence, battling not only each other but rogue robots, sentient fire entities and an ancient insectoid race, thought long extinct, which plans to eradicate all life on the planets it claims to own. Although Anderson brings all of his considerable skill to bear, much of the action-packed conflict remains relatively predictable, perhaps due to the unwieldy cast of characters, tapestry of intertwining subplots and eon-spanning backstory. A sparse conclusion leaves readers hanging in anticipation of book seven. <em>(Dec.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>For years, the alien Klikiss robots have pretended to be humanity's friends, but their seeming "help" allowed them to plant an insidious Trojan Horse throughout the Earth Defense Forces. Now, in the aftermath of a devastating war, swarms of ancient robots built by the Klikiss continue their depredations on helpless worlds with stolen and heavily armed Earth battleships. </p><p>Among the humans, the Hansa's brutal Chairman struggles to crush any resistance even as King Peter breaks away to form his own new Confederation among the colonies who have declared their independence. </p><p>And meanwhile, the original, voracious Klikiss race, long thought to be extinct, has returned, intent on conquering their former worlds and willing to annihilate anyone in the way. </p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p><em>Starred Review.</em> Bestseller Anderson's fabulous fifth volume in his Seven Suns saga (after 2005's <em>Scattered Suns</em>) combines glitzy space-opera flash with witty, character-driven action on a cosmic scale. In retaliation for the destruction of a gas planet's hydrogue inhabitants, the surviving hydrogues join forces with human-hating Klikiss-created robots to exterminate all Terrans, including Hansa colonists, gypsy Roamers and Therons of Theroc, the forested planet that's home to sentient verdani. Vast verdani organic battleships unite with fiery, star-dwelling faeros, Earth Defense Forces and humanoid Ildirans in "elemental synergy" to fight the hydrogues. Expertly juggling a huge cast and multiple story lines, Anderson unleashes major firepower as he sets the scene for the sixth and final chapter in an SF series more entertaining than a 3-D superstar game of outerspace Twister. <em>(July)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>The ruler of Earth, Basil Wenceslas, is not so slowly going mad, and in trying to suppress all opposition to his rule, he is alienating both other factions of humanity and nonhuman races. Throughout human-inhabited space, opponents are rallying to equip themselves with bioengineered weapons (e.g., spacefaring trees) to fend off Wenceslas and the nonhumans he may be making willing to annihilate humanity in general. The fifth volume of the Saga of Seven Suns (after <em>Hidden Empire</em>, 2002; <em>A Forest of Stars,</em> 2003; <em>Horizon Storms</em>, 2004; and <em>Scattered Suns</em>, 2005) has the same distinct flavor of space opera about it. No surprise, that, since Anderson cut his literary teeth on Star Wars fiction. But his collaborations with Brian Herbert on the extension of <em>Dune</em> and, perhaps, the passage of years and books have given him more sophistication in characterization and world building. Seven Suns is a large canvas being filled with notable skill, sure to please lovers of action sf, even though by now the appended glossary is definitely necessary. <em>Roland Green</em><br /><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Bestseller Anderson delivers more on-the-edge-of-your-seat SF thrills in the fourth installment of his Seven Suns saga (after 2004's <em>Horizon Storms</em>). Moments of extreme tenderness temper the relentless and often graphic descriptions of a brutal, seemingly endless war among the civilizations that populate the Spiral Arm. As before, menacing turncoat Klikiss robots plot to eradicate all humans (and humanoid alien Ildirans), while the delightfully dismayed DD, a captive robot "compy," takes notes in the event he ever escapes the Klikiss and can warn the humans he serves. Meanwhile, the angry hydrogues, who inhabit gas-giant planets, continue their campaign against humans, verdani ("worldforest" dwellers) and faeros (sun dwellers). Anderson handles a huge cast and complicated plot with élan. <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Chairman Basil Wenceslas leads a beleaguered human race, and the stress is beginning to tell on him--he views any dissent, of any sort, from his leadership as treason. This, of course, does nothing to calm fears in the human colonies. Meanwhile, the divisions of allegiance among the alien Ildiran increase the pain of their leader, Jora'h, at the disruption of his people's long-standing psychic network. The question begins to ask itself: Is the war more dangerous to both sides than the victory of either side would be? Anderson's colossal story of the clash of space empires, Saga of the Seven Suns, has definitely been influenced by his work for the Star Wars franchise and collaboration with Brian Herbert in expanding the universe of Frank Herbert's_ _Dune novels. Despite all the sweep, scope, and fast action of the saga, Anderson handles the essential conflicts in it so as to enhance characterization as well as keep things moving. A fine continuation of a fine saga. <em>Roland Green</em><br /><em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>Hamilton's exhilarating new opus proves that "intelligent space opera" isn't an oxymoron. By the 24th century, the vast human Commonwealth has spread from Earth via artificial wormholes. Various benign or seemingly indifferent alien races have been encountered during exploration of new planets, but an astronomer sparks curiosity by announcing that a pair of stars is enclosed by a mysterious energy barrier. [...] The author deftly juggles many characters in multiple plot lines, sometimes slowing down the action briefly, at other times racing forward. Revelations late in the book will have readers scurrying back to earlier pages to reinterpret what they initially thought. Not many SF writers are capable of tackling such a big project so confidently. In this respect, Hamilton (Fallen Dragon) resembles a less cheery but very tech-savvy—and extremely paranoid—Charles Dickens. Given the abrupt cliffhanger of an ending, some may prefer to save this massive installment until the story's conclusion, Judas Unleashed, appears next year. Anyone who begins this one, however, probably won't be able to put it down. <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Hamilton creates a dense, thoroughly defined twenty-fourth-century world, in which humanity has colonized the stars, thanks to the discovery of wormhole travel, and established a successful commonwealth. The species has even encountered aliens and space-faring artifacts. One remaining mystery is the barrier around stars known as the Dyson Pair. Human curiosity still being what it is, a spaceship capable of faster-than-light travel (thanks to those wormholes again) goes to investigate. When what's behind the barrier is discovered, the thrill-ride really starts. Aliens formerly trapped inside it, fighting over limited resources, are freed to invade human space. Unfortunately, that is more or less where this book leaves us, but a sequel is in the works. Hamilton's attention to character development makes the slow buildup to a dizzyingly destructive denouement rewarding, and all the little subplots and threads one hopes will be tied back to the main thread keep it complex and engaging. Hamilton is never simple, and even his aliens are well written, complex creations with their own motivations. <em>Regina Schroeder</p>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p><em>Starred Review.</em> Set in the 24th century, bestseller Hamilton's richly satisfying space opera is less a sequel to <em>Pandora's Star</em> (2004) than the second half of one dauntingly complicated, wonderfully imagined novel. The diverse human Commonwealth is fighting back against the implacably hostile mass-mind Prime, while discovering that agents of another hostile alien force are sabotaging war efforts. In a multitude of subplots, Hamilton adroitly leaps from the struggles of one engaging, quirky character to another. Meanwhile, the main action expands and the super-scientific weapons become increasingly terrible. Then the story shifts focus and presents a moral question: if it's now possible to wipe out the Prime, is it permissible to commit genocide? Hamilton demonstrates that humans not only can shape huge masses of data to their own ends but also can recognize when to stop doing so. Some of the people manage to transcend their small, personal concerns—sometimes. The density of detail may slow readers down, but the distinctive characters and the plot's headlong drive will pull them along. In more ways than one, this two-part work is monumental. <em>(Feb. 28)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>From</h3><p>Hamilton takes up the many loose ends of <em>Pandora's Star</em> (2004) and reveals the vast, sprawling conspiracies permeating the big story's interplanetary commonwealth. So much evidence of the Starflyer's existence has been amassed that even the most skeptical begin believing, although it rapidly becomes clear that there are Starflyer agents at the top of the government and the navy. The aliens are busy entrenching themselves on newly conquered worlds, while those planets' few remaining survivors wage futile guerrilla war against them. With humanity being dangerously outnumbered, the governing body desperately seeks a weapon to neutralize the aliens. What it finally comes up with is so devastating as to be genocidal. A showdown is becoming inevitable, however, and perhaps the commonwealth must use the superweapon. In the eleventh hour, the man best suited for the job applies quick thinking and underhanded behavior to the matter. Hamilton has, as usual, produced a dense, engaging space opera that satisfyingly balances shoot-'em-up action and thoughtful debate.</p>


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<div><h3></h3><h3><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">The Greg Mandel Trilogy</span></span></font></h3><h3><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">Mindstar Rising (1993)<br>A Quantum Murder (1994)<br>The Nano Flower (1995)</span></h3><h3><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Greg Mandel is a fictional private detective who featured in three novels and a novella by the English science fiction writer Peter F. Hamilton.</span></span></font></h3><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; ">The stories are set in a near-future England, centred around Hamilton's own home county of Rutland. Mandel is a former officer of the 'English Army', who fought in the 'Mindstar Brigade', a tactical psychic unit. He was given the psychic powers of intuition and detecting emotions, skills he uses for his new profession of psychic detective.</span></div><h3><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">The stories are set in a Britain recovering from the damages suffered during ten years of "Marxist-Maoist" dictatorship under the People's Socialist Party and also the ravages of global warming and collapsing financial markets.</span></h3></div>


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<h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>In the tradition of grand-scale SF sagas that explore the potential of human evolution, this densely plotted and intensely thought-provoking opener for Hamilton's Void trilogy takes place roughly 1,000 years after the events of 2006's <em>Judas Unchained</em>. Humankind in the 34th century has effectively conquered mortality, but many humans are still searching for existential transcendence, and a growing number believe the answer can be found inside the Void at the galactic center. Once thought to be an enormous black hole, the Void, which supposedly contains an entire micro-universe inside an impenetrable event horizon, slowly devours stars to sustain itself. If left unchecked, it will eventually consume the entire galaxy. When the technologically augmented telepath Inigo begins experiencing revelatory dreams, his shared visions ignite a mass pilgrimage to the Void, which some believe will trigger the apocalypse. Readers can expect big ideas and big story lines as well as big cliffhangers at the novel's conclusion. <em>(Apr.)</em> <br />Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h3>Review</h3><p>Praise for Peter F. Hamilton  </p><p>Judas Unchained  </p><p>“An interstellar suspense thriller . . . sweeping in scope and emotional range.”<br />–San Antonio Express-News  </p><p>“Bristles with the energy of golden age SF, but the style and characterizations are polished and modern.”<br />–SF Site  </p><p>“Richly satisfying . . . wonderfully imagined.”<br />–Publishers Weekly (starred review)  </p><p>“You’re in for quite a ride.”<br />–The Santa Fe New Mexican_<br />_<br />Pandora’s Star   </p><p>“Should be high on everyone’s reading list . . . You won’t be able to put it down.”<br />–Nancy Pearl, National Public Radio  </p><p>“An imaginative and stunning tale of the perfect future threatened . . . a book of epic proportions not unlike Frank Herbert’s Dune or Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy.”<br />–SFRevu  </p><p>“Recommended . . . A large cast of characters, each with his own story, brings depth and variety to this far-future saga.”<br />–Library Journal  </p><p>“Complex and engaging.”<br />–Booklist </p>


