Statistician Sandra Foster and chaos theorist Bennett O’Reilly are brought together by a misdelivered package and urged into their own chaotic world of million-dollar grants, unlucky coincidences, setbacks, and eventually the ultimate answer.

Nominated for Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1998.

The Staff of Life suddenly and disconcertingly sprouted wings — and mankind had to eat crow!

From the American heartland to the edge of Hell, the author presents a career-spanning examination into his own life, and the fears we all share. This title is an anthology of some of this award winning author's horror stories.

Who will come to the aid of beleaguered King Hrothgar, whose warriors have become the prey of the vengeful outcast monster Grendel?

A grand and glorious story that has endured for centuries, the ageless classic adventure takes on a breathtaking new life in a remarkable new version for a modern era. Brilliantly reimagined by acclaimed, award-winning author Caitlín R. Kiernan, based on the screenplay by #1 New York Times bestseller Neil Gaiman and Academy Award®-winning screenwriter Roger Avary, it is the tale of a noble liege and a terrible creature who has cursed his kingdom with death, blood, and destruction—and of the great hero, Beowulf, who is called to a land of monsters to triumph where so many have failed…or to die as so many of the brave before him.

About the Author

Caitlín Rebekah Kiernan (born May 26, 1964 in Skerries, Dublin, Ireland) is the author of many science fiction and dark fantasy works, including six novels, many comic books, more than one hundred published short stories, novellas, and vignettes, and numerous scientific papers.

Blizna, rozgrywająca się w tym samym świecie co Dworzec Perdido, to kreacjapełna rozmachu i młodzieńczej energii, widać w niej przy tym, że Mieville próbuje szukać oryginalności także w fabule. Kogo znużyły powtarzane w nieskończoność schematy fantasy tolkienowskiej i tęskni do światów naprawdę innych, niepodobnych do niczego, co zna, powinien odwiedzić uniwersum Chiny Mieville`a – tędy prowadzi droga do fantastyki XXI wieku.Grupa skazańców i niewolników o groteskowo przetworzonych ciałach jest transportowana drogą morską do młodej kolonii Nowego Crobuzon. W podróży tej towarzyszy im kilka innych osób, z których każda ma powód do ucieczki z miasta. Jest wśród nich Bellis Coldwine, zdolna lingwistka, która zatrudnia się jako tłumaczka, co pozwala jej opłacić przejazd i uniknąć straszliwej kary. Jest bowiem powiązana z Isaakiem Danem der Grimnebulinem, genialnym naukowcem-renegatem, który niegdyś niechcący sprowadził koszmar na Nowe Crobuzon. Bellis ma jasno określony plan: przemieszkać w kolonii do czasu, gdy będzie mogła bezpiecznie wrócić. Na Wezbranym Oceanie statek opanowują jednak piraci i mordują wszystkich oficerów. Pasażerowie i szeregowi członkowie załogi zostają przewiezieni na Armadę, do miasta zbudowanego z kadłubów zdobytych okrętów. Tym pływającym lasem masztów rządzi dziwna, dwuosobowa struktura zwana Kochankami. Na Armadzie wszyscy dostają pracę i nawet prze-tworzeni mają takie same prawa jak ludzie, ludzie-kaktusy i ludzie-raki. Nikomu nie wolno jednak opuścić miasta.Samotna i sfrustrowana Bellis wie, że zdradzenie się z chęcią ucieczki oznaczałoby dla niej wyrok śmierci. Zamiast tego Bellis ukradkowo szuka informacji na temat planów Armady. Odpowiedź tkwi w ciemnych, amorficznych kształtach zwisających w wodzie wiele kilometrów pod miastem – przerażających obiektach obarczonych niezwykłą, mrożącą krew w żyłach misją…

Sergejs Ivanovs

BEZ CEĻA ATPAKAĻ

VOLTERS S. TERIJS, amerikāņu rakstnieks

BEZDIBEŅA AKA

ANDRIS PURIŅŠ

BEZRŪPĪGIE CEĻOTĀJI

MAZLIET FANTASTISKS ROMĀNS

RĪGA «LIESMA» 1989

Latviešu padomju rakstnieka (dz. 1950. g.) romāna va­roņi Marks un Ingus ir kādas provinces pilsētiņas iedzī­votāji; Autors liek viņiem nokļūt neparastās, pat fantas­tiskās situācijās. Viduslaiku Riga, kosmiskais kuģis, sa­prātīgu būtņu apdzīvota tāla planēta — tās ir dažas no romāna darbības vietām. Autors liek ikvienam padomāt par cilvēka misiju, par atbildību sava laika un arī nā­kotnes priekšā.

Redaktors ANDREJS RIJNIEKS Recenzents JĀNIS MELNBARZDIS Mākslinieks IMANTS KREPICS

Fantastika — tā ir apkārtējā realitāte, novesta līdz absurdam.

R. Bredberijs

Kalnu grūtības ir aiz muguras, Mums priekšā ir līdzenumu

grūtības. B. Brehts

NIKOLAJS GOGOLIS

IZLASE

BRIESMĪGĀ ATRIEBĪBA

LATVIJAS VALSTS IZDEVNIECĪBA RiGĀ 1948

Tulk. M. Mencendorfa

Noskannējis grāmatu un FB2 failu izveidojis Imants Ločmelis

Barakosa, barakosa

JĀNIS ZILE

Volt egyszer egy szegény ember, s annak nyolc fia. A nyolcadik fiú felnőtt, megházasodott, és lett nyolc fia, s mivel csupán egyetlen foglalkozás jöhet szóba egy nyolcadik fiú nyolcadik fiának esetében, hát varázslónak állt. És bölcs lett meg hatalmas, na jó, mindenesetre hatalmas, s viselte a csúcsos kalapot, és itt a vége, fuss el véle? Itt kellett volna vége legyen?

Ám a férfi elmenekült a varázslatok csarnokából, szerelembe esett, megházasodott – nem feltétlen ebben a sorrendben. És lett neki hét fia, mind már a bölcsőben olyan hatalmas, mint akármelyik varázsló kerek e világon. És aztán lett egy nyolcadik fia! Egy varázsló a négyzeten. Az igézés, bűvölés, bájolás, varázsolás, egyszóval a mágia forrása.

Tylko jedna osoba może ocalić Świat Dysku, który sunie ku nieuniknionej z pozoru kolizji ze złowróżbną czerwoną gwiazdą. Na nieszczęście, osobą tą jest mało uzdolniony i tchórzliwy mag o imieniu Ricewind, którego po raz ostatni widziano, jak spadł poza krawędź świata...

Rincewind zostaje magicznie ściągnięty z Kosmosu, by stać się obiektem polowania wszystkich ośmiu Obrządków Magicznych, próbujących odzyskać ukryte w jego umyśle Zaklęcie. W towarzystwie Dwukwiata z Bagażem i Cohena — największego i najsłynniejszego z bohaterów Dysku (choć ostatnio trochę bez formy) — po licznych przygodach powraca do Ankh Morpork, by uczestniczyć w jednym z kluczowych wydarzeń historii i kosmologii równocześnie. Na szczęście zakończonym szczęśliwie.

An Epic of Two Worlds

In a world as rich and real as our own, Richard Rahl and Kahlan Amnell stand against the ancient forces which besiege the New World—forces so terrible that when last they threatened, they could only be withstood by sealing off the Old World from whence they came. Now the barrier has been breached, and the New World is again beset by their evil power.

War and treachery plague the world, and only Richard and Kahlan can save it from an armageddon of unimaginable savagery and destruction.

Terry Goodkind, author of the brilliant bestsellers Wizard’s First Rule and Stone of Tears, has created his most masterful epic yet, a sumptuous feast of magic and excitement replete with the wonders of his unique fantasy vision.

Był to czas, kiedy ludzie zaczynali torować drogą ku gwiazdom wszechświata. Zawitał nagle, dziwny, oszałamiający, władczo podporządkowujący czyny i myśli ludzkie. Zew Świata Gwiazd okazał się silniejszy aniżeli odwieczny pęd ku morzu. Z Ziemi startowały jonoloty. Zawrotny, upajający czar odkrywczy gnał je ku gwiazdom. Jeszcze ekspedycje przedzierały się przez bagniste lasy Wenus, jeszcze opancerzone rakiety pokonywały przyszłą atmosferę Jowisza, jeszcze nie opracowano mapy Saturna, a już statki mknęły ku gwiazdom — wciąż dalej i dalej…

Młodego, utalentowanego rzeźbiarza Łańskiego zaprasza do siebie umierający Mistrz. I zleca zrobić zamiast niego pracę o wyprawie Szewcowa do Syriusza.

Jeszcze jeden wariant kontaktu z pozaziemską cywilizacją.

The Guru of Garbage

Lyle Lavellette was known to some as Detroit's maverick genius, and to others as the biggest gasbag the auto city had ever seen. But now this golden-tongued tycoon had proved his critics wrong by producing a car that could free Americans from the oily grip of OPEC. His new car would run on compressed garbage and consign all other carmakers to the refuse heap. When a deadly assassin is sent to throw a bloody monkey wrench into Lavellette's odiferous enterprise, the Destroyer and his Oriental mentor Chiun are sent in to stop the slaying-only to find out that the name of the mysterious hit man was Remo Williams. Remo Williams? The one man the Destroyer could not destroy!

"The Horror Is Quicker Than The Eye When Remo And Chiun Go After An Invisible Enemy"

"Now You See It..."

Someone - or something - is walking right through the walls of America's top nuclear missile facility, and walking off with some of the world's deadliest secrets.

Someone has mastered an unholy power that makes Chiun believe in ghosts.

Someone has perfected a mind-defying magic that beats anything in Remo's bag of tricks.

Unless Remo can take his eyes off the chest of a buxom beauty with a chip on her shoulder...unless Chiun can come down to earth from the sphere of the supernatural...America's nuclear safety and her two supreme defenders will be victims of a disappearing act...

Remo surrenders to a sex goddess armed to seduce and destroy the Destroyer.

"Arms Race To The Finish Line"

Normally Remo didn't care how evil enemies were armed. The Destroyer could take on everything from brass knuckles to H-bombs. But now he faced a foe equipped with arms that even he couldn't overcome. For the many arms of the goddess Kali were attached to the most fabulous body in the universe of love. And with Chiun trapped in the spirit world, Remo's flesh turned weak as his iron will melted down in the arms of a female who had the fate of the world in her many fiendish hands.

The Art Of The Deal

Budget cuts are every administrator's nightmare, but CURE's own Dr. Harold Smith has a real whopper. A battle over bullion prompts Chiun to seek better pastures, and he's dragging Remo along.

Word spreads like wildfire: the fabled assassins of the House of Sinanju are hiring out to the highest bidder. While the desperate Dr. Smith is panicking big-time, rogue nations are trying to beat out, burn down and bump off the competition - before the highest bid gets the goods.

It's a seller's market for the lethal duo, and their success is assured - if there's anything left of the planet after the bidding way.

It's a jungle out there - and the Destroyer may become the next endangered species.HOT, MOIST, DANGEROUS

Deep in the Malaysian jungle a group of scientists gets a lethal surprise, and a lone survivor rants about a prehistoric monster who eats men alive.

The survivor dies with bizarre symptoms - and CURE's Dr.Harold Smith wants answers. So Remo, his favorite problem solver, finds himself armed with a brand-new doctorate and joining an international expedition to look for the next Jurassic park.

But things heat up even more in the jungle. Who's to tell what the adventure will be, what with a sexy lady professor, the hidden agenda of expedition members, and the hot breath of something big, dangerous and undreamed of deep in the rain forest's heart.

Frankenstein meets Field of Dreams in this nostalgic, gracefully written but fundamentally flawed baseball novel. Set in a sleepy Georgia town during WW II, this coming-of-age saga is based on the real-life story of Danny Boles, a major league scout who died of throat cancer in 1989. The fictional Boles leaves his rural Oklahoma digs to become shortstop for the Hightower Hellbenders, vaulting the Class C team into a pennant race in the process. Veteran writer Bishop (No Enemy but Time) delivers smooth and polished baseball prose and does some nice tricks with sports colloquialisms. He also tackles gritty issues such as the origins-in sexual abuse-of Boles's stuttering, the ravages of war and the rampant racism that plagued the sport. More problematic is Boles's huge teammate, slugging first baseman Henry "Jumbo" Cerval, who bears a suspicious resemblance to the gargantuan outcome of Victor Frankenstein's grand experiment. In the beginning, Bishop presents Cerval as a literate, likable freak. As the season unfolds, Cerval is revealed as the original monster, having escaped and survived for almost a century in the frozen North. Bishop milks the ludicrous premise for an intriguingly macabre ending, but the real problem is that Henry is far more interesting as a flawed human than as a scientific creation. That flaw aside, Brittle Innings should prove an engaging read for both sports buffs and fiction fans.

YOU SANK THE WRONG BATTLESHIPDuring a routine naval drill at Pearl Harbor, American forces detect a ship of unknown origins that’s crashed in the Pacific Ocean. Lieutenant Alex Hopper, an officer aboard the USS John Paul Jones, is ordered to investigate the ominous-looking vessel—which turns out to be part of an armada of ships that are stronger and faster than any on Earth. And that’s when the Navy’s radar goes down. Ambushed by a ravenous enemy they cannot see, a small U.S. fleet makes their last stand on the open ocean, armed with little more than their instincts, to defend their lives—and the world as we know it.

Aus einem Labor für Gentechnologie entläuft ein Hund. Der Eigenbrötler Travis Cornell nimmt den streunenden Golden Retriever bei sich auf. Aber schon bald müssen die beiden feststellen, dass sich nicht nur rivalisierende Geheimdienste, sondern auch ein mysteriöses Wesen an ihre Fersen geheftet haben. Endlich wird klar, dass es sich bei dem Verfolger um ein gentechnisch perfektioniertes Mordtier handelt, das dem Laboratorium gleichfalls entwichen ist und auf die Vernichtung des Hunds programmiert zu sein scheint.

Titel der Originalausgabe WATCHERS

Aus dem Amerikanischen übersetzt von Heinz Nagel

Raybould Marsh is a British secret agent in the early days of the Second World War, haunted by something strange he saw on a mission during the Spanish Civil War: a German woman with wires going into her head who looked at him as if she knew him. When the Nazis start running missions with people who have unnatural abilities—a woman who can turn invisible, a man who can walk through walls, and the woman Marsh saw in Spain who can use her knowledge of the future to twist the present—Marsh is the man who has to face them. He rallies the secret warlocks of Britain to hold the impending invasion at bay. But magic always exacts a price. Eventually, the sacrifice necessary to defeat the enemy will be as terrible as outright loss would be.

Raybould Marsh is a British secret agent in the early days of the Second World War, haunted by something strange he saw on a mission during the Spanish Civil War: a German woman with wires going into her head who looked at him as if she knew him. When the Nazis start running missions with people who have unnatural abilities—a woman who can turn invisible, a man who can walk through walls, and the woman Marsh saw in Spain who can use her knowledge of the future to twist the present—Marsh is the man who has to face them. He rallies the secret warlocks of Britain to hold the impending invasion at bay. But magic always exacts a price. Eventually, the sacrifice necessary to defeat the enemy will be as terrible as outright loss would be.

After the Nuclear Spasm in the 21st century, Homo sapiens was extinct, save for a tiny remnant scattered in small, primitive space colonies. At first Solar Humanity had only one goal: survival. But when the battle for existence was won, humankind began moving outward in slow, multi-generation space ships, and as then millennia passed, planet-based civilizations emerged in many star systems. In the year 27,698 A.D, to these new worlds come the Immortals, beings with strange ties to ancient Earth, who seem to live forever, who can travel light years in days — and who use their strange powers to control the existence of ordinary mortals. On the planet Pentecost, a small group sets out to find and challenge the Immortals. But in the search they themselves are changed: as Immortals, they discover a new threat, not just to themselves, but to the galaxy itself.

Schuyler Van Alen is a freshman at the prestigious Duchesne School. A loner by nature, she finds her life thrown into turmoil when she turns 15. Suddenly she is allergic to the sun, craves raw food, and if she cuts herself, her blood is blue. Schuyler has no idea what is happening to her. As more and more curious things happen, Schuyler must confront her family and friends to discover the truth behind her blue blood. But there are bigger problems soon to be faced. When a girl in school is found dead, with mysterious bite marks on her neck, Schuyler is more confused than ever about her heritage…and her destiny.

the darklings will hunt once again

Until suddenly, the blue time comes… in the middle of the day.

The noise of school stops. Cheerleaders are frozen in midair, teachers brought to a standstill. Everything is the haunted blue color of the midnight hour.

The Midnighters can't understand what's happening, but as they scramble for answers, they discover that the walls between the secret hour and real time are crumbling. Soon the dark creatures will have a chance to feed after centuries of waiting, unless these five teenagers can find a way to stop them.

A desperate race against time, a mind-blowing mystery of paranormal logic, a tale of ancient evil and spine-chilling sacrifice: blue noon is the exhilarating third volume in the Midnighters series by acclaimed author Scott Westerfeld.

Next novel in the 'Gridlinked' sequence, with the resurrection of the terrifying Mr Crane, a massive android kiling machine… and one with a grudge.

The knight errant Anderson is hunting a dragon on the primitive Out-Polity world of Cull, little knowing that far away a man — more technology than human flesh — has resurrected a brass killing machine to assist in a similar hunt that encompasses star systems.

When agent Cormac learns that his old enemy still lives, he sets out in pursuit aboard the attack ship Jack Ketch… whilst scientist Mika begins discovering the horrifying truth about that ancient technology ostensibly produced by the alien Jain, who died out five million years ago. The people of Cull must struggle desperately to survive on a planet roamed by ferocious insectile monsters, while they build the industrial base that will enable them to reach their forefathers' starship still orbiting far above them.

An entity calling itself Dragon assists them, but its motives are questionable having created genetic by-blows of humans and the hideous local autochthons, before growing bored with that game. And now Cull, for millennia geologically inactive, suffers earthquakes…

Meanwhile the brass killing machine, Mr Crane, seeks to escape a bloody past he can neither forget nor truly remember. So mindlessly he will continues his search for sanity, which he might find in an instant or not for a thousand years.

Una giovane orfana diciassettenne, vergine, e madre di cento figli. Un astronauta che, su un lontano pianeta, è stato vivisezionato e rimesso insieme, ma con criteri extraterrestri, da dei superchirurghi. Unite queste due vittime di un oltraggio insanabile. Dall’orrore che striscia sotto la loro pelle, pronto a prorompere, scaturiranno torrenti di paura, ira, odio, gelosia, tormento, terrore: le emozioni umane delle quali si nutre e si abbevera, e grazie alle quali ingrassa e si arricchisce, il “mercante di dolore”. L’astronauta, l’orfana e l’avvoltoio: il più strano “triangolo” coniugale che i mondi interplanetari abbiano mai veduto.

In a futuristic world of fast-growing technology, corporate expansion in oute space, and plenty of violence, a carefully trained bodyguard whose human memories have been blocked by a metal plate offers perfect protection for a high price.

Zbliżają się wybory gubernatora Petersburga. Spiskowcy, stosując przemoc i tortury, chcą zapewnić wygraną swojemu kandydatowi. Na nic się to jednak nie zdaje, bo zwycięzca zostaje zabity strumieniem…

Bisesę Dutt, odesłaną na Ziemię 2037 roku przez tajemniczych i potężnych Pierworodnych, prześladują wspomnienia pięciu lat spędzonych na dziwnej, odmienionej Ziemi o nazwie Mir, światem poskładanym z lądów i ludzi wyrwanych z rozmaitych epok historii Ziemi. Dlaczego Pierworodni utworzyli Mir? Dlaczego Bisesę tam zabrano, a następnie sprowadzono z powrotem zaledwie w dzień po jej zniknięciu?

Pytania, jakie zadaje sobie Bisesa, znajdą odpowiedź w chwili odkrycia przez naukowców niezwykłej anomalii w jądrze Słońca, będącej dowodem interwencji obcych ponad dwa tysiące lat wcześniej. Plan nakreślony przez zagadkowych obserwatorów oddalonych o wiele lat świetlnych ma zostać zrealizowany w postaci burzy słonecznej, której celem jest likwidacja życia na Ziemi. Kiedy nad światem zawisa widmo apokalipsy, okazuje się, że różnice polityczne i religijne na Ziemi zagrażają wszelkim próbom ratowania planety. A Pierworodni przez cały czas obserwują…

Dzika magia szaleje w Toronto, Adept Ciemności wdarł sie do świata śmiertelników. W czasach, gdy tylko głupcy i niewinni wierzą w czary, kto ma walczyć z atakiem zła?

Szczęśliwym trafem w Toronto znalazło się kilku niespodziewanych obrońców Światłości: Rebecca obdarzona darem Widzenia; ROland, uliczny grajek, który pewnego dnia może zostać bardem; pani Ruth, bezdomna kobieta z kilkoma niezwykłymi sztuczkami; Daru, przepracowana opiekunka społeczna, której liczba podopiecznych rośnie tak samo szybko jak moc Mroku; Tom, kot o rzadko spotykanej przenikliwości i odwadze. Jest też Evan, Adept Światłości, który wesprze śmiertelników w walce o to, by Ziemia nie pogrążyła się w ostatecznej, całkowitej Ciemności…

Fifty years after the events of ALTERED CARBON Takeshi Kovacs is serving as a mercenary in the Procterate sponsored war to put down Joshuah Kemp's revolution on the planet Sanction IV. He is offered the chance to join a covert team chasing a prize whose value is limitless and whose dangers are endless.

Here is a novel that takes mankind to the brink. A breakneck paced crime thriller ALTERED CARBON took its readers deep into the universe Morgan had so compellingly realised without ever letting them escape the onward rush of the plot. BROKEN ANGELS melds SF, the war novel and the spy thriller to take the reader below the surface of this future and lay bare the treacheries, betrayals and follies that leave man so ill prepared for the legacy he has been given; the stars.

This is SF at its dizzying best: superb, yet subtle, world building; strong yet sensitive characterisation; awesome yet believable technology, thilling yet profound writing. Richard Morgan is set to join the genre's world wide elite.

Rose Hathaway's life will never be the same.

The recent attack on St. Vladimir's Academy devastated the entire Moroi world. Many are dead. And, for the few victims carried off by Strigoi, their fates are even worse. A rare tattoo now adorns Rose's neck, a mark that says she's killed far too many Strigoi to count. But only one victim matters... Dimitri Belikov. Rose must now choose one of two very different paths: honoring her life's vow to protect Lissa—her best friend and the last surviving Dragomir princess—or, dropping out of the Academy to strike out on her own and hunt down the man she loves. She'll have to go to the ends of the earth to find Dimitri and keep the promise he begged her to make. But the question is, when the time comes, will he want to be saved?

Now, with everything at stake—and worlds away from St. Vladimir's and her unguarded, vulnerable, and newly rebellious best friend—can Rose find the strength to destroy Dimitri? Or, will she sacrifice herself for a chance at eternal love?

When friends stop trusting each other, Darkness is there to fan the flames...

Things have turned black at the House of Night. Zoey Redbird's soul has shattered. With everything she's ever stood for falling apart, and a broken heart making her want to stay in the Otherworld forever, Zoey's fading fast. It's seeming more and more doubtful that she will be able pull herself back together in time to rejoin her friends and set the world to rights. As the only living person who can reach her, Stark must find a way to get to her. But how? He will have to die to do so, the Vampire High Council stipulates. And then Zoey will give up for sure. There are only 7 days left.

Enter BFF Stevie Rae. She wants to help Z but she has massive problems of her own. The rogue Red Fledglings are acting up, and this time not even Stevie Rae can protect them from the consequences. Her kinda boyfriend, Dallas, is sweet but too nosy for his own good. The truth is, Stevie Rae's hiding a secret that might be the key to getting Zoey home but also threatens to explode her whole world.

In the middle of the whole mess is Aphrodite: ex-Fledgling, trust-fund baby, total hag from Hell (and proud of it). She's always been blessed (if you could call it that) with visions that can reveal the future, but now it seems Nyx has decided to speak through her with the goddess's own voice, whether she wants it or not. Aphrodite's loyalty can swing a lot of different ways, but right now Zoey's fate hangs in the balance.

Three girls... playing with fire... if they don't watch out, everyone will get Burned.

Against the exotic backdrop of China thirteen-and-a-half centuries ago—a land as filled with magic as Tolkien's Middle Earth—two odd companions seek the Great Root of Power. Number Ten Ox is a strong and eager, but rather naive, young peasant; Li Kao is a wily old sage with a slight flaw in his character and a weakness for rice wine. Together, they undertake a perilous quest to save the children of Ox's village from death by poison. The path they take leads them to a homicidal matriarch, the cruelest duke in history, monsters both visible and invisible, men more deadly than monsters, treacherous labyrinths, pleading ghosts whose pleas are incomprehensible, and the gradual realization that before they can accomplish their task they must complete another one: Solve a baffling mystery that occurred a thousand years before they were born.

Blending fantasy and folklore with social history and the customs of different periods of ancient China, the author has created a rare and beautiful book that enables Western readers to view the world through ancient Oriental eyes. Bridge of Birds is a tour de force of narrative and literary ingenuity that is funny, sad, shocking, suspenseful, and completely irresistible. At times one submerges in it as in a warm sea formed from the tears of laughter; at other times, the tears are of heartbreak. At the end the reader will find a denouement that is both stunning and deeply poignant.

No other book is quite like Bridge of Birds. Unless the author picks up his mouse-whiskered writing brush again, there never will be.

BARRY HUGHART, who also has a slight flaw in his character, meditates in a shack in the Arizona Sonoran desert. This is his first novel.

Tim Gaines was the town pariah. Mocked and teased continuously since he was in the sixth grade, he approaches his senior year of high school with a sense of cautious trepidation. Years before, when he was in the sixth grade, a group of boys led by Scott Bradfield-a popular, well-liked kid from well-to-do parents-spread a vicious rumor that he was a devil-worshipper. The rumor stuck, and is believed by most of the students and even a few of the teachers and administrators. It's a rumor Tim can't beat, and one he sometimes feels he's brought on to himself due to his love of horror novels and movies. Now Tim has become friends with a loose-knit group of kids who have also become social outcasts thanks to other rumors spread about them by the student elite. With their mutual support, Tim has begun to come out of his shell. He's going out with them, being invited to parties, and even begins to have a romantic interest in a girl, something he never thought would happen to him in high school.

But all that will change when Scott Bradfield and his friends set their sights on Tim again. Only this time, they need his help. Like most of the student body of Spring Valley High School, they sincerely believe Tim Gaines is a devil-worshipper. And they believe he has a dark power. Now they want to use him and that power for their own sinister plight…..To bring back the dead homeless man they'd kidnapped and brutally beaten to a pulp in the guesthouse that resides on the Bradfield residence. They want him brought back not because they're scared of getting caught for his murder, but so they can savagely beat and murder him again…..and again…

The war between humanity and Faerie devastated both sides. Or so 15-year-old Liza has been told. Nothing has been seen or heard from Faerie since, and Liza’s world bears the scars of its encounter with magic. Trees move with sinister intention, and the town Liza calls home is surrounded by a forest that threatens to harm all those who wander into it. Then Liza discovers she has the Faerie ability to see—into the past, into the future—and she has no choice but to flee her town. Liza’s quest will take her into Faerie and back again, and what she finds along the way may be the key to healing both worlds.

Cerise Mar and her clan are cash poor but land rich, claiming a large swathe of the Mire, the Edge swamplands. When her parents vanish, her clan's long-time rivals are suspect. But all is not as it seems.

Two nations of the Weird are waging a cold war fought by feint and espionage, and their conflict is about to spill over into the Edge—and Cerise's life.

По мотивам мюзикла «Танец Вампиров» и рассказов Вудхауса про Берти Вустера. Когда граф фон Кролок похищает дочь трактирщика, красавицу Сару, на помощь к ней бросаются два охотника за вампирами — Альфред и Профессор Абронзиус. А Герберт, очень… нетрадиционно ориентированный сын графа, влюбляется в своего гостя. Собственно, об этом и рассказ. О любви. И о книгах. И о любви к книгам. И о книгах про любовь.

Если вы не знакомы с мюзиклом «Танец Вампиров,» но все равно заинтересовались моими фанфиками, советую вам сначала прочесть краткую информацию про мюзикл и послушать песни, а заодно и на персонажей посмотреть. http://zhurnal.lib.ru/k/kouti_k/tdv.shtml

La guerra galattica fra l’Alleanza terrestre e gli Invasori dura ormai da molti anni, e nessuno sta vincendo. Quando però l’Alleanza si trova a dover fronteggiare un’arma temibile e sconosciuta, una lingua capace di provocare attentati e sabotaggi, l’unica via di salvezza può consistere in una contromossa inaspettata: affidare a una poetessa, Rydra Wong, il compito di risolvere l’enigma di Babel-17 e di porre fine ai suoi effetti micidiali. Sarà solo l’inizio di una incredibile avventura fra le stelle, sotto la minaccia di una lingua che può uccidere e fra i pericoli di un universo forse troppo vasto per l’uomo, in un romanzo magistrale che è valso al suo autore un prestigioso premio Nebula.

Vincitore del premio Nebula per il miglior romanzo in 1966.

Nominato per il premio Hugo per il miglior romanzo in 1967.

Two months since the stars fell...

Two months since sixty-five thousand alien objects clenched around the Earth like a luminous fist, screaming to the heavens as the atmosphere burned them to ash. Two months since that moment of brief, bright surveillance by agents unknown.

Two months of silence, while a world holds its breath.

Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune's orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever's out there isn't talking to us. It's talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route.

So who do you send to force introductions on an intelligence with motives unknown, maybe unknowable? Who do you send to meet the alien when the alien doesn't want to meet?

You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound, so compromised by grafts and splices he no longer feels his own flesh. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won't be needed, and the fainter one she'll do any good if she is. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist—an informational topologist with half his mind gone—as an interface between here and there, a conduit through which the Dead Center might hope to understand the Bleeding Edge.

You send them all to the edge of interstellar space, praying you can trust such freaks and retrofits with the fate of a world. You fear they may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find.

But you'd give anything for that to be true, if you only knew what was waiting for them...

It's computer crime of the highest order when an electronic shadow force steals all of CURE's secrets, including those of Remo and the Master of Sinanju, and begins manipulating them for their own mysterious purposes. It's up to Remo to crack this secret organization before they can begin the downloading of the unimaginable threat--the Fourth Reich.

The highly anticipated prequel to the New York Times bestselling Cirque Du Freak series!

Before Cirque Du Freak…

Before the war with the vampaneze…

Before he was a vampire.

Larten Crepsley was a boy.

As a child laborer many centuries ago, Larten Crepsley did his job well and without complaint, until the day the foreman killed his brother as an example to the other children.

In that moment, young Larten flies into a rage that the foreman wouldn't survive. Forced on the run, he sleeps in crypts and eats cobwebs to get by. And when a vampire named Seba offers him protection and training as a vampire's assistant, Larten takes it.

This is his story.

Stefan Korsak and his genetically-altered brother have evaded the Institute for three years. When they learn the new location of the secret lab, they plan to break in and save the remaining children there. But one of the little ones doesn't want to leave. She wants to kill...

Auf der Wasserwelt Hydros leben seit Generationen Siedler von der Erde friedlich nebeneinander mit den amphibischen Eingeborenen des Planeten. Als eines Tages ein Fischer ein paar von den intelligenten Fischen im Meer tötet, haben die Menschen ihr Siedlungsrecht verwirkt. Sie müssen ihre kleinen schwimmenden Inseln, die ihnen längst zur Heimat geworden sind, verlassen und sind gezwungen, ein geheimnisvolles dunkles Land zu sucher, das vielleicht nur in den Sagen existiert.

Tientallen jaren verstreken sinds Louis Wu's laatste bezoek aan de legendarische Ringwereld. Nu slopen twee Ringwereld-demonen van een fabriek het netwerkoog waarmee de poppenspeler Verst-in-de-achterhoede grote delen van de wereld bespiedt. Via het oog willen ze contact leggen met Louis Wu, om hem te waarschuwen voor het gevaar dat de ring bedreigt.

Toevallig heeft Wu net na een verblijf in 'de gewone wereld' beloten Verst-in-de-achterhoede op te zoeken, omdat hij aan een nieuwe verjongingkuur toe is. Maar juist willen ze een contract afsluiten of er dringt een beschermer binnen die zowel Wu als Verst-in-de-achterhoede tot medewerking dwingt. Een titanenstrijd, waarbij veel gebruik wordt gemaakt van instantverplaatsing, ontbrandt, tot er een superbeschermer op het toneel verschijnt die aanvankelijk geen keuze tussen beide partijen lijkt te kunnen maken.

Loty międzygwiezdne i odkrycia innych zamieszkanych światów rozpoczęły drugi złoty wiek dla archeologów. Wśród licznych odkryć najbardziej frapującą zagadkę stanowią Wielkie Monumenty, rozsiane po kilkunastu planetach naszego ramienia galaktyki. O rasie zwanej Twórcami monumentów nic jednak naukowcom nie wiadomo, poza tym, że ich cywilizacja stała na bardzo wysokim poziomie. Do rozwiązania tej tajemnicy dąży uparcie grupa archeologów.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she’s struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps, and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever. Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town’s oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them. In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena’s family of powerful supernaturals for generations. And now that Ethan’s eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there’s no going back.

Just as Ever is learning everything she can about her new abilities as an immortal, initiated into the dark, seductive world by her beloved Damen, something terrible is happening to him. As Ever's powers are increasing, Damen's are fading—stricken by a mysterious illness that threatens his memory, his identity, his life. Desperate to save him, Ever travels to the mystical dimension of Summerland, uncovering not only the secrets of Damen's past—the brutal, tortured history he hoped to keep hidden—but also an ancient text revealing the workings of time. With the approaching blue moon heralding her only window for travel, Ever is forced to decide between turning back the clock and saving her family from the accident that claimed them—or staying in the present and saving Damen, who grows weaker each day...

In the 22nd century, interstellar travel is possible but expensive, so human efforts are concentrated on Isis, the only nearby Earth-like world. Isis is rich with life, but toxic, so people like Zoe are genetically engineered from before birth to explore the planet and face its terrors.

She's no angel…

Poor Dru Anderson. Her parents are long gone, her best friend is a werewolf, and she's just learned that the blood flowing through her veins isn't entirely human. (So what else is new?)

Now Dru is stuck at a secret New England Schola for other teens like her, and there's a big problem—she's the only girl in the place. A school full of cute boys wouldn't be so bad, but Dru's killer instinct says that one of them wants her dead. And with all eyes on her, discovering a traitor within the Order could mean a lot more than social suicide…

Can Dru survive long enough to find out who has betrayed her trust—and maybe even her heart?

Vampires have powers beyond human comprehension: strength that defies logic, speed that cannot be captured on film, the ability to shapeshift and more. But in matters of the heart, no one, not even the strikingly beautiful and outrageously wealthy Blue Bloods, has total control. In Bloody Valentine, bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz offers readers a new story about the love lives of their favorite vamps — the passion and heartache, the hope and devastation, the lust and longing. Combined with all the glitz, glamour, and mystery fans have come to expect, this is sure to be another huge hit in the Blue Bloods series.

Quando l’imperatore muore, lasciando come unico erede al trono il nipote di cinque anni, il pianeta Barrayar rischia di piombare nel caos. L’unica speranza di pace è affidata ad Aral Vokosigan, che ha i titoli per diventare Lord Reggente, ma le fazioni in lotta sono disposte a tutto pur di assicurarsi il potere. E proprio a causa di un attentato ordito per assassinare Aral, sua moglie Cordelia e il bambino che lei porta in grembo subiscono accidentalmente gli effetti di un gas teratogeno. È un duro colpo per i Vorkosigan, ma Cordelia non si arrende e, grazie a un utero artificiale, dà infine alla luce un piccolo, che sarà chiamato Miles…

Quando l’imperatore muore, lasciando come unico erede al trono il nipote di cinque anni, il pianeta Barrayar rischia di piombare nel caos. L’unica speranza di pace è affidata ad Aral Vokosigan, che ha i titoli per diventare Lord Reggente, ma le fazioni in lotta sono disposte a tutto pur di assicurarsi il potere. E proprio a causa di un attentato ordito per assassinare Aral, sua moglie Cordelia e il bambino che lei porta in grembo subiscono accidentalmente gli effetti di un gas teratogeno. È un duro colpo per i Vorkosigan, ma Cordelia non si arrende e, grazie a un utero artificiale, dà infine alla luce un piccolo, che sarà chiamato Miles…

In a novel filled with lush imagery and exhilarating action, Faith Hunter creates a near-future world caught in the throes of an ambiguous apocalypse-where a woman with everything to hide finds her true destiny revealed.

As humanity struggles with religious strife and seraphs and demons fight a never-ending battle, a new species has arisen. «Neomages" are human in appearance, but able to twist left-over creation energy to their will. A threat to both humans and seraphs, they are confined in luxurious Enclaves.

Thorn St. Croix is no ordinary neomage. Nearly driven insane by her powers, she is smuggled out of an Enclave and now lives among humans, channeling her gift of stone-magery into jewelry making. But when Thaddeus Bartholomew, a dangerously attractive policeman, tells her that her ex-husband has been kidnapped, Thorn risks revealing her identity to find him. And for Thorn, the punishment for revelation is death.

In a novel filled with lush imagery and exhilarating action, Faith Hunter creates a near-future world caught in the throes of an ambiguous apocalypse-where a woman with everything to hide finds her true destiny revealed.

As humanity struggles with religious strife and seraphs and demons fight a never-ending battle, a new species has arisen. «Neomages" are human in appearance, but able to twist left-over creation energy to their will. A threat to both humans and seraphs, they are confined in luxurious Enclaves.

Thorn St. Croix is no ordinary neomage. Nearly driven insane by her powers, she is smuggled out of an Enclave and now lives among humans, channeling her gift of stone-magery into jewelry making. But when Thaddeus Bartholomew, a dangerously attractive policeman, tells her that her ex-husband has been kidnapped, Thorn risks revealing her identity to find him. And for Thorn, the punishment for revelation is death.

Błękitny Mars kończy jedną z najwspanialszych sag science fiction, jakie kiedykolwiek napisano; stanowi trzecią część trylogii, wydaną po oklaskiwanym przez krytyków Czerwonym Marsie, który otrzymał Nebulę dla najlepszej powieści oraz Zielonym Marsie, zwycięzcy Nagrody Hugo w tej samej kategorii. Mars zatracił już charakterystyczną czerwoną barwę, teraz dominuje roślinna zieleń i błękit mórz. Ludziom żyłoby się wspaniale, gdyby nie gwałtowny napływ Ziemian. Przerażeni falą imigracji tubylcy mają do wyboru pustoszącą eksplozję populacyjną albo międzyplanetarną wojnę.

Bramy w piasku to powieść, w której wydarzenia toczą się w oszałamiającym tempie: terroryści, Obcy, pracownicy naukowi obdarzeni niezwykłymi talentami starają się wyjaśnić zagadkę tajemniczego kamienia z pradziejów Kosmosu…

After their fateful adventure in China, Capt. Will Laurence of His Majesty’s Aerial Corps and his extraordinary dragon, Temeraire, are waylaid by a mysterious envoy bearing urgent new orders from Britain. Three valuable dragon eggs have been purchased from the Ottoman Empire, and Laurence and Temeraire must detour to Istanbul to escort the precious cargo back to England. Time is of the essence if the eggs are to be borne home before hatching.

Yet disaster threatens the mission at every turn — thanks to the diabolical machinations of the Chinese dragon Lien, who blames Temeraire for her master’s death and vows to ally herself with Napoleon and take vengeance. Then, faced with shattering betrayal in an unexpected place, Laurence, Temeraire, and their squad must launch a daring offensive. But what chance do they have against the massed forces of Bonaparte’s implacable army?

Pete Caldecott is trying to survive in Black London without Jack Winter, her teacher and closest friend.

After Jack was turned into a demon, he went to live far out of reach...in hell.

But for Pete, surviving is no easy matter.

The Black is rife with turf wars between mages and necromancers, the witch-hunting Order of the Malleus has resurfaced, and the gods themselves seem to be at each other's throats.

Then Jack reappears, as the head of hell's army, and Pete has to choose between Jack, and her duties as a Weir—which demand she kill him to save the world from certain destruction...

Jack McDevitt to autor wielu bestsellereów science fiction. Jego styl wyróżnia się lekkością narracji, przygodową akcją i poważnym podejściem do zagadnień naukowych. Niniejsza książka stanowi luźną kontynuację wydanej przed kilku laty powieści „Boża maszyneria”. Cały cykl składa się jeszcze z tomów: „Chindi”, „Omega” i „Odyssey”. Fabuła książki skupia się wokół nadrzędnego celu jaki przyświeca każdemu naukowcowi, czyli dotarciu do prawdy, poszerzeniu limitów ludzkiej wiedzy. Jak dużo jesteśmy w stanie poświecić dla odkrycia, z którym nie zetknął się do tej pory żaden człowiek? Nasz czas? Naszą reputację? Naszą karierę? A może nawet życie?

Na kilka tygodni przed spodziewanym zniszczeniem planety Deepsix w wyniku kolizji z gazowa planetą-gigantem, badacze odkrywają ruiny na powierzchni globu, które mogą oznaczać, że istnieje tam cywilizacja. Akademia nakazuje naukowcom z przelatujących w pobliżu statków, żeby ci wylądowali na powierzchni planety i przeprowadzili niezbędne analizy artefaktów. Dodatkowo do grupy naukowców dołącza popularny z powodu swojego ciętego języka i wyrazistych poglądów znany w całej galaktyce publicysta, który nigdy wcześniej nie opuścił Ziemi. Kiedy lądowniki ekspedycji zostają zniszczone, na skutek trzęsienia ziemi spowodowanego zbliżaniem się gazowego giganta, ekipa musi znaleśc sposób na opuszczenie planety zanim dojdzie do kolizji.

Bill, Bohater Galaktyki to jeden z najbardziej cenionych utworów Harrisona i jednocześnie przykład humorystycznego nurtu jego pisarstwa. Jest on satyryczną polemiką z niektórymi aspektami twórczości najpopularniejszego z autorów amerykańskich — Roberta Heinleina.

Bill, Bohater Galaktyki jest odpowiedzią satyryczną na militaryzm, imperializm i szowinizm, na typ edukacji, który — zdaniem Harrisona — produkuje nie supermenów, ale odmóżdżone roboty. O ile Heinlein igra z ideą nadczłowieka, a jego nieśmiertelni lub superinteligentni manipulatorzy są przedstawiani z sympatią, o tyle Harrison nie ma wątpliwości, że superman jest szkodliwy!

Bill, héroe galáctico es el relato despiadado y satírico de las aventuras de un campesino incorporado a la fuerza al servicio militar del Imperio más decadente y corrupto de toda la historia humana.

Bill no llegó a ser héroe a cambio de nada. Le había costado un brazo. Claro que le injertaron otro, pero no hacia juego con el que le quedaba (incluso su color era diferente) .

Al Imperio no le importaba lo más mínimo sus héroes o ciudadanos. Vivian como cerdos y eran tratados como ratas. ¿Qué podían esperar? El Universo entero se hallaba en guerra, y la guerra en el espacio era tan sucia y terrible como en cualquier otro lugar.

Millennia ago the Five Galaxies decreed the planet Jijo off limits. But in the last thousand years six races have begun resettling Jijo, embracing a pre-industrial life to hide their existence from the Galactics. Overcoming their differences, the Six have built a society based on mutual tolerance for one another and respect for the planet they live on. But that has all changed with an event the Six have feared for hundreds of years: the arrival of an outside ship. David Brin has returned to his popular Uplift universe in this, the first book of a new trilogy.

Lenie Clarke-amphibious cyborg, Meltdown Madonna, agent of the Apocalypse-has grown sick to death of her own cowardice.

For five years (since the events recounted in Maelstrom0, she and her bionic brethren (modified to work in the rift valleys of the ocean floor) have hidden in the mountains of the deep Atlantic. The facility they commandeered was more than a secret station on the ocean floor. Atlantis was an exit strategy for the corporate elite, a place where the world's Movers and Shakers had hidden from the doomsday microbe ßehemoth-and from the hordes of the moved and the shaken left behind. For five years "rifters" and "corpses" have lived in a state of uneasy truce, united by fear of the outside world.

But now that world closes in. An unknown enemy hunts them through the crushing darkness of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. ßehemoth- twisted, mutated, more virulent than ever-has found them already. The fragile armistice between the rifters and their one-time masters has exploded into all-out war, and not even the legendary Lenie Clarke can take back the body count.

Billions have died since she loosed ßehemoth upon the world. Billions more are bound to. The whole biosphere came apart at the seams while Lenie Clarke hid at the bottom of the sea and did nothing. But now there is no place left to hide. The consequences of past acts reach inexorably to the very floor of the world, and Lenie Clarke must return to confront the mess she made.

Redemption doesn't come easy with the blood of a world on your hands. But even after five years in pitch-black purgatory, Lenie Clarke is still Lenie Clarke. There will be consequences for anyone who gets in her way-and worse ones, perhaps, if she succeeds...

New York Times bestseller Robin Hobb is one of the most popular writers in fantasy today, having sold more than one million copies of her work in paperback. She’s perhaps best known for her epic fantasy Farseer series(Assassin’s Apprentice, Royal Assassin,and Assassin’s Quest),as well as the two fantasy trilogies related to it: the Liveship Traders(Ship of Magic, Mad Ship,and Ship of Destiny)and the Tawny Man(Fool’s Errand, Golden Fool,and Fool’s Fate).The last one was reprinted in 2009. She is also the author of the Soldier Son trilogy(Shaman’s Crossing, Forest Mage, and Renegade’s Magic).Her early novels, published under the name Megan Lindholm, include the fantasy novels Wizard of the Pigeons, Harpy’s Flight, The Windsingers, The Limbreth Gate, The Luck of the Wheels, The Reindeer People, Wolf’s Brother,and Cloven Hooves;the science fiction novel Alien Earth,and, with Steven Brust, the novel The Gypsy.Her most recent books as Robin Hobb are the novels Dragon Keeper and Dragon Haven.

In the poignant story that follows, she shows us that although love can build bridges across the widest of chasms, those bridges can be swept away by a flood of troubles—but that sometimes, with luck and persistence, they can be built again.

The long-awaited companion to New York Times bestsellers Graceling and Fire

Eight years after Graceling, Bitterblue is now queen of Monsea. But the influence of her father, a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities, lives on. Her advisors, who have run things since Leck died, believe in a forward-thinking plan: Pardon all who committed terrible acts under Leck's reign, and forget anything bad ever happened. But when Bitterblue begins sneaking outside the castle—disguised and alone—to walk the streets of her own city, she starts realizing that the kingdom has been under the thirty-five-year spell of a madman, and the only way to move forward is to revisit the past.

Two thieves, who only steal what has already been stolen, change her life forever. They hold a key to the truth of Leck's reign. And one of them, with an extreme skill called a Grace that he hasn't yet identified, holds a key to her heart.

There isn't much worth living for in Gypsum, Missouri – or Trashtown, as the rich kids call the run-down neighborhood where sixteen-year-old Hailey Tarbell lives. Hailey figures she'll never belong – not with the popular kids at school, not with the rejects, not even with her cruel, sickly grandmother, who deals drugs out of their basement. Hailey never knew her dead mother, and she has no idea who her father was, but at least she has her four-year-old foster brother, Chub. Once she turns eighteen, Hailey plans to take Chub far from Gypsum and start a new life where no one can find them.

But when a classmate is injured in gym class, Hailey discovers a gift for healing that she never knew she possessed – and that she cannot ignore. Not only can she heal, she can bring the dying back to life. Confused by her powers, Hailey searches for answers but finds only more questions, until a mysterious visitor shows up at Gram's house, claiming to be Hailey's aunt Prairie.

There are people who will stop at nothing to keep Hailey in Trashtown, living out a legacy of despair and suffering. But when Prairie saves both Hailey and Chub from armed attackers who invade Gram's house in the middle of the night, Hailey must decide where to place her trust. Will Prairie's past, and the long-buried secret that caused her to leave Gypsum years earlier, ruin them all? Because as Hailey will soon find out, their power to heal is just the beginning.

This gripping novel from thriller writer Sophie Littlefield blazes a trail from small-town Missouri to the big city as Hailey battles an evil greater than she ever imagined, while discovering strengths she never knew she had.

My name is Raine Benares. I’m a seeker. I find lost things and missing people — usually alive. Finding the specters of six evil mages who escaped the Saghred, a soul-eating stone of unlimited power, was easy. Stopping them before they unleash Hell on earth just may be the death of me.

Being bonded to the Saghred wasn’t my idea — neither is hunting down its escapees. Especially not when one of them is also hunting me. He’s regenerating his body by taking the lives of powerful victims, along with their memories, knowledge, and most important of all, their magic. The dark mage wants control of the Saghred, and if he gets it, he’ll become an evil demigod whom no one can stop. The only thing in his way is me.

One of us doesn’t stand a ghost of a chance.

Bentley Little wurde in Arizona geboren, kurz nachdem seine Mutter die Weltpremiere von Psycho besucht hatte. Vor seiner Karriere als Autor schlug er sich mit Gelegenheitsjobs als Reporter, Bibliothekar, Zeitungsbote oder Kassierer durchs Leben.

Mit seinem ersten Roman gewann Bentley Little den begehrten Bram-Stoker-Award und machte damit Stephen King auf sich aufmerksam. Seitdem gilt er als Meisterschüler des »King of Horror« und steht seinem Lehrer in nichts nach: Seine Romane begeistern weltweit Millionen Fans. Bentley Little lebt mit seiner Frau in Arizona und schreibt derzeit an seinem nächsten Roman.

Aus dem amerikanischen Englisch von

Dr. Rolf Tatje

Für die Originalausgabe:

Copyright © 2003 by Bentley Little

Titel der Originalausgabe: »The Mailman«

The triumvirate created by master vampire Jean-Claude, necromancer Anita Blake, and werewolf Richard Zeeman has made Jean-Claude one of the most powerful vampires in the U.S. He's consolidating power in himself and those loyal to him, doing in America what Belle Morte did in Europe when she was at her height of power. She almost owned Europe, and there was those who are determined that Jean-Claude won't do the same in America. Jean-Claude's motives may be kinder, but as any lawyer will tell you: motives matter, but you're just as dead.

Assassins are coming to St. Louis to kill them all. Anita knows they're coming, but even being forewarned doesn't mean you can win.

In the darkness, demons come out to play . . .

and someone must bring their sins to light.

Part vampire, part werewolf, Riley Jenson knows what can happen when vamps don't play well with others. But she's never seen anything like this: a series of brutal murders surrounding the latest hot spot for vampire-human hookups — and the victims aren't just killed, they're beheaded. Now Riley is launching into action, toying with a seductive — and highly suspicious — club owner, and finding herself in the middle of another mystery: women being killed one by one, without a trace of violence.

For Riley, solving multiple cases — in a world going mad with human and vampire passions — would have been tough enough. Instead she has two jealous lovers on her hands: Kye Murphy, the amber-eyed werewolf who makes Riley's wolf blood howl — and Quinn, the cool, elegant vamp who has over a thousand years' experience at fulfilling women's desires. While she's busy juggling these two sexy beasts, Riley's detective work takes a stunningly violent turn. Finding a murderer is now a matter of life and death. Especially since the killer has long since found her . . .

Morgan and her best friend, Bree, are introduced to Wicca when a gorgeous senior named Cal invites them to join his new coven. Morgan falls for Cal immediately-and discovers that she has strong, inexplicable powers.

Synopsis:

Carl Marsalis is a traitor, a bringer of death, a genetic freak and an unwelcome reminder of all that is dark in the human psyche — he in every sense of the word a Black Man. And right at the moment he’s beyond the UN’s juristiction, banged up in a Florida jail for financing an illegal abortion. So when the US police call, Carl cuts a deal.

The 13s are genetically engineered alpha males, designed to fight the century’s last conflicts. But men bred and designed to fight are dangerous to have aroundin peacetime. Many of them have left for Mars, but one has returned. Somehow he survived the journey to Earth, and now a series of brutal slayings has erupted across America. Only Carl can stop him.

And so begins a frenetic man hunt and a battle for survival. And a search for the truth about what was really done with the world’s last soldiers.

Author’s Notes:

“An accidentally lengthy meditation on elements of the human condition that the Kovacs books always had the capacity to sidestep — namely, the prison of our own flesh, and the inevitable doom of our own mortality. A future of genetic science out of control, geo-politics out of joint, and fresh colonial and racist aspirations for the whole human race.

“It took me two years to pull all this material together (or, some might say, apart) — check it out, see if it’s been worth it.”

From the Hardcover edition:

The future isn’t what it used to be since Richard K. Morgan arrived on the scene. He unleashed Takeshi Kovacs—private eye, soldier of fortune, and all-purpose antihero—into the body-swapping, hard-boiled, urban jungle of tomorrow in Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, and Woken Furies, winning the Philip K. Dick Award in the process. In Market Forces, he launched corporate gladiator Chris Faulkner into the brave new business of war-for-profit. Now, in Thirteen, Morgan radically reshapes and recharges science fiction yet again, with a new and unforgettable hero in Carl Marsalis: hybrid, hired gun, and a man without a country…or a planet.

Marsalis is one of a new breed. Literally. Genetically engineered by the U.S. government to embody the naked aggression and primal survival skills that centuries of civilization have erased from humankind, Thirteens were intended to be the ultimate military fighting force. The project was scuttled, however, when a fearful public branded the supersoldiers dangerous mutants, dooming the Thirteens to forced exile on Earth’s distant, desolate Mars colony. But Marsalis found a way to slip back—and into a lucrative living as a bounty hunter and hit man before a police sting landed him in prison—a fate worse than Mars, and much more dangerous.

Luckily, his “enhanced” life also seems to be a charmed one. A new chance at freedom beckons, courtesy of the government. All Marsalis has to do is use his superior skills to bring in another fugitive. But this one is no common criminal. He’s another Thirteen—one who’s already shanghaied a space shuttle, butchered its crew, and left a trail of bodies in his wake on a bloody cross-country spree. And like his pursuer, he was bred to fight to the death. Still, there’s no question Marsalis will take the job. Though it will draw him deep into violence, treachery, corruption, and painful confrontation with himself, anything is better than remaining a prisoner. The real question is: can he remain sane—and alive—long enough to succeed?

Morgan continues to unravel her past and the story of her birth mother as her relationship with Cal develops. She begins to understand more about her power as a blood witch when she finds her mother's tools of magic. Morgan can't quite relax into her relationship with Cal and the rather mysterious Hunter begins to feature more in her life. Cal and Hunter fight and, when Morgan intervenes, Hunter falls over the edge of the cliff into the rocks and water below. The book ends as Morgan begins her seventeenth birthday convinced that she is responsible for Hunter's death.

Continues the story of Morgan as her power as a witch begins to grow. Her love for Cal deepens but she worries when Cal and Hunter, another witch, fight and she later believes she has caused Hunter's death. Morgan's powers grow stronger and she begins to discover truths about Cal and his mother, Selene Belltower, truths that cast doubt on Cal's motives and intentions towards Morgan.

A stunning and suspenseful new landscape emerges in the thrilling Dark-Hunter world – a world where nothing will ever be the same again…

Fang Kattalakis isn't just a wolf. He is the brother of two of the most powerful members of the Omegrion: the ruling council that enforces the laws of the Were-Hunters. And when war erupts among the lycanthropes, sides must be chosen. Enemies are forced into shaky alliances. And when the woman Fang loves is accused of betraying her people, her only hope is that Fang believes in her. Yet in order to save her, Fang must break the law of his people and the faith of his brothers. That breech could very well spell the end of both their races and change their world forever.

Eleisha Clevon has the face of a teen angel, but she is no angel. Unlike most vampires, she doesn't like to kill, but self-preservation comes first.

When an old friend destroys himself by walking into sunlight right in front of her, Eleisha is shocked. And what she finds afterwards points to how very sick of his existence her friend had become — piling drained corpses in the basement and keeping records of other vampires' real names and addresses. That's a problem.

Because now, there are policemen on the case: two very special humans with some gifts of their own. They know who Eleisha is, and, even more dangerous, what she is.

First, there were the dead in the graveyard who I'd been hired to raise to settle a dispute over who owned the land they were buried on. Then the three dead teenagers in the woods and another girl, drained of blood. Something was wrong in and around Branson, Missouri. And I was right in the middle.

"You can't trust anyone who sleeps with monsters". That's what Anita Blake had always believed. But now she was sharing a bed with the Master Vampire of the city. So when an arsonist began to target vampire victims, the creatures of the night turned to their former enemy. For now only "The Executioner" could save them from the inferno.

"Richard was an alpha werewolf. It was his only serious flaw. We'd broken up after I'd seen him eat somebody". Thrown into jail for assaulting a woman, Anita's ex-fiance needs her help. She has just a few days to spring him and find out who framed him; the full moon is on its way.

“Blood of Ambrose is slick, weaving a dark tale of despair and death as our heroes struggle to save their kingdom and, as the book moves forward, the entire continent as a darker and far more dangerous adversary is revealed. Enge’s style is more show than tell and for Blood of Ambrose this works magically as the Two Cities of the Ontilian Empire seem to breathe life throughout the pages….It seemed too soon when I reached the end, so well had Enge penned this barbaric and epic tale. I fully understand now why the book was recently nominated for Best Fantasy Book of the Year.”

—Shiny book Review

“Black Air” tells the story of the Spanish Armada from the point of view of a young boy able to sense the impending death of other people.

BALSS NO DEBESĪM

Staņislavs Lems.

IZDEVĒJA PIEBILDE

Sajā grāmatā publicēts rokraksts, kas pēc pro­fesora Pitera E. Hogarta nāves atrasts viņa pa­pīros. Sis varenā prāta cilvēks diemžēl nepaspēja galīgi sagatavot un pabeigt manuskriptu pie kura bija strādājis ilgāku laiku. Viņu kavēja slimība. Tā kā par šo viņam neparasto darbu, kurš bija pasākts ne tik daudz aiz patikas, kā, aiz pienākuma apziņas, nelaiķis profesors ne­labprāt runāja pat ar sev tuviem cilvēkiem, pie kuriem man bija tas gods piederēt, tad, sagata­vojot rokrakstu izdošanai, atklājās dažas ne­skaidrības un strīdīgi jautājumi. Patiesības la­bad man jāpaskaidro, ka to cilvēku vidū, kuri bija iepazīstināti ar manuskripta tekstu, radās iebildumi pret tā publicēšanu, jo tāds it kā ne­esot bijis nelaika nodoms. Taču nebija saglabā­jies neviens viņa rakstveida apliecinājums šāda veida nostādnei, tāpēc jādomā, ka līdzīgi pie­ņēmumi ir nepamatoti. Toties gluži skaidrs bija, ka manuskripts ir nepabeigts, jo tam trūka virs­raksta, un tāpat tikai uzmetumos izdevās atrast kādu fragmentu, kuram — un šeit radās vislie­lākās šaubas — vajadzēja būt vai nu ievadam, vai arī pēcvārdam.

Uz testamenta pilnvaru pamata es kā nelaika draugs un kolēģis galu galā nolēmu šo frag­mentu, kas grāmatas izpratnei ir būtiski svarīgs, izmantot par ievadvārdiem. Virsrakstu «Balss no debesīm» ierosināja izdevējs misters Džons F. Kilers, kuram es šeit vēlētos izsacīt pateicību par iejūtīgo gādību, kādu viņš izrādīja, rūpēda­mies par profesora Hogarta pēdējā darba izdo­šanu, un tāpat es gribētu pateikties misis Ro- zemundai T. Selingai, kura ar tādu centību veica sagatavošanas darbu un lasīja teksta pēdējo korektūru.

Profesors Tomass V. Vorens, Vašingtonas Universitātes Matemātikas

fakultāte

Vašingtonā, Kolumbijas novads, 1996. gada aprīli.

BEGUMAS PIECI SIMTI MILJONU

Žils Verns

Jules Verne LES CINQ CENTS MILLIONS DE LA BEGUM Paris, Librairie Hachette, 1917

No franču valodas tulkojusi M. Silmale Pēcvārda autors J. Brandiss Mākslinieks N. Seminihins

Izdots saskaņa ar Latvijas PSR Zinātņu akadēmijas Redakciju un izdevumu padomes lēmumu

Tulkojums latviešu valodā, 70304-068 47mnnnnnn pēcvārds Izdevniecība

«Zinātne», 1979

Editorial Reviews

Ingram Birth Of Fire is the story of Garrett Pittston, wrongly convicted of murder. Pittston faces a choice: life in prison, or near-slavery on Mars. Under the appalling conditions imposed by those who run the mines from Earth, Pittston and his fellow workers start a revolution to wrest their freedom from the penal colony. Display advertising in science fiction publications. Previously published by Pocket Books.

Customer Reviews

Avg. Customer Review:

One of the Best Mars Colonization Novels Ever, November 7, 2001 Reviewer:

I had not read any of Jerry Pournelle's other books, when I picked this up years ago. It is an amazingly good yarn dealing with the now cliched notion of the colonization of Mars. The lead protagonist Garrett is given the option to stay in jail in overcrowded earth or get shipped out to Mars on a work detail.

He opts for the latter and gets involved in a revolution to free Mars from the oppressive multinational corporations back on earth. I read this book at least thrice! Great writing. The author moves the action at a good pace. The book felt very believable.

Good story - classic Pournelle, August 3, 2001 Reviewer:

After I read 'Janissaries' I had a 'Pournelle reading frenzy' and this is one of the novels I bought as well.

I like it, it's quite classic. Boy gets to mars 'cause he doesn't have much of a future back home. When arriving on Mars it seems he won't have much of a future there either. But the locals help him out and suddenly he finds himself caught up in a revolution… classic, not the most complex plot ever, but a good read never the less. A juvenile in the Heinlein tradition, August 30, 2000 Reviewer:

Garrett Pittson is a youth without a future in a Washington slum. After a fight between gangs he is convicted to exile and slave labour on Mars. There he is picked up by the Marsmen, emigrants and former convicts turned settlers outside the cities and mines governed by companies - and lands in the midst of a revolution in growing. Allegiance to new-won friends and love to a settler's daughter makes him join the revolution and together with the revolution the Project - using nukes to make volcanoes spew out enough water and gases to strengthen Mars atmosphere sufficiently for humans to live without space suits on Mars. Some fight scenes of the Falkenberg quality. All in all a lot like Heinlein's juveniles - in atmosphere as well as in message. solid but unexceptional Pournelle, May 24, 2000 Reviewer:

A Birth of Fire is an entertaining read with all of the Pournelle elements you would expect. The character of the young protagonist is developed nicely. The plot is solid and moves along well; helped by some interesting military tactics. The Martian setting is very well developed.

However, the book doesn't have the same spark as most other Pournelle novels. The biggest disappointment is that only the main character is developed enough to make the reader care about his fate. We never really learn enough about the thoughts and motivations of the girl who is one of the two supporting characters to become caught up in her story. The Martian colonial society also has a few small but nagging inconsistancies.

Spyder Lee is a happy man who lives in San Francisco and owns a tattoo shop. One night an angry demon tries to bite his head off before he's saved by a stranger. The demon infected Spyder with something awful - the truth. He can suddenly see the world as it really is: full of angels and demons and monsters and monster-hunters. A world full of black magic and mysteries. These are the Dominions, parallel worlds full of wonder, beauty and horror. The Black Clerks, infinitely old and infinitely powerful beings whose job it is to keep the Dominions in balance, seem to have new interests and a whole new agenda. Dropped into the middle of a conflict between the Black Clerks and other forces he doesn't fully understand, Spyder finds himself looking for a magic book with the blind swordswoman who saved him. Their journey will take them from deserts to lush palaces, to underground caverns, to the heart of Hell itself.

First published in the Infinite Matrix, www.infinitematrix.net, April 2005

In 2007 published re-edited as novel - “Butcher Bird: A Novel of the Dominion”

Spyder Lee is a happy man who lives in San Francisco and owns a tattoo shop. One night an angry demon tries to bite his head off before he's saved by a stranger. The demon infected Spyder with something awful - the truth. He can suddenly see the world as it really is: full of angels and demons and monsters and monster-hunters. A world full of black magic and mysteries. These are the Dominions, parallel worlds full of wonder, beauty and horror. The Black Clerks, infinitely old and infinitely powerful beings whose job it is to keep the Dominions in balance, seem to have new interests and a whole new agenda. Dropped into the middle of a conflict between the Black Clerks and other forces he doesn't fully understand, Spyder finds himself looking for a magic book with the blind swordswoman who saved him. Their journey will take them from deserts to lush palaces, to underground caverns, to the heart of Hell itself.

First published in the Infinite Matrix, www.infinitematrix.net, April 2005

In 2007 published re-edited as novel - “Butcher Bird: A Novel of the Dominion”

Akcja tego utworu rozgrywa się na pewnej planecie, na której piękna astronautka poddaje się procesowi bioformacji — by stać się ptakiem o białych skrzydłach. O nieoczekiwanych perypetiach związanych z tymi nowymi możliwościami opowiada Bułyczow.

We have proven that time travels are safe; the present is affected by changing the past. Nothing had changed—count your pseudopods!

Artists, composers, and writers are being mutilated and destroyed in the bloodiest murders in police history. This maniac is taking one thing - their brains! The chief of CURE nearly ends up as the next corpse . . . Remo and Chiun are acting fast, and discovering the killer's an old enemy, stockpiling brains to extract the creativity he's lacking . . . They are tracking him to Hollywood - top brain center - where work can be fun! A sexy agent wants Remo for a new career . . . Chiun meets his soap opera idol . . . and there's a great spectacle coming: irresistible force, Sinanju, meeting indestructible object, Mr. Gordons.

The president is calling. Dr. Harold W. Smith, head of the secret agency known as CURE, took the phone from the bottom left drawer of his desk and answered with a sigh, "Yes, sir." The President of the United States could not directly assign CURE to do anything, he could only suggest. The one and only order any president could give CURE would be for its immediate dissolution. And five presidents now hadn't quite done that. Though all five were often tempted. "What do you know about the Lippincott case?" the Southern voice asked. Smith regurgitated a two-page, single-spaced capsule of hard information. "Uh, huh. Well, I hear there's a plot to kill all the Lippincotts, and it has something to do with animals. Weird experiments, like," "I see," Smith gagged. "Yeah, and I think it involves my having the Lippincotts use their clout to open up new trading markets in China." The hint was clear. The White House would like the Destroyer to take a look at the situation. "You'll be using those two, I suppose?" Smith rolled his eyes upward, "I imagine so." "Whatever you say," he drawled, "just, er, um, tell them to keep the deaths down.

"Yes," Smith said, "he is taking over the city. He is giving an open invitation to organized crime to move its operations into Bay City. He's opening the piers so that contraband can move in and out easily, so drugs can flow freely. Mob interests are coming from all over the country . . . setting up cutting rooms and jewelry factories for stolen diamonds . . . printing facilities for counterfeit stock certificates and securities . . . major counting rooms for what may become the nation's biggest illegal gambling operations. It'll be the crime capital of the U.S. within a few months!" "Well, there's capitalism at work again. Proving that our system works best," Remo said. " . . . And we want you and Chiun to keep him alive. Of course, he won't know who you are or who you work for," Smith said. "Or why. Which includes us, as usual. But that's OK, if we can't kill him with kindness, then we'll CURE him," Remo said. "Let's not get into that," Smith gasped.

Remo and Chiun must focus on the dizzy series of event connecting the banana republic of Hispania, the Peaches of Mecca, and a luscious blonde named Gloria X. The missing link lies in the tequila-soaked brain of Barney Daniels, an ex-CIA agent who is spirited away to a mental hospital when he tips a few wild stories to the press. Under the influence of an intoxicating woman, the groggy sot becomes a hired assassin and gets into some tight situations. Every cutthroat in New York City is plying him with drinks to find out what he knows, and Daniels is having a high time . . . until someone slips him a mickey. It all comes back to his staggering memory in a dream: it's not the U.S. but the Russkies who are pouring missiles into the lush jungles of Hispania. Unless Remo and Chiun act fast, Washington, D.C. is likely to get blasted.

Milk run. That’s what they told Ronny Bronston this job would be. “Just like a vacation,” his boss had said. All he and the giant Dorn Horsten would have to do is visit the planet Einstein and see if there was any reason not to admit them to United Planets. The planet was a paradise, where the people had bred themselves for intelligence and beauty, where everyone was completely free. Free, sometimes, to get into more trouble than they could handle. Only Ronny could get them out of that trouble; and that’s how he wound up on the Dawnworld, in a gladiator’s arena!

The Great Awakening approaches . . .

 After eons in exile, the naturi have broken their chains and now roam the Earth bent on revenge. It is the sworn duty of Mira, the Fire Starter, to protect the nightwalker race — though even she may be powerless to withstand the horrific onslaught. As Mira and her brave lover, the vampire slayer Danaus, stand ready to do battle, thousands of winged shapeshifters darken the skies. The war of ultimate extermination has begun, and the battleground is Mira's home turf.

 The humans don't yet recognize the doom descending upon them. And the nightwalkers will surely perish unless they unite with outcast naturi who claim to want peace. But these unexpected "allies" are the same demons who have long worked for Mira's destruction — and in these darkest of days the lines between friend and foe will blur treacherously before the bloody end of all things.

It seems that (un)life is going pretty well for Zoey Redbird. She has settled in at the House of Night finishing school and is coming to terms with the vast powers the vampyre goddess, Nyx, has given her. She even has a boyfriend...or two. Best of all, Zoey finally feels she has found somewhere she belongs. Then the unthinkable happens. Human teenagers are being killed, and all the evidence points to the vampires at Zoey's school. While danger stalks the humans from Zoey's past life, she begins to realise that the very powers that made her so unique might also threaten those she loves. Then, when she needs her new friends the most, death strikes the House of Night. Zoey finds herself facing a betrayal that could break her heart and jeopardise the very fabric of her world. Not suitable for younger readers.

Kress returns to the world of Beggars in Spain to tell a new tale in an America of the future, strangely altered by genetic modifications. Wracked by the results of irresponsible genetic research and nanotechnology and overburdened by a population of jobless drones, the whole world is on the edge of collapse. Who will save it? And for whom?

Nominated for Nebula and Hugo awards for Best Novel in 1995.

„Wtedy to do akcji niespodziewanie wkroczył Din. Błyskawicznie wyciągnął z kieszeni cudem uratowany aparat Irka, przyklęknął na jedno kolano i zawołał:

— Jeszcze krok, a strzelę! Mam miotacz!

Zbir stanął. Ale Din mimo to strzelił. Strzelił i trafił. Zdjęcie, które wtedy powstało, krążyło potem po bazach i osiedlach planetarnych, dostarczając wszystkim niezrównanej uciechy.”

Malone lives in a world where psionic powers such as telepathy and teleportation exist. He must cope with them as well as an FBI Director who leaves Malone continually confused about what situation he is being asked to handle and what he is expected to do about it. Malone is charged with investigating leaks in a secret government program. For assistance, he recruits a powerful psi from a mental institution who believes she is Queen Elizabeth I of England. The problem is, she may be right.

Brain Twister marries SF adventure with slapstick comedy for hilarious results.

A shorter version of this work appeared in Astounding Science Fiction in 1959 under the title That Sweet Little Old Lady. First published in the present form in August 1962 (Pyramid Books).

Nominated for Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1960.

Early in the American Civil War, rumors of gold in the Klondike have brought would-be prospectors to North America’s Pacific Northwest. Anxious Russian investors commission American inventor Leviticus Blue to create a machine which can mine through the ice of Russian-owned Alaska. Blue’s “Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine” (or “Boneshaker” for short, named after boneshaker bicycles of the era), instead destroys several blocks of downtown Seattle and releases a subterranean vein of “blight gas” that turns anyone who breathes it into a species of zombie. (Wikipedia)

Nominated for Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2010.

British author McDonald’s outstanding SF novel channels the vitality of South America’s largest country into an edgy, post-cyberpunk free-for-all. McDonald sets up three separate characters in different eras — a cynical contemporary reality-TV producer, a near-future bisexual entrepreneur and a tormented 18th-century Jesuit agent. He then slams them together with the revelation that their worlds are strands of an immense quantum multiverse, and each of them is threatened by the Order, a vast conspiracy devoted to maintaining the status quo until the end of time. As McDonald weaves together the separate narrative threads, each character must choose between isolation or cooperation, and also between accepting things as they are or taking desperate action to make changes possible. River of Gods (2004), set in near-future India, established McDonald as a leading writer of intelligent, multicultural SF, and here he captures Latin America’s mingled despair and hope. Chaotic, heartbreaking and joyous, this must-read teeters on the edge of melodrama, but somehow keeps its precarious balance.

Won BSFA Award in 2008.

Nominated for Nebula, Hugo, Locus and John Campbell awards in 2008.

In the year 2200 London is in ruins and in the hands of two warring families. Treachery and terror reigns as the families are decimated but Silvia and a cat, a shape-changer take revenge.

Humans are the warheads in a lethal contest of missiles vs. long-range beams in deep space.

The desperate Homo sapiens of Earth launch their experimental beamship. It’s ultra-tracking and breakthrough technology allows it to out-range the Doom Stars.

The Highborn want that ship. They send swarms of missiles, knowing few will reach it. In the nosecones are their secret weapons—Free Earth Corps heroes from the Japan Campaign.

Launched from the giant missiles like shells in a shotgun, Marten Kluge and his friends must ride their torps into the particle shields and storm aboard the beamship or die in the cold vacuum of space.

BIO-WEAPON is the story of a suicide-ride to hell through a techno blizzard. BIO-WEAPON is a full novel, 85,000 words in length by Vaughn Heppner, Writers of the Future winner, Vol. IX.

The brutal war of extinction enters a horrifying new round as the cyborgs arrive from the Neptune System, in this, the third book of the series.

The Highborn are remorselessly crushing the obsolete Homo sapiens. Gambling with humanity’s existence, Supreme Commander James Hawthorne attempts to lure the dreaded Doom Stars into a trap. Social Unity’s combined Battlefleet is the bait. The cyborgs are Hawthorne’s secret weapon.

Unfortunately, for Marten Kluge, a vast space battle threatens to take place around Mars. And that is exactly where he and Omi need to go to refuel their stolen shuttle. To reach the Jupiter System, they will need more than luck and Marten’s stubbornness.

Jane Yellowrock is back on the prowl against the children of the night...

The vampire council has hired skinwalker Jane Yellowrock to hunt and kill one of their own who has broken sacred ancient rules—but Jane quickly realizes that in a community that is thousands of years old, loyalties run deep...

Nunca rompa el círculo.

En esta tercera parte de la innovadora Serie del círculo, Thomas Hunter sólo tiene días para sobrevivir en dos mundos diferentes, llenos de peligro, engaño y destrucción. El destino de ambos mundos depende de su singular habilidad de cambiar realidades por medio de sus sueños. Ahora, guiando un pequeño grupo multiforme conocido como El Círculo, Thomas se encuentra enfrentando nuevos enemigos, desafíos interminables y el amor prohibido de una mujer de lo más insólita.

Entre a la Gran Búsqueda, donde Thomas y una pequeña banda de seguidores deben decidir rápidamente en quién pueden confiar, tanto con sus propias vidas como con el destino de millones de personas.

When the government wields its power against its own people, every citizen becomes an enemy of the state. Will you fight the system, or be ground to dust beneath the boot of tyranny?

In his smash-hit anthologies Wastelands and The Living Dead, acclaimed editor John Joseph Adams showed you what happens when society is utterly wiped away. Now he brings you a glimpse into an equally terrifying future — what happens when civilization invades and dictates every aspect of your life?

From 1984 to The Handmaid’s Tale, from Children of Men to Bioshock, the dystopian imagination has been a vital and gripping cautionary force. Brave New Worlds collects 33 of the best tales of totalitarian menace by some of today’s most visionary writers.

From Huxley's Brave New World, to Orwell's 1984, to Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, dystopian books have always been an integral part of both science fiction and literature, and have influenced the broader culture discussion in unique and permanent ways. Brave New Worlds brings together the best dystopian fiction of the last 30 years, demonstrating the diversity that flourishes in this compelling subgenre. This landmark tome contains stories by Ursula K. Le Guin, Cory Doctorow, M. Rickert, Paolo Bacigalupi, Orson Scott Card, Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, and many others.

When the government wields its power against its own people, every citizen becomes an enemy of the state. Will you fight the system, or be ground to dust beneath the boot of tyranny?

In his smash-hit anthologies Wastelands and The Living Dead, acclaimed editor John Joseph Adams showed you what happens when society is utterly wiped away. Now he brings you a glimpse into an equally terrifying future — what happens when civilization invades and dictates every aspect of your life?

From 1984 to The Handmaid’s Tale, from Children of Men to Bioshock, the dystopian imagination has been a vital and gripping cautionary force. Brave New Worlds collects 33 of the best tales of totalitarian menace by some of today’s most visionary writers.

From Huxley's Brave New World, to Orwell's 1984, to Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, dystopian books have always been an integral part of both science fiction and literature, and have influenced the broader culture discussion in unique and permanent ways. Brave New Worlds brings together the best dystopian fiction of the last 30 years, demonstrating the diversity that flourishes in this compelling subgenre. This landmark tome contains stories by Ursula K. Le Guin, Cory Doctorow, M. Rickert, Paolo Bacigalupi, Orson Scott Card, Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, and many others.

What you can't see can kill you…

For months Darian and her Shaede guardian Raif have searched for the Oracle who attempted to overthrow the Shaede Nation-and kill Darian in the bargain. But now that they've finally found the half-crazed Oracle, for their efforts they are granted a possibility too painful for Raif to imagine, and too enticing for Darian to ignore.

Darian is determined to reunite Raif and the daughter he thought was dead, but her mission quickly proves dangerous when her lover Tyler is almost killed. And when a brooding and mysterious Fae warrior offers his guidance-at an extraordinary price-Darian finds herself willing to risk everything. As her single-minded hunt turns into an obsession, and she and Tyler grow further apart, Darian finds herself caught between the man she loves like a brother, and the man whose love she can't live without…

„Ne akarj ember lenni, Bill! Te is tudod, hogy úgysem fog menni. Te hős vagy, Bill, egy igazi galaktikus hős. És ha nem érted a tréfát, miért álltál katonának?”

Bill belép a Galaktikus Birodalom hatalmas haderejébe, s Heliorba utazik, ebbe az acéllabirintusba, a Sötét Űrkor központjába.

S ahogy ő mondogatja: „A háború maga a pokol” — ám egy embernek a lelki üdvét is fel kell áldoznia, hogy a Birodalmat szolgálja.

A galaxisban háború dühöng a chingerek és az emberek között. Bill véletlenül leleplez egy chinger kémet, s az azt követő csatában vitézül harcol. Kitüntetésre terjesztik fel, melyet Heliorban kell átvennie, a Birodalom fővárosában. Ám városnézés közben ellopják a térképét, és menthetetlenül eltéved a labirintusban. Amikor hónapok múltán sikerül eljutnia egy katonai bázisra, bilincsbe verik dezertálásért, és egy pokoli bolygóra viszik kényszermunkára…

„Ne akarj ember lenni, Bill! Te is tudod, hogy úgysem fog menni. Te hős vagy, Bill, egy igazi galaktikus hős. És ha nem érted a tréfát, miért álltál katonának?”

Bill belép a Galaktikus Birodalom hatalmas haderejébe, s Heliorba utazik, ebbe az acéllabirintusba, a Sötét Űrkor központjába.

S ahogy ő mondogatja: „A háború maga a pokol” — ám egy embernek a lelki üdvét is fel kell áldoznia, hogy a Birodalmat szolgálja.

A galaxisban háború dühöng a chingerek és az emberek között. Bill véletlenül leleplez egy chinger kémet, s az azt követő csatában vitézül harcol. Kitüntetésre terjesztik fel, melyet Heliorban kell átvennie, a Birodalom fővárosában. Ám városnézés közben ellopják a térképét, és menthetetlenül eltéved a labirintusban. Amikor hónapok múltán sikerül eljutnia egy katonai bázisra, bilincsbe verik dezertálásért, és egy pokoli bolygóra viszik kényszermunkára…

Trapped in 1877, a historian writes an account of an alternate history of America in which the South won the Civil War. Living in this alternate timeline, he was determined to change events at Gettysburg. When he's offered the chance to return to that fateful turning point his actions change history as he knows it, leaving him in an all too familiar past.

From the Inside Flap

“[WARD MOORE IS] ONE OF THE BEST AMERICAN WRITERS.”

—Ray Bradbury

The United States never recovered from The War for Southern Independence. While the neighboring Confederacy enjoyed the prosperity of the victor, the U.S. struggled through poverty, violence, and a nationwide depression.

The Industrial Revolution never occurred here, and so, well into the 1950s, the nation remained one of horse-drawn wagons, gaslight, highwaymen, and secret armies. This was home for Hodgins McCormick Backmaker, whose sole desire was the pursuit of knowledge. This, he felt, would spirit him away from the squalor and violence.

Disastrously, Hodgins became embroiled in the clandestine schemes of the outlaw Grand Army, from which he fled in search of a haven. But he was to discover that no place could fully protect him from the world and its dangerous realities….

“The Civil War has been often rethought, most effectively in Ward Moore's Bring the Jubilee.”

—Donald E. Westlake, The New York Times

#42 in the Millennium SF Masterworks series, a library of the finest science fiction ever written.

‘Seminal… concise and elegiac.’

Encylopedia of Science Fiction

‘A classic alternative world story.’

Brian Aldiss

‘One of the best American writers.’

Ray Bradbury

Trapped in 1877, a historian writes an account of an alternate history of America in which the South won the Civil War. Living in this alternate timeline, he was determined to change events at Gettysburg. When he's offered the chance to return to that fateful turning point his actions change history as he knows it, leaving him in an all too familiar past.

From the Inside Flap

“[WARD MOORE IS] ONE OF THE BEST AMERICAN WRITERS.”

—Ray Bradbury

The United States never recovered from The War for Southern Independence. While the neighboring Confederacy enjoyed the prosperity of the victor, the U.S. struggled through poverty, violence, and a nationwide depression.

The Industrial Revolution never occurred here, and so, well into the 1950s, the nation remained one of horse-drawn wagons, gaslight, highwaymen, and secret armies. This was home for Hodgins McCormick Backmaker, whose sole desire was the pursuit of knowledge. This, he felt, would spirit him away from the squalor and violence.

Disastrously, Hodgins became embroiled in the clandestine schemes of the outlaw Grand Army, from which he fled in search of a haven. But he was to discover that no place could fully protect him from the world and its dangerous realities….

“The Civil War has been often rethought, most effectively in Ward Moore's Bring the Jubilee.”

—Donald E. Westlake, The New York Times

#42 in the Millennium SF Masterworks series, a library of the finest science fiction ever written.

‘Seminal… concise and elegiac.’

Encylopedia of Science Fiction

‘A classic alternative world story.’

Brian Aldiss

‘One of the best American writers.’

Ray Bradbury

The award winning tale of the inevitable takeover of our society by a benign, intelligent scientific experiment gone awry. 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 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.

Blood Music won the Nebula and Hugo Awards in its original shorter form.

Ve světě, který leží na krunýři obrovské želvy, se vydává na cestu rozverná, temperamentní a neuvěřitelně výstřední výprava. Setkáte se s lakomým a naprosto neschopným čarodějem Mrakoplašem, naivním turistou Dvoukvítkem, jehož Zavazadlo za ním běhá jako pes na stovce malých nožiček, s draky, kteří existují, pokud na ně opravdu věříte, a samozřejmě dojdete až na okraj této podivné planety.

Coś nowego pojawiło się między starożytnymi miastami Ankh-Morpork i Al-Khali. Dosłownie. To wyspa, wynurzająca się z dna Okrągłego Morza Dysku. Ponieważ jest niezamieszkana i oba miasta roszczą sobie do niej prawa, komendant Vimes ze swymi wiernymi strażnikami staje wobec zbrodni tak wielkiej, że żadne prawa jej nie obejmują.

At an old manor house on a remote Scottish island, six managers of a large corporation arrive for a week-long stay. Within days they will all suffer horrifying deaths and their bodies will never be found. The government assigns the case to Department 18, the special unit created to investigate the supernatural and the paranormal. However this is no mere haunted house. The evil on this island goes back centuries, but its unholy plots and schemes are hardly things of the past. In fact, while the members of Department 18 race to unravel the island's secrets, the forces of darkness are gathering… and preparing to attack.

Twórczość Marka S. Huberatha w pigułce! Zbiór najlepszych opowiadań zajdlowskich autora, oraz całkiem nowych nigdzie dotąd nie publikowanych.

Opowiadania Huberatha są nie tylko oryginalne, w dużej mierze nieprzewidywalnej zaskakujące bogactwem tworzonych światów, ale dotyczą spraw ważnych, wokół których nie ustają publiczne dyskusje i spory. Sam autor twierdzi, że uprawia fantastykę właśnie dlatego, iż pozwala mu ona mówić o ludzkich problemach, o słabościach, o nietolerancji, zawiści i krótkowzroczności, oraz o rozterkach każdego człowieka myślącego: skąd się wzięliśmy? Kim jest Bóg? Czemu istnieje zło w naszym świecie? Te opowieści angażują czytelnika nie tylko intelektualnie, ale i emocjonalnie.

Tytułowy „Balsam długiego pożegnania”, „Akt szkicowany ołówkiem”, „Trzeba przejść groblą”, to nowe propozycje autora.

Czytelnik w proponowanym tomie znajdzie również starsze teksty: nagrodzone Zajdlem „Karę większą, nominowane do tej nagrody „Ostatni którzy wyszli z raju”, oraz inne popularne: „Trzy kobiety Dona”, „Kocią obecność”, „Absolutnego powiernika Alfreda Dyjaka” oraz debiutanckie „Wrocieeś Sneogg, wiedziaam…” nagrodzone w II Konkursie Literackim „Fantastyki”.

A POD OF WHALES, DEAD WITHOUT REASON IN SAN DIEGO BAY . . . A PRIMITIVE BRAZILIAN TRIBE WHOSE SECRETS COULD SAVE LIVES . . .A BILLIONAIRE TYCOON SET ON WORLD DOMINATION . . .An investigation into the sudden deaths of a pod of gray whales leads National Underwater & Marine Agency leader Kurt Austin to the Mexican coast, where someone tries to put him and his mini-sub permanently out of commission. Meanwhile, in South America’s lush hills, a specially assigned NUMA® team discovers a murdered body-a member of a mysterious local tribe, who live like ghosts beyond a five-part waterfall the locals call the Hand of God, and are rumored to be led by a mythical white goddess. Now they are in danger from a vicious cadre of bio-pirates intent on stealing medicinal discoveries worth millions.

Alex and Susan Wendt are the perfect couple in search of the perfect brownstone-and they find their dream house in the heart of Brooklyn Heights. Sure, the landlady is a little eccentric, and the handyman drops some cryptic remarks about the previous tenants. But the rent is so low, it's too good to pass up!

Big mistake: Susan soon discovers that the brownstone is crawling with bedbugs... Or is it? She awakens every morning with fresh bites, but neither Alex nor their daughter Emma has a single welt. Exterminators search the property and turn up nothing. Neighbors insist the building is clean. Susan fears that she's going mad-but as the mysteries deepen, a more sinister explanation presents itself: She may literally be confronting the bedbug problem from hell.

An understated horror story filled with loving references to Rosemary's Baby and other classic tales of urban paranoia, Bedbugs will keep your skin crawling into the wee hours of the night.

Ben H. Winters is the New York Times best-selling author of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (Quirk, 2009). His most recent book, the YA novel The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman (HarperCollins, 2010), was nominated for an Edgar Award.

Mechanic Mercy Thompson has friends in low places-and in dark ones. And now she owes one of them a favor. Since she can shapeshift at will, she agrees to act as some extra muscle when her vampire friend Stefan goes to deliver a message to another of his kind.

But this new vampire is hardly ordinary-and neither is the demon inside of him.

Car mechanic and sometime shapeshifter Mercy Thompson has learned, the hard way, why her race was almost exterminated. When European vampires immigrated to North America, they found Mercy's people had a hidden talent — for vampire slaying. Unfortunately for Mercy, the queen of the local vampire seethe has discovered her true identity. She's also furious when she learns Mercy has crossed her and killed one of her vampires. Mercy may be protected from direct reprisals by the werewolf pack (and her interesting relationship with its Alpha), but that just means Marsilia will come after Mercy some other way. So Mercy had better prepare to watch her back.

Red Mars, the kickoff to Robinson's epic Mars trilogy, won the Nebula for best SF novel of 1992; its follow-up, Green Mars, won the parallel Hugo for 1994. The conclusion to the saga is not unlike the terrain of Robinson’s Red Planet: fertile and fully developed in some spots, vast and arid in others but, ultimately, it’s an impressive achievement. Using the last 200 years of American history as his template for Martian history, Robinson projects his tale of Mars’s colonization from the 21^st century, in which settlers successfully revolt against Earth, into the next century, when various interests on Mars work out their differences on issues ranging from government to the terraforming of the planet and immigration. Sax Russell, Maya Toitovna and others reprise their roles from the first two novels, but the dominant “personality” is the planet itself, which Robinson describes in exhaustive naturalistic detail. Characters look repeatedly for sermons in its stones and are nearly overwhelmed by textbook abstracts on the biological and geological minutiae of their environment. Not until the closing chapters, when they begin confronting their mortality, does the human dimension of the story balance out its awesome ecological extrapolations. Robinson's achievement here is on a par with Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles and Herbert’s Dune, even if his clinical detachment may leave some readers wondering whether there really is life on Mars. (Piblishers Weekly)

Dean Koontz has surpassed his longtime reputation as "America's most popular suspense novelist"(Rolling Stone) to become one of the most celebrated and successful writers of our time. Reviewers hail his boundless originality, his art, his unparalleled ability to create highly textured, riveting drama, at once viscerally familiar and utterly unique.

Author of one #1 New York Times bestseller after another, Koontz is at the pinnacle of his powers, spinning mysteries and miracles, enthralling tales that speak directly to today's readers, balm for the heart and fire for the mind. In this stunning new novel, he delivers a tour de force of dark suspense and brilliant revelation that has all the Koontz trademarks: adventure, chills, riddles, humor, heartbreak, an unforgettable cast of characters, and a climax that will leave you clamoring for more.

Dylan O'Connor is a gifted young artist just trying to do the right thing in life. He's on his way to an arts festival in Santa Fe when he stops to get a room for himself and his twenty-year-old autistic brother, Shep. But in a nightmarish instant, Dylan is attacked by a mysterious "doctor," injected with a strange substance, and told that he is now a carrier of something that will either kill him...or transform his life in the most remarkable way. Then he is told that he must flee--before the doctor's enemies hunt him down for the secret circulating through his body. No one can help him, the doctor says, not even the police.

Stunned, disbelieving, Dylan is turned loose to run for his life...and straight into an adventure that will turn the next twenty-four hours into an odyssey of terror, mystery--and wondrous discovery. It is a journey that begins when Dylan and Shep's path intersects with that of Jillian Jackson. Before that evening Jilly was a beautiful comedian whose biggest worry was whether she would ever find a decent man. Now she too is a carrier. And even as Dylan tries to convince her that they'll be safer sticking together, cold-eyed men in a threatening pack of black Suburbans approach, only seconds before Jilly's classic Coupe DeVille explodes into thin air.

Now the three are on the run together, but with no idea whom they're running from--or why. Meanwhile Shep has begun exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior. And whatever it is that's coursing through their bodies seems to have plunged them into one waking nightmare after another. Seized by sinister premonitions, they find themselves inexplicably drawn to crime scenes--just minutes before the crimes take place.

What this unfathomable power is, how they can use it to stop the evil erupting all around them, and why they have been chosen are only parts of a puzzle that reaches back into the tragic past and the dark secrets they all share: secrets of madness, pain, and untimely death. Perhaps the answer lies in the eerie, enigmatic messages that Shep, with precious time running out, begins to repeat, about an entity who does his work "by the light of the moon."

By the Light of the Moon is a novel of heart-stopping suspense and transcendent beauty, of how evil can destroy us and love can redeem us--a masterwork of the imagination in which the surprises come page after page and the spell of sublime storytelling triumphs throughout.

Morganville, Texas is a quiet college town where humans and vampires live in relative peace. But lately a great deal of blood is being spilled — not in a feeding frenzy, but for someone's twisted idea of entertainment. After discovering that vampires populate Morganville — and surviving a number of adventures with her new night-dwelling friends — college student Claire Danvers has come to realise that for the most part, the undead just want to live their lives. But someone else wants them to get ready to rumble. There's a new extreme sport being broadcast over the Internet: bare-knuckle fights pitting captured vampires against one another — or, worse, against humans. Tracking the out-of-town signal leads Claire — accompanied by a loyal group of friends and frenemies — to discover that what started as an online brawl will soon threaten everyone in Morganville. And if they want to survive, they'll have to do a lot more than fight...

A new beginning . . . When Stefan Salvatore's first love turned him into a vampire, his world—and his soul—were destroyed. Now he and his brother, Damon, must flee their hometown, where they risk being discovered . . . and killed. The brothers head to New Orleans, looking for safe haven. But the city is more dangerous than they ever imagined, full of other vampires—and vampire hunters. Will Stefan's eternal life be forever damned? Based on the popular CW TV show inspired by the bestselling novels, Stefan's Diaries reveals the truth about what really happened between Stefan, Damon, and Katherine—and how the Vampire Diaries love triangle began.

Becker's slender debut novella is an unusual take on the zombie genre: part Grapes of Wrath, part postmodern memoir. A virus outbreak turns millions of people into mindless zombies, and the remaining humans declare war on the undead. Zombified English professor Jack Barnes discovers that he has retained his memories and his consciousness. Joined by several other sentient zombies, Barnes sets off to find the virus's creator in hopes of presenting a treatise on zombie civil rights. Barnes's dogged entitlement and self-centeredness make him both uninteresting and unbearable, and while Becker's writing is crisp, the plot meanders like its characters, consisting of little more than cannibalistic feasts and tin-eared literary and pop culture references (Hell is other zombies; Perhaps life as a zombie is better than no life at all).

Logan Gyre is king of Cenaria, a country under siege, with a threadbare army and little hope. He has one chance - a desperate gamble, but one that could destroy his kingdom.

In the north, the new Godking has a plan. If it comes to fruition, no one will have the power to stop him.

Kylar Stern has no choice. To save his friends-and perhaps his enemies-he must accomplish the impossible: assassinate a goddess.

Beyond the Shadows is the action-packed conclusion to the Night Angel Trilogy.

“What a terrific story! I was mesmerized from start to finish. Unforgettable characters, a plot that kept me guessing, nonstop action and the kind of in-depth storytelling that makes me admire a writer’s work.”

—Terry Brooks

“Kylar is a wonderful character—sympathetic and despicable, cowardly and courageous, honorable and unscrupulous …a breathtaking debut!”

—Dave Duncan, author of The Alchemist’s Code

Tarl Cabot, seeking the monsters from the Steel Worlds, found himself among the cruel savages who rule the vast Barrens.

Though himself enslaved, he stood with his comrades and masters against a coming onslaught. For the Kur had united the enemies of the tribe that held Cabot, and death and destruction were unleashed. Out of the plains came riding hordes of feud-driven braves, from the skies came a host of maddened tarn-riders, and even among the slave girls held by the blood brothers here was a devilish treason.

BLOOD BROTHERS OF GOR is one of the great John Norman epics. It is a long novel of constant action, told in depth and detail, of a struggle fought for the fate of a world where strong men clash and beautiful women await their victors.

Tarl Cabot, seeking the monsters from the Steel Worlds, found himself among the cruel savages who rule the vast Barrens.

Though himself enslaved, he stood with his comrades and masters against a coming onslaught. For the Kur had united the enemies of the tribe that held Cabot, and death and destruction were unleashed. Out of the plains came riding hordes of feud-driven braves, from the skies came a host of maddened tarn-riders, and even among the slave girls held by the blood brothers here was a devilish treason.

BLOOD BROTHERS OF GOR is one of the great John Norman epics. It is a long novel of constant action, told in depth and detail, of a struggle fought for the fate of a world where strong men clash and beautiful women await their victors.

Caitlin Paine awakes from a deep coma to discover she has been turned. Now a true, full-bred vampire, she marvels at her new powers, including her ability to fly, and her superhuman strength. She finds that her true love, Caleb, is still by her side, waiting patiently for her to recover. She has everything she could dream of.  Until it all, suddenly, goes terribly wrong.  Caitlin is horrified to discover Caleb with his ex-wife, Sera, and before Caleb has a chance to explain, Caitlin tells him to leave. Heartbroken, confused, Caitlin wants to curl up and die, her only consolation being in her wolf-pup Rose.

On Gor, the other world in Earth's orbit, the term beast can many any of three things:

First, there are the Kurii, the monsters from space who are about to invade that world.

Second, there are the Gorean warriors, men whose fighting ferocity is incomparable.

Third, there are the slave girls, who are both beasts of burden and objects of desire.

All three kinds of beasts come into action in this thrilling novel as the Kurii establish their first beachhead on Gor's polar cap. Here is a John Norman epic that takes Tarl Cabot from the canals of Port Kar to the taverns of Lydius, the tents on the Sardar Fair, and to a grand climax among the red hunters of the Arctic ice pack.

On Gor, the other world in Earth's orbit, the term beast can many any of three things:

First, there are the Kurii, the monsters from space who are about to invade that world.

Second, there are the Gorean warriors, men whose fighting ferocity is incomparable.

Third, there are the slave girls, who are both beasts of burden and objects of desire.

All three kinds of beasts come into action in this thrilling novel as the Kurii establish their first beachhead on Gor's polar cap. Here is a John Norman epic that takes Tarl Cabot from the canals of Port Kar to the taverns of Lydius, the tents on the Sardar Fair, and to a grand climax among the red hunters of the Arctic ice pack.

Everyone in Navronne seems to be after Valen. There is the fanatical Harrower priestess, Sila Diaglou, who wants to raze the kingdom. The Bastard Prince Osriel, who steals dead men's eyes. And the Pureblood Registry, determined to keep every pureblood sorcerer in thrall. Even beings out of myth, the Danae guardians, whose dancing nurtures the earth and whose attention could prove the most costly of all.

As Navronne sinks deeper into civil war and perilous winter, Valen finds himself a bargaining chip in a deadly standoff. Doomed to madness by his addiction to the doulon, and bound by oaths he refuses to abandon, the young sorcerer risks body and soul to rescue one child, seek justice for another, and bring the ailing land its righteous king. Yet no one is who they seem, and Valen's search for healing grace leads him from Harrower dungeons to the very heart of the world. In the twilight of a legend, he at last discovers the hard truth of the coming dark age and the glorious, terrible price of the land's redemption...and his own.

W zielonej, magicznej krainie, zwanej Phaze, Stile jest potężnym, budzącym lęk Błękitnym Adeptem. Pojedynkuje się z jednorożcem, zabija wielkiego, prastarego smoka i zdobywa miłość damy swego serca.

W równoległym, technokratycznym świecie Protonu prosty niewolnik Stile walczy o zdobycie statusu obywatela, rozgrywając sterowaną przez komputery grę. Wychodzi też zwycięsko z serii ataków na swe życie, zgotowanych przez tajemniczego nieprzyjaciela…

In his “North Africa” trilogy Mack Reynolds argues that a future African continent abandoned by the rest of the world might achieve prosperity if it were unified and brought under the control of a benevolent dictator—here, African-American sociologist Homer Crawford, who under the name of El Hassan strives for “the uniting and modernization of the continent of my racial heritage.”

Serialized in Analog magazine Dec 1961–Jan 1962, but was not published in book form until 1972.

El Hassan, would-be tyrant of all North Africa, was on the run. His followers at this point numbered six, one of whom was a wisp of a twenty-four year old girl. Arrayed against him and his dream, he knew, was the combined power of the world in the form of the Reunited Nations, and, in addition, such individual powers as the United States of the Americas, the Soviet Complex, Common Europe, the French Community, the British Commonwealth and the Arab Union, working both together and unilaterally...

A novel of colonialism set in North Africa, continuation of “Blackman’s Burden”. First serialized in Analog magazine in Jul–Aug 1962; published in book form in 1972.

v1.0 - eBook downloaded from http://torrents.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?t=463754 and after that imported to fb2 by soshial (21.05.2008)

The Horror Writers Association Presents

BLOOD LITE

...a collection of entertaining tales that puts the fun back into dark fiction, with ironic twists and tongue-in-cheek wit to temper the jagged edge.

Charlaine Harris reveals the dark side of going green, when a quartet of die-hard environmentalists hosts a fundraiser with a gory twist in "An Evening with Al Gore"...In an all-new Dresden Files story from Jim Butcher, when it comes to tracking deadly paranormal doings, there's no such thing as a "Day Off" for the Chicago P.D.'s wizard detective, Harry Dresden...Sherrilyn Kenyon turns a cubicle-dwelling MBA with no life into a demon-fighting seraph with one hell of an afterlife in "Where Angels Fear to Tread"...Celebrity necromancer Jaime Vegas is headlining a sold-out séance tour, but behind the scenes, a disgruntled ghost has a bone to pick, in Kelley Armstrong's "The Ungrateful Dead." Plus tales guaranteed to get under your skin — in a good way — from Janet Berliner Don D'Ammassa Nancy Holder Nancy Kilpatrick J. A. Konrath and F. Paul Wilson Joe R. Lansdale Will LudwigsenSharyn McCrumb Mark Onspaugh Mike Resnick Steven SavileD. L. Snell Eric James Stone Jeff Strand Lucien Soulban Matt Venne Christopher Welch

So let the blood flow and laughter reign — because when it comes to facing our deepest, darkest fears, a little humor goes a long way!

Even a bad witch deserves a second chance.

Wrongly accused of using her magic to harm, the closest Catherine Baker comes to helping others is serving their coffee. Life as an outcast is nothing new, thanks to her father’s reputation, but the injustice stings. Especially since the man she loved turned her in.

Now the man has the gall to show up and suggest she become the next Titania? She’d rather wipe that charming grin off his face with a pot of hot java to the groin.

Alexander Duquesne has never faltered in his duties as a guardian-until now. The lingering guilt over Cat’s exile and the recent death of his best friend have shaken his dedication. With the murder of the old Titania, the faerie realm teeters on the brink of chaos. His new orders: keep Cat alive at all costs.

Hunted by a powerful stranger intent on drawing her into an evil web, Cat reluctantly accepts Lex’s protection and the resurrected desire that comes along with it. Lex faces the fight of his life to keep her safe…and win her back. If they both survive.

Warning: This book contains one tough and snarky witch, one gorgeous guardian, explicit blood drinking, magician sex, gratuitous violence against vampires and troublemaking Shakespearean faeries.

Wybór opowiadań fantastyczno-naukowych

Utilisant une technologie quantique qu’ils ne comprennent pas totalement, les scientifiques des complexes de Crossbank et Blind Lake observent des planètes extraterrestres distantes de la Terre de plusieurs dizaines d’années-lumière. À Blind Lake, Minnesota, Marguerite Hauser s’intéresse tout particulièrement à un extraterrestre qu’elle appelle « le Sujet », mais que tout le monde surnomme « le homard », à cause de sa morphologie. Et voilà qu’un jour, personne ne sait pourquoi, le Sujet entreprend un pèlerinage qui pourrait bien lui être fatal. Au même moment, l’armée américaine boucle Blind Lake et instaure une quarantaine qui tourne à la tragédie quand un couple qui tentait de s’échapper en voiture est massacré par des drones de combat. Que se passe-t-il à Blind Lake ?

With the universe’s wormholes collapsed, darkness has fallen across interstellar civilization until Dr. Karl Woodward, commander of the starship The Mountain, ventures to an uncharted world and into a terrifying confrontation.

When half-human Cal Leandros wakes up on a beach littered with the slaughtered remains if a variety of hideous creatures, he's not that concerned. In fact, he can't remember anything—including who he is.

And that's just the way his deadly enemies like it...

Quitting her husband's house and moving back in with her horrible family, Lady Maccon becomes the scandal of the London season.

Queen Victoria dismisses her from the Shadow Council, and the only person who can explain anything, Lord Akeldama, unexpectedly leaves town. To top it all off, Alexia is attacked by homicidal mechanical ladybugs, indicating, as only ladybugs can, the fact that all of London's vampires are now very much interested in seeing Alexia quite thoroughly dead.

While Lord Maccon elects to get progressively more inebriated and Professor Lyall desperately tries to hold the Woolsey werewolf pack together, Alexia flees England for Italy in search of the mysterious Templars. Only they know enough about the preternatural to explain her increasingly inconvenient condition, but they may be worse than the vampires — and they're armed with pesto.

Eden is a Soul Eater. While that hasn’t meant much to her in the past, she’s pretty sure any minute now she’s going to go all "Carrie" on her eleventh grade class.

Noah is an Ankh. As an immortal Warrior, his purpose in life is to hunt down and kill Soul Eaters.

Eden is Noah’s next assignment. Problem is… this is an assignment with a difference. Eden’s not your average, run of the mill, Soul Eater. Noah’s job? To test Eden for possible redemption.

It’s a risky business.

Especially if Noah awakens Eden’s inner monster.

It would be kind of hard for Eden to listen to the angel on her shoulder when the devil on the other is telling her, her new best friend is a lying, scheming, immortal enemy…

….betrayal is such a bitch.

So is Eden when you get on her bad side.

All Eden wants is redemption... but the road to redemption is never an easy one.

Travelling to Scotland to find her mother’s bloodline, Eden is soon embroiled in the politics and training of the Scottish Warriors of Neith. It is a world where some stand with open arms ready to welcome her as family, while others keep a wary distance, conspiring against her. Through it all Eden learns of love, friendship, and what it means to be a warrior. Her future has promise... that is until a man she thought forever gone from her life returns to threaten it all.

When the one person Eden loves above all else is endangered, she will have to make a choice. Him... or her?

Life is such a bitch...

... but so is Eden when you don’t play nice.

It's the end of World War II. FDR's New Deal has redefined American politics. Taxes are at an all-time high. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has brought a fear of total annihilation. The rise of secret government agencies and sanctions on business has many watching their backs. America's sense of freedom is diminishing… and many are desperate to take that freedom back.

Among them is a great dreamer, an immigrant who pulled himself from the depths of poverty to become one of the wealthiest and admired men in the world. That man is Andrew Ryan, and he believed that great men and women deserve better. And so he set out to create the impossible, a utopia free from government, censorship, and moral restrictions on science—where what you give is what you get. He created Rapture—the shining city below the sea.

But as we all know, this utopia suffered a great tragedy. This is the story of how it all came to be… and how it all ended.

After narrowly surviving a bizarre animal attack while on vacation in the wilds of British Columbia, urbanite Cole Wickstrom is introduced to the mysterious world of werewolves, vampires, and other creatures, who are hunted by a loose-knit band of humans called Skinners. Lost and pursued by werewolves in the woods, Cole is saved by a skinner named Paige, who teaches him the ways of the supernatural. Cole realizes that the Skinners are dwindling in numbers and losing a fight against the supernatural creatures that could leak over into the regular human world at any time. Meanwhile the vampire Misonyk, who has an old grudge against the Skinners, has convinced another very powerful creature to fight for him.The creature is very strong, very dangerous and insane. Events set into motion by Misonyk and his creature could very well pave the way for the most powerful breed of werewolves to come forward and reclaim their territory. Cole takes a liking to Paige and cannot just leave her when this vampire and his companion begin their own killing spree. Eventually, Paige convinces Cole to join up with the Skinners and train to become one of them. Cole (and the reader) are shown that the Skinners are more than just hunters, but have their own history as well as a special connection to the supernatural.

In Last Breath, the rain brought a new and dire threat to Morganville and its vampires... their ancient enemies, the draug. Now, the vampires are fighting a losing war, and it will fall to the residents of the Glass House: Michael, Eve, Shane and Claire, to take the fight to an enemy who threatens to destroy the town, forever.

Lovers of Morganville, rejoice: Black Dawn takes the intrigue, romance and nail-biting suspense of the series to its highest level yet!

Сказки, рассказанные перед сном профессором Зельеварения Северусом Снейпом

It’s devoted to professor Fate, the unforgettable character of Hollywood*.

*Посвящается профессору Фэйту, незабвенному персонажу голливудского синематографа.

Язык дан человеку для того, чтобы скрывать свои мысли.

Шарль Морис Талейран

Я не сомневаюсь, что наше мышление по большей части обходится без слов.

Альберт Эйнштейн

История научно-практическая, на основе которой всемирно известный профессор Хогвартса Северус Снейп впоследствии написал монографию «Целевое использование Непростительных Заклятий. Варианты применения».

Примечание: Издание монографии было запрещено Министерством Магии Англии по причине содержания в ней практических советов с расчетами и иллюстрациями. Тем не менее, книга имела грандиозный успех, будучи издана во Франции, Германии, Нидерландах, Испании, Греции, Канаде и других странах.

История добровольно-принудительная, в которой замученные переходным возрастом подростки решают возникающие проблемы, как и положено, наименее приемлемыми способами. Зато наиболее болезненными, как для себя, так и для окружающих.

История фатально-оптимистическая, из которой следует, что все, происходящее в подлунном мире, является закономерной неизбежностью. Вот такое moralite.

История активно-теоретическая, о поисках смысла жизни за ее пределами, путем отсутствия осмысленных действий в ее границах, или о том, как у дураков мысли сходятся. И расходятся.

История относительно-математическая, в которой профессор Дамблдор увлекся вычислениями, забыв о погрешности, Северус Снейп в очередной раз вспомнил, до какой степени он ненавидит окружающих, а мистер Малфой, как обычно, просто не смог пройти мимо.

История занудно-террористическая, о том, как бывает полезно успеть подвести итоги, пока итоги не подвели вас. И о Фортуне. Слепой, глухой и кривобокой.

_{*опыт креста (лат.) Так Фрэнсис Бэкон называл решающий эксперимент, определяющий направление дальнейшего поиска. (А вовсе не то, что некоторые могли подумать).}

История информационно-юридическая, рассказанная исключительно мистером Люциусом Малфоем, потому что профессор Снейп, в целях безопасности своего «клиента», до сих пор категорически отказывается комментировать данные события. А с самого «клиента» что взять.

История ритуально-шизофреническая, с элементами паранойи, на основе которой всемирно известный профессор Хогвартса Северус Снейп, может, и хотел бы написать очередную монографию (возможно, даже не одну), да врожденный инстинкт самосохранения не позволяет. Ибо не хочет профессор провести остаток своей бурной жизни ни в клинике Святого Мунго, ни в Азкабане. Так что не станет он монографию писать. Не судьба.

История визуально-юмористическая, о том, что случается, когда интеллект зашкаливает, энергии - через край, а «мирных целей», на которые все это можно направить, на горизонте не видно.

_{*разновидности безумия бесконечны (лат.)}

История безупречно-стратегическая, в которой Альбус Дамблдор наглядно доказал, что наблюдение за процессом гораздо интереснее получения результата, а профессор Снейп не смог ему в этом помешать. Хотя и очень старался.

История абсурдно-хронологическая, очень темная и в целом уголовная, в которой профессор Снейп не может отказаться от внезапно открывшихся возможностей, а мистер Малфой не знает, куда от них деваться.

История загробно-анатомическая, рассказанная в основном мистером Малфоем, потому что профессор Снейп в кои веки все пропустил.

История позитивно-альтернативная, в которой мистер Малфой узнает много нового, а профессор Снейп убеждается, что жизнь действительно развивается по спирали. Да только ему от этого не легче.

История театрально-прикладная о перевоплощении, полном и частичном, рассказанная по большей части мистером Малфоем, потому что профессор Снейпа до сих пор плюется, когда о ней вспоминает.

История совершенно секретная о том, что делал профессор Снейп во время происшествия в Министерстве Магии, вместо того чтобы искать Гарри Поттера в Запретном лесу. И о том, что делал в это же время мистер Малфой, вместо того чтобы пытаться добыть пророчество для любимого Повелителя. И о том, чем в итоге все это безобразие закончилось.

Жизнь делится на три части: когда ты веришь в Санта-Клауса, когда ты не веришь в Санта-Клауса и когда ты уже сам Санта-Клаус.

История примитивно-теократическая, в которой Старейший Князь знакомит профессора Снейпа с основами диалектики на примере отдельно взятого феникса, а профессор Снейп в очередной раз знакомит Старейшего Князя с изгибами собственного мировоззрения. Без примеров.

История, безусловно, самая грустная, о том, как профессор Снейп отправил Альбуса Дамблдора в «очередное приключение», а сам от такого счастья воздержался, чем и вызвал стойкое неудовольствие всех, кто так неосмотрительно легендарному шпиону доверял.

История пространственно-временная, в которой Темный Лорд Волдеморт осознал бескрайность своих возможностей, а профессор Снейп - ограниченность возможностей Старейшего Князя. А еще о глубине души человеческой. И вообще, о ее наличии.

История походно-полевая, о том, как просто при некоторых навыках безвозвратно потеряться в окружающем пространстве.

История дифференциально-вариационная, в которой мистер Гарри Поттер и Темный Лорд Волдеморт наглядно знакомятся с общей теоремой динамики, известной под названием принципа наименьшего принуждения.

История потенциально-драматическая, в которой профессор Снейп узнает много нового о должности Старейшего Князя, а мистер Малфой и Альбус Дамблдор о нем самом.

История последняя, безнадежно-абстрактная, в которой всемирно известный профессор Хогвартса Северус Снейп не оставляет бессмысленных попыток идентифицировать собственную личность. А все окружающие усиленно ему мешают. Впрочем, как обычно.

The book that launched the career of Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Greg Bear—and earned him an avalanche of praise from the SF world—“Blood Music” offers a “dazzling flight of disciplined imagination. (It’s) one of the most interesting stories to come along in years” (Poul Anderson).

The work of H. P. Lovecraft continues to inspire many of the leading contemporary authors of horror and the supernatural. In this anthology, S. T. Joshi, the world’s leading expert on Lovecraft and the author of the lively treatise The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos, tries his hand at assembling a modern-day Lovecraftian anthology, casting his net on both sides of the Atlantic and producing a volume that radically expands our notions of what constitutes “Lovecraftian” fiction. Caitlín R. Kiernan, Brian Stableford, and Nicholas Royle produce innovative deconstructions of Lovecraft’s “Pickman’s Model” and “The Hound.” Michael Shea transfers the Cthulhu Mythos to San Francisco, Laird Barron and Philip Haldeman set their Lovecraftian horrors in the Pacific Northwest, and Donald R. Burleson and William Browning Spencer enliven the parched Southwest with cosmic monsters. Ramsey Campbell, Jonathan Thomas, Jason Van Hollander, and others make Lovecraft himself a character in tales of cosmic menace, while David J. Schow and Michael Cisco ring new changes on the Lovecraftian concept of the forbidden book. These and other stories by Michael Marshall Smith, Norman Partridge, W. H. Pugmire, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., Darrell Schweitzer, Donald R. and Mollie L. Burleson, Sam Gafford, and Adam Niswander all reveal how vital and vibrant the Lovecraftian idiom remains… and how terrifying.

The work of H. P. Lovecraft continues to inspire many of the leading contemporary authors of horror and the supernatural. In this anthology, S. T. Joshi, the world’s leading expert on Lovecraft and the author of the lively treatise The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos, tries his hand at assembling a modern-day Lovecraftian anthology, casting his net on both sides of the Atlantic and producing a volume that radically expands our notions of what constitutes “Lovecraftian” fiction. Caitlín R. Kiernan, Brian Stableford, and Nicholas Royle produce innovative deconstructions of Lovecraft’s “Pickman’s Model” and “The Hound.” Michael Shea transfers the Cthulhu Mythos to San Francisco, Laird Barron and Philip Haldeman set their Lovecraftian horrors in the Pacific Northwest, and Donald R. Burleson and William Browning Spencer enliven the parched Southwest with cosmic monsters. Ramsey Campbell, Jonathan Thomas, Jason Van Hollander, and others make Lovecraft himself a character in tales of cosmic menace, while David J. Schow and Michael Cisco ring new changes on the Lovecraftian concept of the forbidden book. These and other stories by Michael Marshall Smith, Norman Partridge, W. H. Pugmire, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., Darrell Schweitzer, Donald R. and Mollie L. Burleson, Sam Gafford, and Adam Niswander all reveal how vital and vibrant the Lovecraftian idiom remains… and how terrifying.

The work of H. P. Lovecraft continues to inspire many of the leading contemporary authors of horror and the supernatural. In this anthology, S. T. Joshi, the world’s leading expert on Lovecraft and the author of the lively treatise The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos, tries his hand at assembling a modern-day Lovecraftian anthology, casting his net on both sides of the Atlantic and producing a volume that radically expands our notions of what constitutes “Lovecraftian” fiction. Caitlín R. Kiernan, Brian Stableford, and Nicholas Royle produce innovative deconstructions of Lovecraft’s “Pickman’s Model” and “The Hound.” Michael Shea transfers the Cthulhu Mythos to San Francisco, Laird Barron and Philip Haldeman set their Lovecraftian horrors in the Pacific Northwest, and Donald R. Burleson and William Browning Spencer enliven the parched Southwest with cosmic monsters. Ramsey Campbell, Jonathan Thomas, Jason Van Hollander, and others make Lovecraft himself a character in tales of cosmic menace, while David J. Schow and Michael Cisco ring new changes on the Lovecraftian concept of the forbidden book. These and other stories by Michael Marshall Smith, Norman Partridge, W. H. Pugmire, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., Darrell Schweitzer, Donald R. and Mollie L. Burleson, Sam Gafford, and Adam Niswander all reveal how vital and vibrant the Lovecraftian idiom remains… and how terrifying.

Perneńczycy mają problem — ich smoki się starzeją. Trwają więc dyskusje nad ochroną gatunku i w końcu zapada decyzja. Jeźdzcy wykradają jajo smoczycy Ramoth i umieszczają je w przeszlości, chcąc w ten sposób zapewnić sobie przetrwanie smoczego rodu. Nie wiedzą jednak, że podejmując się tego ryzykownego czynu, sprowadzają na siebie niebezpieczeństwo, które trudno było przewidzieć. W starciu z nowym problemem potrzebna będzie im i odwaga i spryt.

Ein Forschungslabor mitten in der Wüste von Nevada. Die Wissenschaftler trauen sich nicht mehr aus dem Sicherheitstrakt heraus, denn draußen lauert der Tod. Mutierte Mikroroboter jagen Kaninchen, Kojoten und schließlich auch Menschen. Der Biotechnologe Jack, extra eingeflogen, um den Killer-schwarm zu vernichten, muss sehr schnell feststellen, dass seine Mission fast hoffnungslos ist ...

Wie gewinnt man den 1. Preis im Millenium-Wettbewerb der allerübelsten Tat? Der listige Dämon Elbub schickt einen Märchenprinzen auf die Reise zu einer verwunschenen Prinzessin und sorgt für mehr als eine unangenehme Überraschung.

Гарри Поттер осужден за убийство, которого он не совершал, и отправлен в Азкабан на долгие десять лет. Однако за эти годы угроза Вольдеморта стала лишь страшнее. Что сделает Гарри, вновь столкнувшись лицом к лицу со своим злейшим врагом и предавшими его друзьями? Переметнется ли он на темную сторону или будет бороться с ней?

THOSE CRAZY KREMLIN GUYS ARE AT IT AGAIN...

Things are changing for the supersecret organization known as CURE. Dr. Harold Smith has a protégé, Remo is thinking about apprentice shopping and Chiun is fantasizing about retirement from the headaches of the job (i.e., Remo). Yet the world still has big trouble to dish out for the master assassins-and this time it's a real doozy.

Somebody's given America an eviction notice in Alaska-in the form of mass murder. Pipeline workers and dozens of U.S. troops are being slaughtered by a mysterious "ghost force" of silent killers. Remo and Chiun recognize the techniques-a bargain basement brand of Sinanju-which poses an alarming question. Who has trained an army of die-hard Soviet troops in the ancient, secret art of the master assassins?

A-Kickin' and A-Grinnin'

The tiny Caribbean tourist trap of Union Island wants to declare its independence from the U.S. And while baby-faced island leader Greg Grom's "Free Union Island" movement is taken about as seriously as a summer day, good ol' Greg is touring Dixieland's hot spots, from the honky-tonks to the hee-haws, trying to rally support for the cause. And some weird stuff is happening . . .

Ordinary beer-swilling, foot-stomping, line-dancing yahoos are running amok, brawling like beasts on a rampage. Remo Williams -- currently not experiencing a lot of job satisfaction as Reigning Master -- spots the connection between the doofball from Union Island and the redneck killer zombies. And he's pretty sure Greg is slipping something into the local brew, but the why is another matter. No biggie. Remo's not in a mood to make friends, or deal with the Chiun's abuse or CURE's insults. He's here to smoke some bacon. Happily.

Watch for the signs! What signs these shall be, I say unto you: first the earth will flow with the blood of Aen Seidhe, the Blood of Elves…

For over a century, humans, dwarves, gnomes, and elves have lived together in relative peace. But times have changed, the uneasy peace is over, and now the races are fighting once again. The only good elf, it seems, is a dead elf.

Geralt of Rivia, the cunning assassin known as The Witcher, has been waiting for the birth of a prophesied child. This child has the power to change the world – for good, or for evil.

As the threat of war hangs over the land and the child is hunted for her extraordinary powers, it will become Geralt's responsibility to protect them all – and the Witcher never accepts defeat.

Following The Last Wish, BLOOD OF ELVES is the new novel starring Geralt of Rivia, the inspiration for the critically-acclaimed videogame The Witcher.

Rachel Morgan has fought and hunted vampires, werewolves, banshees, demons, and other supernatural dangers as both witch and bounty hunter—and lived to tell the tale. But she's never faced off against her own kind . . . until now. Denounced and shunned for dealing with demons and black magic, her best hope is life imprisonment—at worst, a forced lobotomy and genetic slavery.

Only her enemies are strong enough to help her win her freedom, but trust comes hard when it hinges on the unscrupulous tycoon Trent Kalamack, the demon Algaliarept, and an ex-boyfriend turned thief.

I died on a Thursday—killed by a monster intent on stealing my soul.

The good news? He didn’t get it.

The bad news?

Turns out not even death will get you out of high school...Covering up her own murder was one thing, but faking life is much harder than Kaylee Cavanaugh expected. After weeks spent “recovering,” she’s back in school, fighting to stay visible to the human world, struggling to fit in with her friends and planning time alone with her new reaper boyfriend.

But to earn her keep in the human world, Kaylee must reclaim stolen souls, and when her first assignment brings her face-to-face with an old foe, she knows the game has changed. Her immortal status won’t keep her safe. And this time Kaylee isn’t just gambling with her own life....

Tiril, Erling i Móri muszą się rozdzielić…

Tiril, ścigana przez dwu mężczyzn, ucieka na morze, które wynosi jej łódź na brzeg samotnej wysepki. Mijają miesiące, a Erling wciąż rozpaczliwie szuka zaginionej dziewczyny.

Czarnoksiężnik Móri wraca na Islandię, by zrealizować swe zuchwałe marzenie o zdobyciu magicznej księgi, Rödskinny. Śmiertelnie zagrożony przekazuje telepatyczne przesłanie Tiril, która postanawia zrobić wszystko, by mu pomóc…

Na barki młodego Dolga spada wielka odpowiedzialność. Jego pomocy potrzebują nie tylko rodzice, pojawia się też Danielle. Danielle to zastraszone i poniewierane dziecko, które przez większą część życia trzymano w zamknięciu. Kiedyś miała brata, ale rozum pomieszał mu się po tym, jak zaczął widywać ducha…

“Let me tell you who I am, on the chance that these scribblings do survive...

I am Murgen, standardbearer of the Black Company, though I bear the shame of having lost that standard in battle. I am keeping these annals because Croaker is dead, One-Eye won’t, and hardly anyone else can read or write. I will be your guide for however long it takes the Shadowlanders to force our present predicament to its inevitable end...

I expect these writings to blow away on a dark wind, never to be touched by another eye. Or they might become the tinder Shadowspinner uses to light the pyre under the last man he murders after taking Dejagore...”

Bliźniacy Ulvar i Marco różnili się od siebie tak bardzo, jak tylko to między braćmi jest możliwe. Marco był piękny niczym młody bożek, Ulvar natomiast przypominał najstraszniejszą bestię. Ludzie Lodu wiedzieli, że każdy z braci ma do spełnienia specjalne zadanie, nikt jednak nie mógł uwierzyć, by jakiekolwiek dobro mogło przyjść za sprawą Ulvara, który był zły jak najprawdziwszy diabeł…

Springtime in Styria. And that means war.

There have been nineteen years of blood. The ruthless Grand Duke Orso is locked in a vicious struggle with the squabbling League of Eight, and between them they have bled the land white. While armies march, heads roll, and cities burn, behind the scenes bankers, priests and older, darker powers play a deadly game to choose who will be king.

War may be hell, but for Monza Murcatto, the Snake of Talins, the most feared and famous mercenary in Duke Orso’s employ, it’s a damn good way of making money too. Her victories have made her popular — a shade too popular for her employers taste. Betrayed, thrown down a mountain and left for dead, Murcatto’s reward is a broken body and a burning hunger for vengeance. Whatever the cost, seven men must die.

Her allies include Styria’s least reliable drunkard, Styria’s most treacherous poisoner, a mass-murderer obsessed with numbers and a barbarian who just wants to do the right thing. Her enemies number the better half of the nation. And that’s all before the most dangerous man in the world is dispatched to hunt her down and finish the job Duke Orso started…

Springtime in Styria. And that means revenge.

An author struggles to make amends for the war-torn realities he has written into existence. He leaves his empty life behind and travels across a spectrum of parallel universes in a frantic hunt for Maire, the maniacal architect of the Sixth Extinction, who has forged a new alliance and will stop at nothing to erase all realities from existence. Both a sequel to and a retelling of Enemy and An End, Broken merges the rich, horrifying universes of the previous installments of the Silver trilogy into a haunting story that is part love letter, part handbook for the apocalypse, and part confession.

The recipient of the silver medal for the Fantasy/Science Fiction category of the 2006 Independent Publisher Book Awards, Broken: A Plague Journal is the third and final book in the Silver trilogy by Paul Evan Hughes.

Книга серии BattleTech/Боевые роботы.

3072 года. Битва за планету Новый Авалон, Слово Блейка против Федеративных Солнц.

From Robert Silverberg’s “Earthmen and Strangers” anthology, 1966:

The Budrys story depicts meek, peaceful alien beings, intelligent but simple. Now we meet a very different sort of creature: a ravenous beast out of nightmare, rippling with strength, coursing with barely repressed violence. Yet Harlan Ellison’s Lad-nar and Algis Budrys’ Tylus both regard the Earthmen who visit them as supernatural beings. They recognize in them the skills and powers of superior civilizations. In this story, intelligence meets brute force in a conflict that is not quite a conflict, and a strange, curiously touching relationship develops between man and monster on this rugged lightning-blasted world.

Harlan Ellison has been a professional writer since 1955, and this was one of his first published stories. It reveals the power and intensity of imagination that has since carried him to a successful career as an author of screenplays for television and motion pictures.

As in its predecessor, we are back in the Yorkshire town of Malbry, and in the company of a young man whose behaviour verges on the sociopathic. BB is in his 40s, still living with his mother and making his living with an unrewarding (in every sense) hospital job. His ‘real’ world is a virtual one. On a website which he has called ‘badguysrock’, he has an avatar -- and as the blueeyedboy of the title, he deals in deeply unsettling violent scenarios which feature people from his own life. As we enter deeper into this murky world, we learn other equally disturbing facts. BB has an unhealthy relationship with his mother, whose violent, controlling behaviour is some kind of a pointer to the unhappy man he has become as an adult. What's more, he appears to be the only surviving brother of a group of three. His dead brothers were named after the colours in which their mother dressed them, and had died in mysterious circumstances. There are so many off-kilter aspects to this world that readers will quickly discern it is only a matter of time before something very nasty happens.

As demonic Fomorii ravage their land, Bec and a band of warrior companions leave their devastated rath to answer a plea for help. An orphaned priestess-in-training, Bec hopes the journey will help her solve the mysteries of her birth. But fighting demons has a steep price…

Grubbs Grady has so far escaped the family curse, but when he begins to experience alarming symptoms at the onset of the full moon, he is scared that the jaws of fate are opening and about to swallow him whole. He has cheated death, defeated demons, moved on with his life. But Grubbs is torn between the world of magic and his wolfen genes. Can he fight the beast inside or will he fall victim to his tainted blood?

BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL, MAN AND DEMON, SHE’S ABOUT TO FACE THE ONE THING SHE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO SURVIVE.

Welcome to the world of Kara Gillian, a cop with a gift. Not only does she have the power of “othersight” to see what most people can’t even imagine, but she’s become the exclusive summoner of a demon lord. Or maybe it’s the other way around. The fact is, with two troublesome cases on her docket and a handsome FBI agent under her skin, Kara needs the help of sexy, insatiable Lord Rhyzkahl more than he needs her. Because these two victims, linked by suspicious coincidence, haven’t just been murdered. Something has eaten their souls.

It’s a case with roots in the arcane, but whose evil has flowered among the rich, powerful, and corrupt in Beaulac, Louisiana. And as the killings continue, Kara soon realizes how much there’s still to learn about demons, men, and things that kill in the night—and how little time she has to learn it.

From the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of Parable of the Sower—one of the few African-American women writing science fiction—comes a collection of chilling fiction—true parables of the contemporary world. "Butler graces new mansions of thought with her eloquent, distinguished, and poignant prose". —Booklist.

A man looking for psychotherapy is accidentally sold a Martian therapeutic machine — with unexpected consequences.

First published in Galaxy 1956/7

The story was published in 1957 by Bantam Books as a part of the Pilgrimage to Earth collection of science fiction short stories by Robert Sheckley.

Garth Nix was born in 1963 in Melbourne, Australia, and grew up in Canberra. When he turned nineteen he left to drive around the UK in a beat-up Austin with a boot full of books and a Silver-Reed typewriter. Despite a wheel literally falling off the car, he survived to return to Australia and study at the University of Canberra. He has since worked in a bookshop, as a book publicist, a publisher’s sales representative, an editor, a literary agent, and as a public relations and marketing consultant. He was also a part-time soldier in the Australian Army Reserve, but now writes full-time.

His first story was published in 1984 and was followed by novels The Ragwitch, Sabriel, Shade’s Children, Lirael, Abhorsen, the six-book YA fantasy series “The Seventh Tower,” and most recently the seven-book “The Keys to the Kingdom” series. He lives in Sydney with his wife and their two children.

Попытка покушения на Эйрела Форкосигана при помощи ядовитого газа не удалась, но при этом пострадала беременная Корделия. У новорожденного Майлза Форкосигана вечно ломаются кости и множество других медицинских проблем. Он вырастет низкорослым.

Paleontologist Richard Leyster has achieved professional nirvana: a position with the Smithsonian Museum plus a groundbreaking dinosaur fossil site he can research, publish on, and learn from for years to come. There is nothing that could lure him away—until a disturbingly secretive stranger named Griffin enters Leysters office with an ice cooler and a job offer. In the cooler is the head of a freshly killed Stegosaurus.

Griffin has been entrusted with an extraordinary gift, an impossible technology on loan to humanity from unknown beings for an undisclosed purpose. Time travel has become a reality millions of years before it rationally could be. With it, Richard Leyster and his colleagues can make their most cherished fantasy come true. They can study the dinosaurs up close, in their own time and milieu.

Now, suddenly, individual lives can turn back on themselves. People can meet, shake hands, and converse with their younger versions at various crossroads in time. One wrong word, a single misguided act, could be disastrous to the project and to the world. But Griffin must make sure everything that is supposed to happen does happen—no matter who is destined to be hurt… or die.

And then there’s Dr. Gertrude Salley—passionate, fearless, and brutally ambitious—a genius rebel in the tight community of “bone men” and women. Alternately both Leyster’s and Griffin’s chief rival, trusted colleague, despised nemesis, and inscrutable lover at various junctures throughout time, Salley is relentlessly driven to screw with the working mechanisms of natural law, audaciously trespassing in forbidden areas, pushing paradox to the edge no matter what the consequences may be. And, when they concern the largest, most savage creatures that ever lived, the consequences may be terrifying indeed.

“Bolos. For a millennium and a half, they have been humanity’s warriors. They have fought Man’s battles, died in Man’s wars, battled to save Man’s children, even from his own kind. They have guarded Man’s worlds … and avenged Man’s defeats.” “Tireless, infinitely patient, infinitely deadly, Bolos are the most fearsome fighting machines ever developed. The most lethal artificial intelligences in history. Yet they are more than that. They are not merely the weapons of their Human commanders, but their comrades. Brothers and sisters in arms, who all too often die together.” But Bolos and their commanders do not die easily. Mankind’s enemies have learned the price of a Bolo’s death. And if Bolos and their commanders do not always die in victory, this much has always been true. They do not surrender. And they never-ever-quit.

Naukowcy XXI wiku opracowali technikę podróży w czasie. Pozostaje ich do rozwiązania tylko jeden problem:Jak zmniejszyć do minimum niebezpieczeństwo nieodwracalnego zakłócenia istniejącej rzeczywistości. Decydują się więc na porwanie trzyletniego chłopca z Neandrtalskiego plemienia. Chłopiec pozostaje w XXI wieku pod ścisłą kontrolą, mieszka w zamkniętej strefie, w któej znajdują się obiekty przeniesione z jego czasu. Opiekuje się nim pielęgniarka, panna Fellowes. Mały Neandertalczyk okazuje się nader pojętnym uczniem. Po trzech latach jest cywilizowanym dzieckiem. Wtedy zapada decyzja, że zostanie odesłany w przeszłość. Dla uczonym przestał już być interesującym obiektem badań. Potrzebują przestrzeni, którą zajmuje, dla innych postaci przeniesionych z czasów historycznych. Razem z nim jednak przenosi się w świat epoki lodowcowej nieoczekiwanie jeszcze jedna osoba…

In her first novel since 2002, Nebula and Hugo award-winning author Connie Willis returns with a stunning, enormously entertaining novel of time travel, war, and the deeds—great and small—of ordinary people who shape history. In the hands of this acclaimed storyteller, the past and future collide—and the result is at once intriguing, elusive, and frightening.

Oxford in 2060 is a chaotic place. Scores of time-traveling historians are being sent into the past, to destinations including the American Civil War and the attack on the World Trade Center. Michael Davies is prepping to go to Pearl Harbor. Merope Ward is coping with a bunch of bratty 1940 evacuees and trying to talk her thesis adviser, Mr. Dunworthy, into letting her go to VE Day. Polly Churchill’s next assignment will be as a shopgirl in the middle of London’s Blitz. And seventeen-year-old Colin Templer, who has a major crush on Polly, is determined to go to the Crusades so that he can “catch up” to her in age. 

But now the time-travel lab is suddenly canceling assignments for no apparent reason and switching around everyone’s schedules. And when Michael, Merope, and Polly finally get to World War II, things just get worse. For there they face air raids, blackouts, unexploded bombs, dive-bombing Stukas, rationing, shrapnel, V-1s, and two of the most incorrigible children in all of history—to say nothing of a growing feeling that not only their assignments but the war and history itself are spiraling out of control.

The first book in Richelle Mead's brand-new teen fiction series-set in the same world as Vampire Academy.

When alchemist Sydney is ordered into hiding to protect the life of Moroi princess Jill Dragomir, the last place she expects to be sent is a human private school in Palm Springs, California. But at their new school, the drama is only just beginning.

Populated with new faces as well as familiar ones, Bloodlines explores all the friendship, romance, battles and betrayals that made the #1 New York Times bestselling Vampire Academy series so addictive—this time in a part-vampire, part-human setting where the stakes are even higher and everyone's out for blood.

The fantastic Mission Earth saga continues with Black Genesis, as the aliens implement their insidious plan to infiltrate Earth society. Every volume of the Mission Earth series has been a New York Times bestseller and a Literary Guild Alternate Selection. Get in on the profits b y cashing in on Mission Earth-Mania!

Nominated for Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1987.

In the pitiless post-apocalyptic future, Sparrow's confusion and self-doubt are more than mere teenage angst. How much more may determine the future. Mixing symbolism from the Tarot deck, voodoo mythology, and a finely detailed vision of life and technology after the nuclear war, Bull has come up with yet another winner. Sparrow's video-age consciousness has obvious appeal for the MTV generation. A tense, ferocious dance on the deteriorating high wire of the future.

Nominated for Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1991.

Nominated for Hugo and World Fantasy awards in 1992.

In the pitiless post-apocalyptic future, Sparrow's confusion and self-doubt are more than mere teenage angst. How much more may determine the future. Mixing symbolism from the Tarot deck, voodoo mythology, and a finely detailed vision of life and technology after the nuclear war, Bull has come up with yet another winner. Sparrow's video-age consciousness has obvious appeal for the MTV generation. A tense, ferocious dance on the deteriorating high wire of the future.

Nominated for Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1991.

Nominated for Hugo and World Fantasy awards in 1992.

In 21st-century America, genetic engineering makes it possible for those who can afford it to become parents of improved, custom-made babies. The controversial procedure has produced a new breed that can function without sleep. Leisha Camden, daughter of a wealthy industrialist, is one of "the sleepless," who are endowed with remarkable intelligence and other genetic enhancements. A generation of prodigies, Leisha and her peers are resented by the rest of the population, who begin to persecute them. To escape violence, the Sleepless retreat to an armed camp, the Sanctuary, where for decades they fight to legitimize their existence in an increasingly hostile society. Leisha, a brilliant, idealistic lawyer, finds herself ostracized by both Sleepers and Sleepless as she struggles to bridge the widening gulf between the two groups. Meanwhile, the Sleepless must learn to deal with the prodigies among them. Kress competently handles a well-worn science fiction concept and raises some intriguing scientific and sociological issues.

Nominated for Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1993.

Nominated for Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1994.

Before They Are Hanged

“We should forgive our enemies, but not before they are hanged.”

—Heinrich Heine

Superior Glokta has a problem. How do you defend a city surrounded by enemies and riddled with traitors, when your allies can by no means be trusted, and your predecessor vanished without a trace? It’s enough to make a torturer want to run — if he could even walk without a stick.

Northmen have spilled over the border of Angland and are spreading fire and death across the frozen country. Crown Prince Ladisla is poised to drive them back and win undying glory. There is only one problem — he commands the worst-armed, worst-trained, worst-led army in the world.

And Bayaz, the First of the Magi, is leading a party of bold adventurers on a perilous mission through the ruins of the past. The most hated woman in the South, the most feared man in the North, and the most selfish boy in the Union make a strange alliance, but a deadly one. They might even stand a chance of saving mankind from the Eaters. If they didn’t hate each other quite so much.

Ancient secrets will be uncovered. Bloody battles will be won and lost. Bitter enemies will be forgiven — but not before they are hanged.

“Nobody writes grittier heroic fantasy that Joe Abercrombie, and the second book in his The First Law series just proves the point in spades… When Abercrombie’s characters ride for glory, you might as well be there with them, he does such a good job of putting the reader in the scene. Immediate, daring, and utterly entertaining, this second book provides evidence that Abercrombie is headed for superstar status.”

—Jeff VanderMeer, Realms of Fantasy

Lost items found. Paranormal Investigations

Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates.

No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or

Other Entertainment

For Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard, there have been worse assignments than going undercover on the set of an adult film. Dodging flaming monkey poo, for instance. Or going leaf-to-leaf with a walking plant monster. Still, there's something more troubling than usual about his newest case. The film's producer believes he's the target of a sinister entropy curse-but it's the women around him who are dying, in increasingly spectacular ways.

Harry's doubly frustrated because he got involved with this bizarre mystery only as a favor to Thomas, his flirtatious, self-absorbed vampire acquaintance of dubious integrity. Thomas has a personal stake in the case Harry can't quite figure out, until his investigation leads him straight to Thomas's oversexed vampire family. Harry's about to discover that Thomas's family tree has been hiding a shocking secret: a revelation that will change Harry's life forever.

Bohaterowie Pierścienia, pierwszego tomu sławnego cyklu Opowieści ze znanego kosmosu: Louis Wu, przez długi czas przebywający w elektrycznym transie, postarzały Kzin — Mówiący do Zwierząt oraz najlepiej Ukryty, partner szalonego Nessusa, wyruszają na powtórną wyprawę do Pierścienia.

Pierścień — najbardziej zadziwiający twór techniki w poznanym kosmosie, sztuczny świat trzy miliony razy większy od Ziemi, ma dać odpowiedź, jak zapobiec kataklizmowi grożącemu całemu wszechświatowi.

Der Biochemiker Vergil Ulam ist ein Genie seines Fachs, aber er ist ebenso risikofreudig wie sorglos. Erarbeitet in einem gentechnischen Forschungsunternehmen auf dem Gebiet der Biologik. Sein Ziel: die Herstellung »intelligenter« Zellen durch DNS-Rekombination von menschlichem Genmaterial mit dem von Einzellern. Er tut dies auf eigene Faust und ohne Genehmigung der Firmenleitung.

Der Durchbruch gelingt ihm: es ergeben sich intelligente Lymphozyten. Als das Management von seinen gefährlichen Experimenten erfährt, die Unterlagen beschlagnahmt und ihn zwingt, die gezüchteten Kulturen zu vernichten, und ihn feuert, injiziert er sich eine von ihnen in die Blutbahn. Ein paar Tage später ist er kein Mensch mehr, sondern eine überaus produktiv und fehlerfrei arbeitende biologische Struktur, die sich alles einverleibt, mit dem sie in Berührung kommt.

Die Evolution nimmt eine neue Wendung: optimal für das Leben — aber für die Menschheit das nackte Grauen.

Rookie cop Wayne witnesses a mob hit and must make a swift getaway. But waking up 300 years in the future is more extreme than he’d planned. Putting his only skills into use, he joins GalactiCop, but becomes entangled in a gang war for control of Bikini Planet - pleasure capital of the universe.

uala is part muse, part psychic vampire. While the freedom to sing or write or create is denied her, her mark across history is unmistakable: a trail of brilliant poets, musicians, and artists who have died tragically young. She has no sympathy for their abbreviated life spans; every thirteen Halloweens she burns in a bonfire and rises from her ashes with no memories of what has come before other than the knowledge of how her end will come. James is the best bagpiper in the state of Virginia—maybe in the country—plus he's young and good-looking: just Nuala's thing. But James, supremely confident in his own abilities and in love with another girl, becomes the first to ever reject Nuala's offer. He's preoccupied with bigger things than Nuala: an enigmatic horned figure who appears at dusk and the downward spiral of Dee, his girlfriend-who-isn't. James Morgan has an almost unearthly gift for music. And it has attracted Nuala, a soul-snatching faerie muse who fosters and then feeds on the creative energies of exceptional humans until they die. James has plenty of reasons to fear the faeries, but as he and Nuala collaborate on an achingly beautiful musical composition, James finds his feelings towards Nuala deepening. But the rest of the fairies are not as harmless. As Halloween-the day of the dead-draws near, James will have to battle the Faerie Queen and the horned king of the dead to save Nuala's life and his soul.

Tenebra, die Welt der Extreme, hatte sie eingefangen und ließ sie nicht mehr los. Nur der irdische Robotlehrer — eine Maschine konnte den Versuch zur Rettung der beiden Sternenkinder aus der Hölle von Tenebra unternehmen. Eine Temperatur von über 180 Grad, und ein Luftdruck von 800 Atmosphären und eine planetare Oberfläche, die täglich tiefgreifenden Veränderungen unterworfen war, machten der Maschine nichts aus.

Der Autor hat seit Jahren in den Kreisen der SFAnhänger einen ausgezeichneten Ruf, weil er es wie kaum ein anderer versteht, die Reaktionen von Lebewesen in einer fremden Umgebung lebensecht zu schildern.

Im Dämmerlicht des plumpen Empfangsgebäudes, dessen schmutziggraue Farbe den düsteren Eindruck noch verstärkte, scharten sich der Botschaftsrat, zwei Botschaftssekretäre und die Attachés um den Gesandten Spradley. Die bunten Orden der Diplomaten brachten ein wenig Farbe in die trübe Halle. Ungeduldig sah der Gesandte auf seine Fingeruhr. „Sind Sie sicher, Ben, daß die Zeit unserer Ankunft genau mitgeteilt wurde?“

The Starwolves are back in another action-packed adventure. The superbeings confront a Company death machine of vast lethal scale, designed solely to destroy them. Now they must fight a living engine of hate.

повесть ранее на русский не переводилась и не издавалась