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  • Gaiman, Neil

    American Gods

    The storm was coming�.Shadow spent three years in prison, keeping his head down, doing his time. All he wanted was to get back to the loving arms of his wife and to stay out of trouble for the rest of his life. But days before his scheduled release, he learns that his wife has been killed in an accident, and his world becomes a colder place.

    On the plane ride home to the funeral, Shadow meets a grizzled man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A self-styled grifter and rogue, Wednesday offers Shadow a job. And Shadow, a man with nothing to lose accepts.

    But working for the enigmatic Wednesday is not without its price, and Shadow soon learns that his role in Wednesday's schemes will be far more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. Entangled in a world of secrets, he embarks on a wild road trip and encounters, among others, the murderous Czernobog, the impish Mr. Nancy, and the beautiful Easter -- all of whom seem to know more about Shadow than he himself does.

    Shadow will learn that the past does not die, that everyone, including his late wife, had secrets, and that the stakes are higher than anyone could have imagined.

    All around them a storm of epic proportions threatens to break. Soon Shadow and Wednesday will be swept up into a conflict as old as humanity itself. For beneath the placid surface of everyday life a war is being fought -- and the prize is the very soul of America.

    As unsettling as it is exhilarating, American Gods is a dark and kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an America at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. Magnificently told, this work of literary magic will haunt the reader far beyond the final page.

  • Bujold, Lois McMaster

    Paladin of Souls

    One of the most honored authors in the field of fantasy and science fiction, Lois McMaster Bujold transports us once more to a dark and troubled land and embroils us in a desperate struggle to preserve the endangered souls of a realm.

    Three years have passed since the widowed Dowager Royina Ista found release from the curse of madness that kept her imprisoned in her family's castle of Valenda. Her newfound freedom is costly, bittersweet with memories, regrets, and guilty secrets -- for she knows the truth of what brought her land to the brink of destruction. And now the road -- escape -- beckons. . . . A simple pilgrimage, perhaps. Quite fitting for the Dowager Royina of all Chalion.

    Yet something else is free, too -- something beyond deadly. To the north lies the vital border fortress of Porifors. Memories linger there as well, of wars and invasions and the mighty Golden General of Jokona. And someone, something, watches from across that border -- humans, demons, gods.

    Ista thinks her little party of pilgrims wanders at will. But whose? When Ista's retinue is unexpectedly set upon not long into its travels, a mysterious ally appears -- a warrior nobleman who fights like a berserker. The temporary safety of her enigmatic champion's castle cannot ease Ista's mounting dread, however, when she finds his dark secrets are entangled with hers in a net of the gods' own weaving.

    In her dreams the threads are already drawing her to unforeseen chances, fateful meetings, fearsome choices. What the inscrutable gods commanded of her in the past brought her land to the brink of devastation. Now, once again, they have chosen Ista as their instrument. And again, for good or for ill, she must comply.

  • Haldeman, Joe

    The Forever War

    A THOUSAND YEAR CONFLICT. ONE SOLDIER LIVES THROUGH IT ALL. CAN HE MAINTAIN HIS HUMANITY?The Forever War is a science fiction classic that chronicles the life of William Mandella. Due to the time distortion associated with deep space travel, he is present during both the first and the last battle of a thousand year old conflict with the alien Taurans. A masterpiece of not just science fiction, The Forever War illustrates the futility of all wars and their effect on the human soul.The Forever War won all major science fiction awards including the Hugo, Nebula and Locus. Ridley Scott, director of Blade Runner and Alien, is currently adapting this classic for film. This is the author's preferred version and includes a foreword by John Scalzi, author of Old Man's War.REVIEWS"If there was a Fort Knox for science fiction, we'd have to lock Joe Haldeman up and throw away the key." � Steven King"The Forever War is brilliant-one of the most influential war novels of our time. That it happens to be set in the future only broadens and enhances its message." � Greg Bear�The Forever War is not just a great science fiction novel, it�s a great Vietnam war novel�and a great war novel, without qualification�that is also science fiction. A classic to grace either genre.� � Iain BanksJOE HALDEMAN'S LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS2010 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award for Lifetime Achievement 2009 Robert A. Heinlein Award 2004 Southeastern Science Fiction Lifetime Achievement Award 1996 New England Science Fiction Association Skylark Award (along with Gay Haldeman) 1989 Interzone Poll All Time Best Science Fiction AuthorLITERARY AWARDS2005 Nebula: Best Novel (Camouflage) 2004 Southeastern SF Achievement Award: Novel (Camouflage) 2004 James Tiptree Award (Camouflage) 2002 Asimov�s Reader Poll: Poem (January Fires) 2001 Rhysling Award: Long Poem (January Fires) 1999 Spanish Science Fiction Association Ignotus: Best Novel (Forever Peace) 1998 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (Forever Peace) 1998 Hugo: Best Novel (Forever Peace) 1998 Nebula: Best Novel (Forever Peace) 1997 Locus: Collection (None so Blind) 1995 Hugo: Short Story (None So Blind) 1995 Homer: Short Story (None So Blind) 1995 Science Fiction Chronicle Reader Awards (None So Blind) 1994 Southeastern SF Achievement Award: Short Story (Faces) 1994 Nebula: Best Short Story (Graves) 1993 World Fantasy Award: Best Short Story (Graves) 1991 Hugo: Best Novella (The Hemingway Hoax) 1991 Rhysling Award: Short Poem (Eighteen Years Old, October Eleventh) 1991 Nebula: Best Novella (The Hemingway Hoax) 1984 Rhysling Award: Long Poem (Saul�s Death) 1979 Analog Analytic Laboratory: Science Fact (This Space for Rent) 1977 Hugo: Short Story (Tricentennial) 1977 Locus: Short Story (Tricentennial) 1976 Hugo: Best Novel (The Forever War) 1976 Locus: Best Novel (The Forever War) 1976 Ditmar Award (The Forever War) 1976 Nebula: Best Novel (The Forever War)

  • Asimov, Isaac

    The Gods Themselves

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

  • Herbert, Frank

    Dune

    Here is the novel that will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Muad'Dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family--and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what it undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.

  • Niven, Larry

    Ringworld

    Welcome to a world like no other.The Ringworld: a landmark engineering achievement, a flat band 3 million times the surface area of Earth, encircling a distant star. Home to trillions of inhabitants, not all of which are human, and host to amazing technological wonders, the Ringworld is unique in all of the universe.Explorere Louis Wu, an Earth-born human who was part of the first expedition to Ringworld, becomes enmeshed in interplanetary and interspecies intrigue as war, and a powerful new weapon, threaten to tear the Ringworld apart forever. Now, the future of Ringworld lies in the actions of its children: Tunesmith, the Ghould protector; Acolyte, the exiled son of Speaker-to-Animals, and Wembleth, a strange Ringworld native with a mysterious past. All must play a dangerous in order to save Ringworld's population, and the stability of Ringworld itself.Blending awe-inspiring science with non-stop action and fun, Ringworld's Children, the fourth installment of the multiple award-winning saga, is the perfect introduction for readers new to this New York Times bestselling series, and long-time fans of Larry Niven's Ringworld.

  • Brin, David

    Startide Rising

    David Brin's Uplift novels are among the most thrilling and extraordinary science fiction ever written. Sundiver, Startide Rising, and The Uplift War--a New York Times bestseller--together make up one of the most beloved sagas of all time. Brin's tales are set in a future universe in which no species can reach sentience without being "uplifted" by a patron race. But the greatest mystery of all remains unsolved: who uplifted humankind?The Terran exploration vessel Streaker has crashed in the uncharted water world of Kithrup, bearing one of the most important discoveries in galactic history. Below, a handful of her human and dolphin crew battles armed rebellion and a hostile planet to safeguard her secret--the fate of the Progenitors, the fabled First Race who seeded wisdom throughout the stars.From the Paperback edition.

  • Card, Orson Scott

    Speaker for the Dead

    In the aftermath of his terrible war, Ender Wiggin disappeared, and a powerful voice arose: The Speaker for the Dead, who told the true story of the Bugger War.

    Now, long years later, a second alien race has been discovered, but again the aliens' ways are strange and frightening...again, humans die. And it is only the Speaker for the Dead, who is also Ender Wiggin the Xenocide, who has the courage to confront the mystery...and the truth.
    Speaker for the Dead is the winner of the 1986 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 1987 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

  • Willis, Connie

    Doomsday Book

    For Kivrin, preparing an on-site study of one of the deadliest eras in humanity's history was as simple as receiving inoculations against the diseases of the fourteenth century and inventing an alibi for a woman traveling alone. For her instructors in the twenty-first century, it meant painstaking calculations and careful monitoring of the rendezvous location where Kivrin would be received.But a crisis strangely linking past and future strands Kivrin in a bygone age as her fellows try desperately to rescue her. In a time of superstition and fear, Kivrin -- barely of age herself -- finds she has become an unlikely angel of hope during one of history's darkest hours.Five years in the writing by one of science fiction's most honored authors, Doomsday Book is a storytelling triumph. Connie Willis draws upon her understanding of the universalities of human nature to explore the ageless issues of evil, suffering and the indomitable will of the human spirit.From the Paperback edition.

  • Chabon, Michael

    The Yiddish Policemen's Union

    For sixty years Jewish refugees and their descendants have prospered in the Federal District of Sitka, a "temporary" safe haven created in the wake of the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel. The Jews of the Sitka District have created their own little world in the Alaskan panhandle, a vibrant and complex frontier city that moves to the music of Yiddish. But now the District is set to revert to Alaskan control, and their dream is coming to an end.

    Homicide detective Meyer Landsman of the District Police has enough problems without worrying about the upcoming Reversion. His life is a shambles, his marriage a wreck, his career a disaster. And in the cheap hotel where Landsman has washed up, someone has just committed a murder�right under his nose. When he begins to investigate the killing of his neighbor, a former chess prodigy, word comes down from on high that the case is to be dropped immediately, and Landsman finds himself contending with all the powerful forces of faith, obsession, evil, and salvation that are his heritage.

    At once a gripping whodunit, a love story, and an exploration of the mysteries of exile and redemption, The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a novel only Michael Chabon could have written.

  • Clarke, Arthur C.

    Rendezvous with Rama

    In the year 2130, a huge alien artifact approaches the Earth from outer space. Commander Norton and his crew take their ship to meet it, and, once inside, discover the wonders that go to make up Rama.

  • Pohl, Frederik

    Gateway

    Gateway opened on all the wealth of the Universe...and on reaches of unimaginable horror. When prospector Bob Broadhead went out to Gateway on the Heechee spacecraft, he decided he would know which was the right mission to make him his fortune. Three missions later, now famous and permanently rich, Robinette Broadhead has to face what happened to him and what he is...in a journey into himself as perilous and even more horrifying than the nightmare trip through the interstellar void that he drove himself to take!THE HEECHEE SAGABook One:GATEWAYBook Two:BEYOND THE BLUE EVENT HORIZONBook Three: HEECHEE RENDEZVOUSBook Four: THE ANNALS OF THE HEECHEEFrom the Paperback edition.

  • Le Guin, Ursula K.

    The Dispossessed

    Centuries ago, the moon Anarres was settled by utopian anarchists who left the Earthlike planet Urras in search of a better world, a new beginning. Now a brilliant physicist, Shevek, determines to reunite the two civilizations that have been separated by hatred since long before he was born.

    The Dispossessed is a penetrating examination of society and humanity -- and one man's brave undertaking to question the unquestionable and ignite the fires of change.

  • McIntyre, Vonda N.

    Dreamsnake

    An award-winning novel set in the post-apocalyptic future follows a young woman who travels the earth healing the sick with the help of her alien companion, the dreamsnake, pursued by two implacable followers. Reissue. PW.

  • Le Guin, Ursula K.

    The Left Hand of Darkness

    Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Science Fiction Novel of the YearA groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants can change their gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters. Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction."As profuse and original in invention as The Lord of the Rings." --Michael Moorcock"What got to me was the quality of the storytelling. She's taken the mythology, psychology--the entire creative surround--and woven it into a jewel of a story." --Frank Herbert"Evocative." --The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction"An instant classic." --Minneapolis Star-Tribune"[A] science fiction masterpiece." --Newsweek

  • Asimov, Isaac

    The Mule

    The Foundation novels of Isaac Asimov are one of the great masterworks of science fiction. Unsurpassed for their unique blend of nonstop action, daring ideas, and extensive world-building, they chronicle the struggle of a courageous group of men and women to preserve humanity�s light against an inexorable tide of darkness and violence. Led by its founding father, the great psychohistorian Hari Seldon, and taking advantage of its superior science and technology, the Foundation has survived the greed and barbarism of its neighboring warrior-planets. Yet now it must face the Empire�still the mightiest force in the Galaxy even in its death throes. When an ambitious general determined to restore the Empire�s glory turns the vast Imperial fleet toward the Foundation, the only hope for the small planet of scholars and scientists lies in the prophecies of Hari Seldon. But not even Hari Seldon could have predicted the birth of the extraordinary creature called The Mule�a mutant intelligence with a power greater than a dozen battle fleets�a power that can turn the strongest-willed human into an obedient slave.

  • Heinlein, Robert A.

    Farmer in the Sky

    Bill knew his destiny lay in the stars, but how was he to get there?George Lerner was shipping out for Ganymede to join the fledgling colony, and Bill wanted to go along. But his father would not hear of it -- far too dangerous a mission!Bill finally talked his way aboard the colony ship Mayflower -- and discovered his father was right!

  • Bradbury, Ray

    Fahrenheit 451

    Ray Bradbury�s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 is a masterwork of twentieth-century literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television �family.� But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn�t live in fear, and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television. When Mildred attempts suicide, and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. He starts hiding books in his home, and when his pilfering is discovered, the fireman has to run for his life.

  • Blish, James

    A Case of Conscience

    Father Ruiz-Sanchez is a dedicated man--a priest who is also a scientist, and a scientist who is also a human being. He has found no insoluble conflicts in his beliefs or his ethics . . . until he is sent to Lithia. There he comes upon a race of aliens who are admirable in every way except for their total reliance on cold reason; they are incapable of faith or belief.Confronted with a profound scientific riddle and ethical quandary, Father Ruiz-Sanchez soon finds himself torn between the teachings of his faith, the teachings of his science, and the inner promptings of his humanity. There is only one solution: He must accept an ancient and unforgivable heresy--and risk the futures of both worlds . . .

  • Heinlein, Robert A.

    Starship Troopers

    A recruit of the future goes through the toughest boot camp in the universe and into battle with the Terran Mobile Infantry against humankind's most frightening enemy.