The Family had never seen a manhunter like it. And when its machine-mind engulfed Cap'n Fanny, they knew Mantis was no simple killing-mech. A collector of human minds, a plunderer of living personalities, Mantis was a weaver of complex, murderous illusions. But why, Killeen wondered, did it indulge in such elaborate variations on slaughter when in a single blast it could destroy the remnants of Mankind? His answer lay waiting in Mantis's extraordinary sensorium, in the museum of living ghosts and defiled spirits which drove the heart of the machine . . .
Years ago, Eddie Yates disappeared into the rainforests of the Yucatan, a burned-out visionary in search of cosmic truth. A mysterious photo sends Lindsey, his ex-wife, on a quest to bring him back and puts her on a collision course with Eddie's brother Thomas, whose desire for Lindsey has never faded. Their search leads them to the ruined Mayan temples of NaChan, deep in the jungle, where mushrooms grow that can send you back through time – or kill you. NaChan is sacred to the Landon Indians, and their enigmatic shaman Chan Ma'ax. But the ruins have also become a nexus for the political forces that are tearing Mexico apart. Lindsey, Thomas, and Eddie are soon caught between Carla's rebel army and the secret US paramilitary group known as the Fighting 666th as they face off in the first battle of the end of the world.
The Hugo Award–winning author returns to the futuristic, high-tech Middle East setting of When Gravity Falls in this “major science fiction epic” (Locus). In a world filled with so many puppets, strings tend to get tangled. In this follow-up to the groundbreaking cyberpunk novel When Gravity Fails, the Budayeen is still a very dangerous place, a high-tech Arabian ghetto where power and murder go hand in hand. Marid Audran used to be a low-level street hustler, relying on his wits and independence. Now he’s a cop planted in the force by Friedlander Bey, the powerful “godfather” of the Budayeen. Marid is supposed to simply be Bey’s envoy into the police, but as a series of grisly murders piles up—children, prostitutes, a fellow officer—he is drawn deeper and deeper into the city’s chaos. Would Marid give up all his newfound money and power to get out of this mess? Absolutely. If only he could. But answers are never that easy and choices are never completely one’s own in the Budayeen.
Nebula Award Finalist: A long-awaited savior joins forces with her dark twin to confront the evil threatening their land in the second book of the acclaimed epic fantasy the Great Alta Saga Grown to young womanhood in the mountain region of the Dales and trained for combat by the all-female followers of the goddess Great Alta, Jenna reluctantly accepts the fact that she might well be the Anna, the warrior queen who has long been prophesied. Orphaned three times while still a small child, the now-teenage Jenna is compelled to lend her support and skills to the Dales’ rightful king and his brother, Carum, who holds her heart, for the reign of evil usurper Lord Kalas threatens the future of every worshipper of Alta. But Jenna does not ride alone. Whenever darkness falls, she and her companions—a young priestess in training and an aging warrior—are joined by Skada, white-haired Jenna’s dark sister, who shares her destiny and her soul. But even their combined powers may not be enough to defeat the entrenched malevolence that means to destroy everything and everyone they hold dear. A finalist for the Nebula Award for best novel, Jane Yolen’s White Jenna is a wondrous tale of duty, destiny, peril, romance, and fantasy. Interspersed with the myths and poetry the story engendered, it is a brilliantly imaginative creation of a world, a culture, and their enduring lore.
The computer age has arrived a century ahead of time with Charles Babbage's perfection of his Analytical Engine. The Industrial Revolution, supercharged by the development of steam-driven cybernetic Engines, is in full and drastic swing. Great Britain, with her calculating-cannons, steam dreamnoughts, machine-guns and information technology, prepares to better the world's lot . . .
After crashing on Earth, four stranded aliens must try to blend into the primitive society they find, but when one of them sells technological secrets to an influential congressman, they are all suddenly in grave danger. Reprint.
In the third volume in the Book of the Long Run series, young Silk, inspired by the gods, fights for survival against the shadowy rulers of the city of Viron, who command the technological wonders of the future.
For seventeen-year-old Danny Boles, a 5' 5" shortstop out of Tenkiller, Oklahoma, the summer of 1943 would be a season to remember. The country's at war, and professional baseball needs able-bodied men. Danny's headed for Highbridge, Georgia - home of the Goober Pride peanut butter factory and the Highbridge Hellbenders, a Class C farm club in the Chattahoochee Valley League. He's a scrappy player with one minor quirk: a violent encounter on the train to Georgia has rendered him mute, his vocal cords tied up in knots. Danny's idiosyncrasy, however, is nothing compared to that of his new Hellbender roommate, an erudite seven-foot giant by the name of Jumbo Hank Clerval. With his yellow eyes, strangely scarred face, and sausage-sized fingers, Hanks seems to have been put together in a meat-packing plant. But he plays a mean first base and can hit the ball a mile. With the Hellbenders in a pennant race as hot as the relentless Georgia sun, the eloquent Clerval forms a special kinship with the speechless kid from Oklahoma. Danny soon realizes that Hank is not an ordinary man but something more complex . . . more mysterious than he'd imagined.
In the centuries after the planet Jijo is abandoned for the sake of restoring ecological balance, six different species secretly colonize the planet and live in ongoing fear of being discovered and punished by the Five Galaxy patrollers.
Pining away in a dead-end job for which she endlessly meters out a powerful energy substance known as plasm, Aiah discovers an unlimited plasm supply and arranges a daring plan with a mysterious rebel to overthrow the government.
Finalist for the Nebula and World Fantasy Awards: A lonely teenager hides in the forest concealing his own magic—until a battle for survival makes hiding impossible. Summer has come to Sauterelle Lake, a vacation community in the Oregon Cascades, and seventeen-year-old Nick Verrou would rather roam the woods than work in his father’s general store. His curiosity and connection with nature have him dodging his job at every opportunity. When he meets mysterious vacationer Willow and her family—and their unnerving pet wolf—Nick discovers that others share the powers he has tried to suppress. But Nick soon learns that nature’s magic can be more dangerous than he ever imagined. Now the real trick will be surviving until autumn . . . The Silent Strength of Stones is the second novel by the author of A Red Heart of Memories and other acclaimed works. “A startling new voice in contemporary fantasy” (Locus), Nina Kiriki Hoffman “writes about magic creatively and with great feeling” (Kirkus Reviews). The Silent Strength of Stones is the 2nd book in the Chapel Hollow Novels, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order. This ebook includes the bonus story “Words of Farewell.”
In 1912 the world changes overnight. Europe and all its inhabitants disappear, replaced by a primeval continent which becomes known as Darwinia: a strange land in which evolution has followed a different path. To some this event is an act of divine retribution; to others it is an opportunity to carve out a new empire. Leaving a USA now ruled by religious fundamentalists, young photographer Guilford Law joins an expedition to Darwinia, a mission of discovery which uncovers extraordinary revelations about the whole nature of the universe.
From the acclaimed author of The Sparrow comes a new, extraordinarily imaginative SF novel which continues the powerful, moving story of Emilio Sandoz, the charismatic Jesuit priest who led the well-intentioned but catastrophic mission to the distant planet of Rakhat, and journeyed to the furthest reaches of the human soul. Now, in Children of God, Father Emilio Sanchoz returns and - against his will - is forced to continue his quest for the meaning, if any, of God's plan. Dazzlingly imaginative, philosophically provocative and immeasurably entertaining, Children of God is a must-read for fans of The Sparrow, and a startlingly fresh adventure for newcomers to Mary Doria Russell's special literary magic.
A MODERN SCIENCE FICTION CLASSIC FROM WIL MCCARTHY In the eighth decade of the Queendom of Sol, three commodities rule the day. The first is wellstone, a form of programmable matter capable of emulating almost any substance: natural, artificial, even hypothetical. The second is collapsium, a deadly crystal composed of miniature black holes, vital for the transmission of information and matter—including humans—throughout the solar system. The third is the bitter rivalry between Her Majesty's top scientists. Bruno de Towaji, famed lover and statesman, dreams of building an arc de fin, an almost mythical device capable of probing the farthest reaches of spacetime. Marlon Sykes, de Towaji's rival in both love and science, is meanwhile hard at work on a vast telecommunications project whose first step is the construction of a ring of collapsium around the sun. But when a ruthless saboteur attacks the Ring Collapsiter and sends it falling into the sun, the two scientists must put aside personal animosity and combine their prodigious intellects to prevent the destruction of the solar system . . . and every living thing within it. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). About The Collapsium: “Ingenious and witty . . . as if Terry Pratchett at his zaniest and Larry Niven at his best had collaborated.”—Booklist "Fresh and imaginative. From a plausible yet startling invention, McCarthy follows the logical lines of sight, building in parallel the technological and societal innovations."—Science Fiction Weekly "The future as McCarthy sees it is a wondrous place." —Publishers Weekly "[McCarthy] studs his narrative with far-out scientific concepts. . . . He certainly has a sense of humor."—The New York Times “An ingenious yarn with challenging ideas, well-handled technical details, and plenty of twists and turns.”—Kirkus
In the Old Country, they called them the Gentry: ancient spirits of the land, magical, amoral, and dangerous. When the Irish emigrated to North America, some of the Gentry followed...only to find that the New World already had spirits of its own, called manitou and other such names by the Native tribes. Now generations have passed, and the Irish have made homes in the new land, but the Gentry still wander homeless on the city streets. Gathering in the city shadows, they bide their time and dream of power. As their dreams grow harder, darker, fiercer, so do the Gentry themselves--appearing, to those with the sight to see them, as hard and dangerous men, invariably dressed in black. Bettina can see the Gentry, and knows them for what they are. Part Indian, part Mexican, she was raised by her grandmother to understand the spirit world. Now she lives in Kellygnow, a massive old house run as an arts colony on the outskirts of Newford, a world away from the Southwestern desert of her youth. Outsider her nighttime window, she often spies the dark men, squatting in the snow, smoking, brooding, waiting. She calls them los lobos, the wolves, and stays clear of them--until the night one follows her to the woods, and takes her hand.... Ellie, an independent young sculptor, is another with magic in her blood, but she refuses to believe it, even though she, too, sees the dark men. A strange old woman has summoned Ellie to Kellygnow to create a mask for her based on an ancient Celtic artifact. It is the mask of the mythic Summer King--another thing Ellie does not believe in. Yet lack of belief won't dim the power of the mast, or its dreadful intent. Donal, Ellie's former lover, comes from an Irish family and knows the truth at the heart of the old myths. He thinks he can use the mask and the "hard men" for his own purposes. And Donal's sister, Miki, a punk accordion player, stands on the other side of the Gentry's battle with the Native spirits of the land. She knows that more than her brother's soul is at stake. All of Newford is threatened, human and mythic beings alike. Once again Charles de Lint weaves the mythic traditions of many cultures into a seamless cloth, bringing folklore, music, and unforgettable characters to life on modern city streets. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
During the wedding festivities of his king, Cyan Dag, a knight of Gloinmere, is sought out by a mysterious bard and told a terrifying tale: that the king has married a false queen - a lie cloaked in ancient and powerful sorcery. Spurred on by his steadfast honour and loyalty, Cyan departs on a dangerous quest to rescue the real queen from her tower prison - to prevent war, and to awaken magic in a land that has lost its way ...
Fourteen-year-old Harry Potter joins the Weasleys at the Quidditch World Cup, then enters his fourth year at Hogwarts Academy where he is mysteriously entered in an unusual contest that challenges his wizarding skills, friendships and character, amid signs that an old enemy is growing stronger.
2224. Hormis l'espèce belliqueuse qui peuple la planète Nok, à l'aube de son ère industrielle, les hommes n'ont trouvé durant leurs premières explorations stellaires que les ruines de civilisations extraterrestres disparues. Or voici qu'un bref signal radio se manifeste soudain, issu d'une source en orbite autour d'une étoile à neutrons. Indéchiffrable mais d'origine artificielle. Est-ce le dernier souvenir d'une civilisation elle aussi disparue ou le premier message d'une espèce vivante ? Un an après l'aventure de Deepsix, Priscilla Hutchins, " Hutch " pour les amis, pilote spatiale de l'Académie, repart en mission d'exploration, cette fois en compagnie d'une délégation de la Société du Contact - véritables précurseurs ou bande d'allumés ? D'étoile en étoile, de monde en monde, toujours en quête de la Rencontre tant espérée, Jack McDevitt nous entraîne au sein d'une petite communauté humaine vers des réponses qui amènent d'autres questions, avec un sens du mystère et du suspense qui n'appartient qu'à lui.
In a world where humans are enslaved by alien invaders called Hoots, Charlie, a human "mount", dreams of being a runner like his father, of seeing his long-lost parents again, and of the day when humans will rule the world again. Reprint.
