May, 1910
The world is on the eve of a war set to ruin the lives of a whole generation.
The Railton family are intimately involved in the world of espionage, which will become so crucial to the conflict’s outcome.
With the death of General Sir William Railton, the family patriarch and hero of Balaclava, the family is thrown into a world of violence and intrigue.
Manipulated by the new head of the family, the ruthless arch-intriguer Giles Railton, each member of the dynasty comes to play their part in the ‘Great Game’ of Intelligence.
Through the story of one family, whose lives become caught up in some of the greatest struggles of the twentieth century, John Gardner traces the birth, the successes and the failures of the organizations now known as MI5, MI6 and GCHQ.
From the battlefields of the Western Front to Russia on the eve of revolution, this epic work of fiction tells the story of the dramatic history of Britain’s intelligence and security services.
‘The Secret Generations’ is a towering saga of adventure, romance and intrigue by an author of international stature writing at his very best.
‘A master storyteller at the height of his power’ - Len Deighton
‘A Schnapps and champagne spy-fi, packed with melodrama’ - The Guardian
‘Plenty of action, plenty of sex, lashings of period detail’ - The Financial Times
‘Perverse but electric, the book flashes provocatively through the high jinks of modern espionage’ - Mail on Sunday
‘The first book ever to combine a family saga with a spy story… keeps you turning the pages up to the last subtle twist of treachery’ - Daily Express
Before coming an author of fiction in the early 1960’s John Gardner was variously a stage magician, a Royal Marine officer and a journalist. In all Gardner has fifty-four novels to his credit, including Maestro, which was the New York Times book of the year. He was also invited by Ian Fleming’s literary copyright holders to write a series of continuation James Bond novels, which proved to be so successful that instead of the contracted three books he went on to publish some fourteen titles, including Licence Renewed and Icebreaker. Having lived in the Republic of Ireland, the United States and the UK, John Gardner sadly died in August of 2007 having just completed his third novel in the Moriarty trilogy, Conan Doyle’s eponymous villain of the Sherlock Holmes series.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books. Views: 652
Satori in Paris and Pic, two of Jack Kerouac's last novels, showcase the remarkable range and versatility of his mature talent. Satori in Paris is a rollicking autobiographical account of Kerouac's search for his heritage in France, and lands the author in his familiar milieu of seedy bars and all-night conversations. Pic is Kerouac's final novel and one of his most unusual. Narrated by ten-year-old Pictorial Review Jackson in a North Carolina vernacular, the novel charts the adventures of Pic and his brother Slim as they travel from the rural South to Harlem in the 1940s. Views: 641
Six science fiction novellas by the author hailed as “a master” by Robert Jordan—including two Nebula Award winners and two finalists.
Robert Silverberg’s novellas open the door to new worlds: In “Born with the Dead,” a woman wills her body to be “rekindled” after death, allowing her to walk among the living, while her husband is left in the impossible position of accepting her death when he can still see her. In the Nebula Award–nominated story “Homefaring,” the time-traveling narrator finds himself trapped in the consciousness of a lobsterlike creature of the far future, leading him to reflect on what it means to be human. And in the collection’s Nebula Award–winning title story, the Earth of the fiftieth century is a place where time is elusive and fluid, and young citizens live as tourists in ancient cities. “When Silverberg is at the top of his form, no one is better,” says George R. R. Martin. Also including Nebula Award finalist “The Secret Sharer,” as well as “Thomas the Proclaimer” and “We Are for the Dark," this collection offers an engrossing exploration of the work of this Grand Master, hailed by the New York Times Book Review as “the John Updike of science fiction.”
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Robert Silverberg including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection. Views: 641
Nine misfit academics on an expedition to find the volcryn, a mythic race of intersteller nomads, and the only ship available for this strange quest is the Nightflyer, a cybernetic wonder with a never-seen captain...
Nine innocents are about to find themselves in deep space, trapped with an insane murderer who can go anywhere, do anything, and intends to kill them all. Views: 640
As the descendants of the few survivors of the nuclear holocaust that leveled the earth struggle to rebuild a vanished civilization within the walls of The Home, savage barbarian trolls plot to plunder, ravage, and destroy their nascent world. Reissue. Views: 639
Annalice Mallory, the sheltered daughter of a family of map makers, discovers the cryptic diary of her long-dead ancestor that includes a map of a mysterious far-of island. Philip, Annalice's brother, sets sail for the island, lured by the promise of incomparable riches to be found. But when he doesn't return, Annalice sets out to find him -- and the secrets of the diary -- in a desperate journey that leads her through the worlds' most exciting outposts . . . and finally to the tropical islands of the South Seas, where she encounters heart-stopping peril, but also the promise of love. Views: 634
"Though ours is an age of high technology, the essence of what engineering is and what engineers do is not common knowledge. Even the most elementary of principles upon which great bridges, jumbo jets, or super computers are built are alien concepts to many. This is so in part because engineering as a human endeavor is not yet integrated into our culture and intellectual tradition. And while educators are currently wrestling with the problem of introducing technology into conventional academic curricula, thus better preparing today's students for life in a world increasingly technological, there is as yet no consensus as to how technological literacy can best be achieved. "I believe, and I argue in this essay, that the ideas of engineering are in fact in our bones and part of our human nature and experience. Furthermore, I believe that an understanding and an appreciation of engineers and engineering can be gotten without an engineering or technical education. Thus I... Views: 625
Pain and pleasure, ecstasy and horror fuse in this
splendid array of worldly parables from the pen of a master.
What if you were a double amputee, singing for joy on the
streets of New York . . . or a man who has actually held the earth in his
hands? What if you were both the god and goddess in one of the most exalted
erotic experiences in the universe . . . or the artist Correggio in the
bitterness of his most sublime work . . . or a serving maid dreaming of love
and luxury in a palace of death . . . or
a man on a fatal mission, treading a battlefield ruled by a dying god?
If you have the spirit and the longing to imagine,
come along on a journey to the heart of passion—where love and hate are mirror
images, where the alternating pulse beats of craving and denial define desire.
Only William Kotzwinkle's
extraordinary talent could chart such a course, could send his vision soaring
through so many forms of fancy. In Jewel of the Moon, he transcends even his own marvelous powers of invention to create a
cosmology of constant surprise—and irresistible enchantment.
Views: 623
A chance encounter in the woods causes a recluse to dredge up old memoriesHe meets her in a stranger's backyard. Harry is a child walking home from school, and Agnes is a young girl playing in the creek behind her house. While their parents speak, the children play, and Agnes explains the supernatural. She uses cookie dough to make statues of ghosts, she tells him, which she sets free in the river. So begins an enchantment that will last the rest of Harry's life. Years later he is a disbarred lawyer, living a reclusive life outside a Westchester commuter town. Memories of Agnes, dead for a decade, haunt him. He befriends a shivering young runaway, an encounter which forces him to confront his past for the first time, unearthing a mystery which stretches back to the Holocaust, and revolves around that strange young girl he met so long ago. Views: 605
Of all the folks in the mountain shacks, the Casteels were the lowest -- the scum of the hills.
Heaven Leigh Casteel was the prettiest, smartest girl in the backwoods, despite her ragged clothes and dirty face...despite a father meaner than ten vipers...despite her weary stepmother, who worked her like a mule. For her brother Tom and the little ones, Heaven clung to her pride and her hopes. Someday they'd get away and show the world that they were decent, fine and talented -- worthy of love and respect.
Then Heaven's stepmother ran off, and her wicked, greedy father had a scheme -- a vicious scheme that threatened to destroy the precious dream of Heaven and the children forever! Views: 604
The Cold War's boiling over. Global tensions are near the breaking point. So what's the perfect assignment for a super-spy who hasn't slept since the Korean conflict? A fun-filled trip to the Montreal World's Fair! The adorable little girl he's escorting—who, under different circumstances, would be sitting on the Lithuanian throne—can hardly contain her excitement, but it isn't all playtime for Evan Tanner. Some mysterious disappearances, apparently linked to the fair's Cuban exhibition, need to be looked into. Keeping his mind on business, however, won't be easy after an insatiable lovely in a tiger skin falls into Tanner's arms, and a mother lode of dangerous drugs falls into his lap. But the biggest, deadliest suprise is the terrorist plot Tanner's tumbling into, and he'll have to think and act quickly to prevent the visiting queen of England from being blown to smithereens. Views: 603
The Fairy Queen strictly forbids fairies from using their magic power on humans. But after Tiki accidentally meets Jan, a woman who is desperate for a baby daughter, she finds it impossible to resist fulfilling her wish. Now up against the dark and vicious power of evil, this fairy rebel must face the Queen’s fury with frightening and possibly fatal results.
From the Hardcover edition. Views: 600
Detective Russel Wren takes a case in what just might be the oddest country on earth
A phone call warning of a bomb threat is all Detective Russel Wren needs to get out the door. He makes it to the next block before an enormous explosion destroys his entire building. Without his Manhattan office, Wren finds himself forced to accept a strange mission to the tiny central European nation of Saint Sebastian. Saint Sebastian is unlike any country Wren has ever seen, and as his stay there continues, its oddities merely multiply: blond-haired citizens are consigned to the underclass; rudeness is a capital crime; and the Ministry of Clams is the go-to for any problem that can’t be solved by the Ministries of Hoaxes, Disaffection, Irony, or Allergies. No matter where Wren finds himself, he stumbles upon something puzzling, hilarious, and extraordinary—all leading up to a stunning turn of events. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Thomas Berger including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection. Views: 596
A sly, witty, and beautifully orchestrated tale about the difficulty of being good
Edward Baltram is overwhelmed with guilt. His nasty little prank has gone horribly wrong: he has fed his closest friend a sandwich laced with a hallucinogenic drug and the young man has fallen out of a window to his death. Consumed with guilt, Edward experiences a debilitating crisis of conscience. While Edward torments himself for not being good, his stepbrother, Stuart, a brilliant mathematics student, quits his promising scholastic career to live like a monk, devoting himself to the difficult task of becoming good. As Stuart seeks salvation, Edward searches for redemption through a reunion with his famous father, the reclusive painter Jesse Baltram. Funny and compelling, The Good Apprentice, first published in 1986*, is at once a supremely sophisticated entertainment and an inquiry into the spiritual crises that afflict the modern world.
*First published in the United States of America by Viking Penguin Inc. 1986 Views: 594
Welcome to the club to satisfy all your desires. In the Caribbean sun, the champagne flows and the games of pain and pleasure never stop. Lisa is the perfectionist. Elliot, the client. In their meeting, they discover that Eden is a state of heart and mind where innocence and love can be recaptured. Views: 586
