At thirty-five, Mary Frazier Armstrong, called "Frazier" by friends and enemies alike, is a sophisticated woman with a thriving art gallery, a healthy bank balance, and an enviable social position. In fact, she has everything to live for, but she's lying in a hospital bed with a morphine drip in her arm and a life expectancy measured in hours. "Don't die a stranger," her assistant says on her last hospital visit. "Tell the people you love who you are." And so, as her last act on earth, Frazier writes letters to her closest family and friends, telling them exactly what she thinks of them and, since she will be dead by the time they receive the letters, the truth about herself: she's gay.The letters are sent. Then the manure hits the fan in Charlottesville, Virginia, because the funny thing is, Frazier Armstrong isn't going to die after all.From the Paperback edition. Views: 63
In his most ambitious project to date, award-winning author Kim Stanley Robinson utilizes years of research and cutting-edge science in the first of three novels that will chronicle the colonization of Mars. For eons, sandstorms have swept the barren desolate landscape of the red planet. For centuries, Mars has beckoned to mankind to come and conquer its hostile climate. Now, in the year 2026, a group of one hundred colonists is about to fulfill that destiny. John Boone, Maya Toitavna, Frank Chalmers, and Arkady Bogdanov lead a mission whose ultimate goal is the terraforming of Mars. For some, Mars will become a passion driving them to daring acts of courage and madness; for others it offers and opportunity to strip the planet of its riches. And for the genetic "alchemists, " Mars presents a chance to create a biomedical miracle, a breakthrough that could change all we know about life…and death. The colonists place giant satellite mirrors in Martian orbit to reflect light to the planets surface. Black dust sprinkled on the polar caps will capture warmth and melt the ice. And massive tunnels, kilometers in depth, will be drilled into the Martian mantle to create stupendous vents of hot gases. Against this backdrop of epic upheaval, rivalries, loves, and friendships will form and fall to pieces-for there are those who will fight to the death to prevent Mars from ever being changed. Brilliantly imagined, breathtaking in scope and ingenuity, Red Mars is an epic scientific saga, chronicling the next step in human evolution and creating a world in its entirety. Red Mars shows us a future, with both glory and tarnish, that awes with complexity and inspires with vision. Views: 62
Set in the majestic world of Saracin, The Revenant Wyrd Saga details the lives of the Neferis family and their struggles against an encroaching darkness; a darkness that has a hunger for their bloodline, and will not rest until it has seen all of them destroyed. Views: 62
The sequel to "Tooth and Claw". There is a vicious drought, and dogs and cats are united in their misery. As a brave band of dogs head off into the wasteland to look for food, back home an evil enemy is left to take control — Shrinkle the fox. The starving animals are easily deceived by her lies. Views: 62
Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano has garnered millions of fans worldwide with his sardonic take on Sicilian life. Montalbano's latest case begins with a mysterious têtê à têtê with a Mafioso, some inexplicably abandoned loot from a supermarket heist, and dying words that lead him to an illegal arms cache in a mountain cave. There, the inspector finds two young lovers, dead for fifty years and still embracing, watched over by a life-sized terra-cotta dog. Montalbano's passion to solve this old crime takes him on a journey through Sicily's past and into one family's darkest secrets. With sly wit and a keen understanding of human nature, Montalbano is a detective whose earthiness, compassion, and imagination make him totally irresistable. Views: 62
Exiled from The City, Lark is wandering the land looking for safe haven. Without allies, friends, his old places of power, that seems real unlikely. Now he’s in a small town, somewhere he’s never been before. But Crosscut is dying. Everyone is sick, nothing is well. Even the ghosts are feverish. And Lark is right where someone wants him. Alone in a Ghost City. Views: 62
ep��i��logue: an ending that serves as a comment on or conclusion to what has happened. Climate change, natural disaster, war and disease threaten to destroy all we know. Predictions of the future are bleak. But does the apocalypse really mean the end of the world? Is there no hope for a future that follows? Twelve writers take on the end of the world and go beyond, to what comes next. Views: 62
Joe Crow thinks he's one hell of a poker player. An ex-cop who dresses halfway between a slob and a nerd and looks a little like Wayne Newton when he's surprised, Crow has almost forgotten what it feels like to lose. But then he lets Laura Debrowski - a spike-haired, leather-clad burst of rock'n'roll in a Muzak world - play a few hands with his stack. The next thing he knows, a drug-addled stockbroker named Dickie Wicky is holding an IOU with Crow's name - followed by too many zeros. Crow figures he can pay off the marker eventually, but Dickie has another idea. He wants Crow to tail his sexy wife, Catfish, find out who she's been shacking up with, and then get rid of him. That is, pay the guy to go away - not kill him. But some other people have different ideas. Freddy Wisnesky, a mildly retarded, oversized thug with a face like a pot roast and a passion for floral neckties, is also looking for Catfish's lover. Two con artists named Tom Jefferson and Ben Franklin - or is it Tom Paine and Ben Cartwright? Thomas Aquinas and Benjamin Disraeli? - also find their way into Crow's neighborhood, peddling shares in a $12 million rare comic book collection that just might not exist. A small-time Mafioso/car dealer/poker player, who calls himself Joey Cadillac ("new or used, cash or stash"), is on Tom and Ben's trail, looking for revenge. And when Catfish shows up one night and invites herself into Crow's bed, Crow finds himself sucked into the underbelly of Minneapolis, where card hustlers, con men, comic books, and cocaine combine in a crazy comic caper. Crow thinks he can rise above all this, live right, and leave all these unpleasant people behind. But then he has a better idea. Drawing Deadis a zany, fast-paced thriller by a wickedly clever first novelist who combines the outrageous wit of Donald E. Westlake and the comic suspense of Elmore Leonard.From Publishers WeeklyA prolific children's nonfiction author (under the pseudonym Peter Murray) turns to adult fiction in this first-class caper novel, which involves a truly unique scam and enough memorably shady characters to fill several volumes by Elmore Leonard. Tom and Ben are fast-traveling con artists who prey on novice collectors in the comic book collectibles market. When they make the mistake of selling a bogus Batman #3 to smalltime Chicago hood Joey Cadillac, they're forced to flee to Minneapolis, where they set up another scam in cahoots with questionable investment counselor Dickie Wick and his oversexed wife Catfish. Former cop and ex-cokehead Joe Crow, in debt to Wick after a bad round of poker, gets caught up in their shenanigans, much to his regret. When his gal pal, the very punk Laura Debrowski, is beaten up while trying to help him, Crow gets mad and decides to con the con men. How it all turns out makes a wonderful story, tartly told. Hautman's knowledge of the comics field and its collectors' manias gives verisimilitude to the goings-on; his two legitimate dealers, Fatman and Natch, will prompt a smile of recognition from anyone who's ever visited a comics shop. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalEx-cop and ex-druggie Joe Crow is forced into using his investigative skills to pay off a gambling debt owed to a stockbroker of dubious reputation. Teaming up with his neighbor Laura Debrowski, Crow takes on the underworld of Minneapolis card hustlers and the lucrative genre of comic-book trading. Along the way, we are introduced to a variety of strange and interesting characters, relationships, and high-finance scams. In both characterization and plot intricacies, this novel strongly resembles the high comedic novels of Donald Westlake. Written in a breezy style, with broad strokes of understated humor, it becomes a fast-paced suspense thriller with a satisfying ending. One hopes that this novel is the start of a series of equally outrageous adventures played out against the background of Minneapolis and vicinity. Recommended for general fiction and browsing collections.- Erna Chamberlain, SUNY-BinghamtonCopyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 62
