This Version has an alternate ending. This follows the more historical parallels and is my favourite ending. Views: 58
Abbie Devereaux wakes in the dark, he is hooded, bound at her hands and feet. She doesn't know where she is or how she got there. A man she never sees feeds her and talks to her. He promises to keep her alive for now, but says he will kill her like the others. But Abbie has spirit, strength and bloody mindedness on her side. She counts the seconds she is alone, tells herself stories, remembers her life, talks to her captor and plots her survival. Above all, she reams of returning to normal, careless, everyday life- the land of the living. Among her memories are a horribly stressful career and a disintegrating relationship with her boyfriend, Terry. Could there be a connection between her real life and the voice in the darkness? And how can she survive in a place where fear becomes madness and the effort to survive seems too much to bear ... ? Views: 58
Steve Berry's first ever eBook exclusive short story finds an adventurer in a strange and forbidding land, in search of a long lost treasure, and very much in harm's way. As a favor to enigmatic billionaire Henrik Thorvaldsen, Cassiopeia Vitt treks into Bulgaria's Rila mountains in search of a buried stash of exceedingly rare artifacts from a bygone civilization: the ancient tomb of a Thracian king. But when her presence is discovered by a shadowy group of Russians secretly mining the area, she needs a way out. "Who to trust" becomes the question, and her life depends on choosing the right option. Includes a sneak-preview of the new Cotton Malone thriller " The Emperor's Tomb." Views: 58
Issue Four of Volume Fifteen of the Review of Australian Fiction. This issue contains new short fiction by Kim Scott and Liz Hayden. Views: 58
A whip-crack was the overture ... and gun-thunder was the finale to another wild and hilarious escapade of the hard-punching, fast-shooting hell-raisers from Texas. Larry and Stretch came to Horton County for peace and quiet, but found intrigue, danger and gun-trouble.The Governor of Colorado was being blackmailed by the urbane and treacherous Philo Brayner, who planned a bank robbery and a safe getaway. But the thieves reckoned without the West's toughest trouble-shooters.The Texans played it quiet—until the final shooting showdown. Views: 58
An unforgettable story of first love in World War II'I'm not going to be able to see you for a while, Kitty. I have a couple of days' leave and then I'll be gone.' Kitty felt her stomach turn. A few minutes ago, waiting to meet Sammy, she had felt giddy with happiness. Now, she felt sick with fear that she might never see him again.One beautiful spring morning, Kitty Danby meets Sammy Ray Bailey, a handsome young American pilot stationed nearby. Sixteen-year-old Kitty and Sammy fall quickly in love and, for a few precious weeks, the future holds a promise of happiness that Kitty hardly dares hope for. But it is 1944 and a tragic incident changes everything, leading to a web of secrets and misunderstandings which will only be understood years later . . . Views: 58
British author and critic Stableford adds a fifth novel to his Emortality series (Inherit the Earth, etc.) with this heavily speculative tale that puts the "science" in science fiction. Expanding on the episode of humanity's first extrasolar colony from The Fountains of Youth (2000), he devises an entire biosystem based on a dual coding genome rather than Earth's sole replicator molecule, DNA. That changes everything, as the colonists learn, from reproductive strategies and lifecycles to the basic taste (mildly unpleasant) of native food. Cultural as well as scientific conflicts afflict the passengers of the colony ship Hope, whose crew members seek to expand their mission to include other stars so that they can declare the colony self-sufficient. Unfrozen from suspended animation, Matthew Fleury, an ecologist and televangelist, must solve both the mystery of a murder and the mystery of life itself down on the planet called Ararat. Weaving the two plot lines together is the suggestion that the murder was committed by intelligent humanoid natives, builders of the abandoned city in which the crime took place. After talking with every faction on ship and planet, Matt travels by boat to the unexplored great plains downriver, and the novel picks up speed as his team adventures among the native flora and the very lively fauna. Despite his reputation as "an arrogant son of a bitch" and an "egomaniac," Matt is ultimately a sympathetic hero, whose intellectual and emotional leaps of faith justify the reader's belief in him. Views: 58
The world's premier thief looks back on a lifetime of adventure in these tales of his outrageous exploits It has been a fortnight since the baroness Repstein disappeared from Paris, taking with her a fortune in jewels stolen from her husband. French detectives have chased her all over Europe, following the trail of gemstones like so many precious breadcrumbs, but she has eluded their efforts. When Arsène Lupin finds her, she will not escape so easily. The most brilliant criminal mind in all of Europe, Lupin is not above performing the occasional good deed—especially when there is reward money at stake. In these thrilling stories, the gentleman thief outwits both policemen and criminals time and time again, always making sure to pocket something for himself. This ebook features a new introduction by Otto Penzler and has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices. Views: 58
A young Tokyoite doctor accepts a post on a remote island south of Okinawa. When a highly contagious fatal disease breaks out, he has to choose between saving himself or saving others. [NP] A hormone-ridden teenage youth left alone with his young stepmother following his father's death is consumed with jealousy as her affections turn to another man. [NP] A journalist in search of answers travels from the metropolis to a bleak shore on the Japan Sea and eventually the furthest extreme of ice-bound Hokkaido, as he investigates the suicide of a young man. [NP] In a backstreet of the metropolis, a wily old detective follows his hunches to nail the murderer of a young prostitute. [NP] A conflict arises between two detectives investigating the shocking suicide of a 6-year-old child, the son of a young actress famed for her immoral behavior. Can it really be suicide, or is it murder? [NP] In this early collection of five short stories, Kyotaro Nishimura explores the criminal mind and... Views: 58
Synopsis:When the Soviet army arrives in Afghanistan, the elderly Dastaguir witnesses the destruction of his village and the death of his clan. His young grandson Yassin, deaf from the sounds of the bombing, is one of the few survivors. The two set out through an unforgiving landscape, searching for the coal mine where Murad, the old man's son and the boy's father, works. They reach their destination only to learn that they must wait and rely for help on all that remains to them: a box of chewing tobacco, some unripe apples, and the kindness of strangers.Haunting in its spareness, Earth and Ashes is a tale of devastating loss, but also of human perseverance in the face of madness and war.Publishers Weekly:The devastation of Afghanistan during the Soviet war is succinctly and piercingly conveyed in Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi (trans. from the Persian by Erdag M. Goknar), a novella-length account of an old man's futile journey. Dastaguir and his grandson Yassin wait beside a guard post on the road to the mine where Dastaguir's son Murad works. The family's village has been bombed, and everyone else in the family is dead; Yassin was deafened by the attack. While he waits for a ride to the mine, Dastaguir is visited by fantastic visions ("You find yourself standing on the branch of a jujube tree, stark naked"). The blasted dreamscape of Rahimi's story and his tightly controlled prose make this a sobering literary testament to the horrors of war.Biography:Born in Kabul in 1962, Atiq Rahimi was seventeen years old when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. He left the country during the war, eventually obtaining political asylum in France. Rahimi now lives in Paris, where he makes documentary films. Earth and Ashes is his first book. Views: 58
Ruby is unlike most little girls in old China. Instead of aspiring to get married, Ruby is determined to attend university when she grows up, just like the boys in her family. Based upon the inspirational story of the author's grandmother and accompanied by richly detailed illustrations, Ruby's Wish is an engaging portrait of a young girl who strives for more and a family who rewards her hard work and courage. Views: 58
