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The Thousand Orcs

This mass market reprint focuses primarily on his signature character, Drizzt Doourden, who has been the subject of most of Salvatore's best-selling titles for Wizards of the Coast, Inc. This title includes a sample chapter from the author's next hardcover, "The Lone Drow. " One Dark Elf. Two Enchanted Blades. One Unknown Enemy. And a Horde of Invaders. When a blood-thirsty band of orcs led by an as-yet-unseen enemy comes rampaging out of the Spine of the World, it lays waste to everything in its path. Dark elf ranger Drizzt Do' Urden and his most trusted friends find themselves in the path of destruction. As blades slash and feet trample, even the heroes may not survive a desperate stand.
Views: 1 433

Dark Demon

Christine Feehan has worked magic on a legion of fans with her darkly thrilling Carpathian tales. Now she delivers the provocative story of a female vampire slayer who proves as seductive - and mysterious - as the night dwellers she stalks... For as long as she can remember, Natalya has been fighting demons; first in the form of childhood nightmares, then later, immortal creatures that kill and prey on the innocent--including her own twin brother. Whether Carpathian or vampire, she slays those who murder by night, and has no equal until she is seduced by the very thing she considers her enemy... A Carpathian who has seen nearly everything in his endless existence, Vikirnoff doesn't think he can be surprised anymore, until he faces a woman who rivals him as a vampire hunter. A formidable and gifted warrior in her own right, Natalya has a nature that is strangely familiar - yet alien - to his own. Who is this mysterious female who fears no one, not even him? Natalya could the key to the survival of the Carpathians, but all Vikirnoff is certain of is that she is the key to his heart and soul...
Views: 1 295

Deuces Down

*On September 15, 1946, a biological weapon created by an alien race was accidentally detonated above the streets of New York City, killing countless numbers of men, women, and children. But those who survived the initial explosion soon began to wish they had died also, once they discovered they had been forever mutated by the virus unleashed in the blast. . . . * When the first volume in the Wild Cards series made its debut in 1986, it caused a sensation in the science fiction and fantasy communities. Here were stories of superpowered beings in a real world setting, detailing the lives of Aces those given superhuman powers by the Wild Cards virus and Jokers those whom the virus transformed into freaks and monsters. Over the course of fifteen volumes, the world created by editor George R.R. Martin and some of SF's most talented writers was explored through the eyes of both Aces and Jokers across the globe. In this all-new collection of Wild Cards stories, the spotlight is on the most unusual Wild Cards of them all the Deuces. As you'll discover in this thrilling collection, their role in the Wild Cards Universe is just as important as that of the Aces and the Jokers. In fact, their actions have affected the course of Wild Cards history. Set in an alternate, shared-world universe, Deuces Down is the one place you'll find such never-before-told tales as John J. Miller's exciting 1969 World Series between the Baltimore Orioles and the Brooklyn Dodgers; Michael Cassutt's first moon landing, when the whole world wasn't watching; Walton Simons' Great New York City Blackout of 1977; Melinda M. Snodgrass's account of Grace Kelly's mysterious disappearance during the filming of The French Lieutenant's Woman. It's a strange and terrifying world, where anything can happen. A world of Wild Cards.
Views: 1 215

Bloody Jack

Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy Life as a ship's boy aboard HMS Dolphin is a dream come true for Jacky Faber. Gone are the days of scavenging for food and fighting for survival on the streets of eighteenth-century London. Instead, Jacky is becoming a skilled and respected sailor as the crew pursues pirates on the high seas. There's only one problem: Jacky is a girl. And she will have to use every bit of her spirit, wit, and courage to keep the crew from discovering her secret. This could be the adventure of her life--if only she doesn't get caught. . . .
Views: 1 213

The Songs of the Kings: A Novel

“Troy meant one thing only to the men gathered here, as it did to their commanders. Troy was a dream of wealth; and if the wind continued the dream would crumble.” As the harsh wind holds the Greek fleet trapped in the straits at Aulis, frustration and political impotence turn into a desire for the blood of a young and innocent woman – blood that will appease the gods and allow the troops to set sail. And when Iphigeneia, Agamemnon’s beloved daughter, is brought to the coast under false pretences, and when a knife is fashioned out of the finest and most precious of materials, it looks as if the ships will soon be on their way. But can a father really go to these lengths to secure political victory, and can a daughter willingly give up her life for the worldly ambitions of her father? Throwing off the heroic values we expect of them, Barry Unsworth’s mythic characters embrace the political ethos of the twenty-first century and speak in words we recognize as our own. The blowhard Odysseus warns the men to not “marginalize” Agamemnon and to “strike while the bronze is hot.” High-sounding principles clash with private motives, and dark comedy ensues. Here is a novel that stands the world on its head. From the Hardcover edition.
Views: 1 211

The Naming

Maerad is a slave in a desperate and unforgiving settlement, taken there as a child after her family is destroyed in war. She is unaware that she possesses a powerful gift, one that marks her as a member of the School of Pellinor. It is only when she is discovered by Cadvan, one of the great Bards of Lirigon, that her true heritage and extraordinary destiny unfold. Now she and her new teacher must survive a journey through a time and place where the forces they battle stem from the deepest recesses of otherworldly terror. Alison Croggon’s epic fantasy, the first in the Books of Pellinor quartet, is a glittering saga steeped in the rich and complex landscape of Annar, a legendary world ripe for discovery.
Views: 1 205

In This Mountain

The seventh novel of Karon's beloved series is now available in paperback. Father Tim and Cynthia are back home in Mitford, where they find change in the air: a haircut price war that takes no prisoners and a risky new menu item at the Grill.
Views: 1 205

The Merchant of Death

Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here DENDURON Bobby Pendragon is a seemingly normal fourteen-year-old boy. He has a family, a home, and even Marley, his beloved dog. But there is something very special about Bobby. He is going to save the world. And not just Earth as we know it. Bobby is slowly starting to realize that life in the cosmos isn't quite what he thought it was. And before he can object, he is swept off to an alternate dimension known as Denduron, a territory inhabited by strange beings, ruled by a magical tyrant, and plagued by dangerous revolution. If Bobby wants to see his family again, he's going to have to accept his role as savior, and accept it wholeheartedly. Because, as he is about to discover, Denduron is only the beginning....
Views: 1 198

Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection

In this meticulously researched and masterfully written book, Pulitzer Prize-winner Deborah Blum examines the history of love through the lens of its strangest unsung hero: a brilliant, fearless, alcoholic psychologist named Harry Frederick Harlow. Pursuing the idea that human affection could be understood, studied, even measured, Harlow (1905-1981) arrived at his conclusions by conducting research-sometimes beautiful, sometimes horrible-on the primates in his University of Wisconsin laboratory. Paradoxically, his darkest experiments may have the brightest legacy, for by studying "neglect" and its life-altering consequences, Harlow confirmed love's central role in shaping not only how we feel but also how we think. His work sparked a psychological revolution. The more children experience affection, he discovered, the more curious they become about the world: Love makes people smarter. The biography of both a man and an idea, The Measure of Love is a powerful and at times disturbing narrative that will forever alter our understanding of human relationships.
Views: 1 197

Faking It

LOVE AND DECEPTION HAVE A LOT IN COMMON. Meet the Goodnights, a respectable family who run a respectable art gallery-and have for generations. There's Gwen, the matriarch who likes to escape reality, Eve the oldest daughter who has a slight identity problem (she has two), Nadine, the granddaughter who's ready to follow in the family footsteps as soon as she can find a set that isn't leading off a cliff. And lastly, Matilda, the youngest daughter, has inherited the secret locked down in the basement of the Goodnight Gallery, the secret she's willing to do almost anything to keep, even break into a house in the dead of night to steal back her past. THE RISKS ARE INTOXICATING. Meet the Dempseys, or at least meet Davy, a reformed con man who's just been ripped off for a cool three million by his financial manager, who then gallantly turned it over to Clea Lewis, the most beautiful sociopath Davy ever slept with. Davy wants the money back, but more than that he'll do anything to keep Clea from winning, including break into her house in the dead of night to steal back his future. AND IF YOU'RE REALLY GOOD AT THEM, THEY BOTH PAY OFF. One collision in a closet later, Tilda and Davy reluctantly join forces to combat Clea, suspicious art collectors, a disgruntled heir, and an exasperated hitman, all the while coping with a mutant dachshund, a juke box stuck in the sixties, questionable sex, and the growing realization that they can't turn their backs on the people they were meant to be...or the people they were born to love.
Views: 1 197

July, July.

As he did with In the Lake of the Woods, National Book Award winner Tim O'Brien strikes at the emotional nerve center of our lives with this ambitious, compassionate, and terrifically compelling new novel that tells the remarkable story of the generation molded and defined by the 1960s. At the thirtieth anniversary of Minnesota's Darton Hall College class of 1969, ten old friends reassemble for a July weekend of dancing, drinking, flirting, reminiscing, and regretting. The three decades since their graduation have seen marriage and divorce, children and careers, dreams deferred and disappointed-many memories and many ghosts. Together their individual stories create a portrait of a generation launched into adulthood at the moment when their country, too, lost its innocence. Imbued with his signature themes of passion, memory, and yearning, July, July is Tim O'Brien's most fully realized work.From Publishers WeeklyAfter a comedic hiatus with 1998's Tomcat in Love, O'Brien expands on themes he explored in some of his best-known earlier novels: memory, hope, love, war. It's July 2000 and members of the Darton Hall College class of 1969 are gathered, one year behind schedule, for their 30th reunion. Focusing on sharply drawn characters and life's pivotal moments rather than on a strong linear plot, O'Brien follows the ensemble cast (which includes a Vietnam vet, a draft dodger, a minister, a bigamous housewife and a manufacturer of mops) for whom "the world had whittled itself down to now or never," as they drink, flirt and reminisce. Interspersed are tales of other Julys, when each character experienced something that changed him or her forever. Jump-cutting across decades, O'Brien reveals past loves and old betrayals that still haunt: Dorothy failed to follow Billy to Canada; Spook hammered out a "double marriage"; Ellie saw her lover drown; Paulette, in a moment of desperation, disgraced herself and ruined her career. Comedy and pathos define the reunion days, while the histories often devastate. Because they are such dramatic moments-a tryst that ends tragically, a near-death experience on the bank of a foreign river, the aftermath of a radical mastectomy-some of them feel contrived, almost hyperbolic. Still, this is a poignant and powerful page-turner, and a testament to a generation. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalThe 30th reunion of Darton Hall College gives O'Brien the chance to play with a host of troubled characters. If you think you've seen this before, you're right: it was excerpted in The New Yorker and Esquire. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Views: 1 196

The Contortionist's Handbook

John Vincent Dolan is a talented young forger with a proclivity for mathematics and drug addiction. In the face of his impending institutionalization, he continually reinvents himself to escape the legal and mental health authorities and to save himself from a life of incarceration. But running turns out to be costly. Vincent's clients in the L.A. underworld lose patience, the hospital evaluator may not be fooled by his story, and the only person in as much danger as himself is the woman who knows his real name.
Views: 1 192

Whisper of Evil

Someone is stalking the little town of Silence. Three victims have fallen to a killer’s savage vengeance. Each of the dead men was a successful and respected member of the community—yet each also harbored a dark secret discovered only after his murder. Were their deaths the ultimate punishment for those secrets? Or something even more sinister? Nell Gallagher has come home to Silence more than a decade after leaving one dark night with her own painful secrets. Forced now by family duty to return, she has also come home to settle with the past. But past and present tangle in a murderer’s vicious attacks, and to find the answers she needs, Nell must call on the psychic skills that drove her away years before. She must risk her own life and sanity, and regain the trust of the man she left behind so long ago. For the killer she seeks is seeking her, watching her every move, preying upon her every vulnerability—and already so close she’ll never see death coming . . .
Views: 1 192

Bella Poldark

Cornwall, 1818-1820 The stories of the Poldark family—Ross, the strong, independent squire and his beautiful, outspoken wife Demelza; their son Jeremy; their talented, headstrong daughter Bella; and their long-standing feud with humorless landowner Sir George Warleggan—have sold millions of copies, and in the 1970s were made into the most widely watched TV series of the decade. Now, the twelfth and final novel brings the family story to a close—with Bella taking center stage, moving between her home at Nampara on the rugged Cornish coast and the wildly exciting world of the theater in London and Europe at the beginning of the 19th century.
Views: 1 188

Talon of the Silver Hawk

Evil has come to a distant land high among the snow-capped mountains of Midkemia, as an exterminating army wearing the colors of the Duke of Olasko razes village after village, slaughtering men, women, and children without mercy. And when the carnage is done, only one survivor remains: a young boy named Kieli. A youth no longer, there is now but one road for him to travel: the path of vengeance. And he will not be alone. Under the tutelage of the rescuers who discovered him, Kieli will be molded into a sure and pitiless weapon. And he will accept the destiny that has been chosen for him ... as Talon of the Silver Hawk. But the prey he so earnestly stalks is hunting him as well. And Talon must swear allegiance to a shadowy cause that already binds his mysterious benefactors -- or his mission, his honor,and his life will be lost forever.
Views: 1 185