A newsroom has nothing to hide . . . or does it?A killer has everything to lose . . . but is it worth it?A woman has no one to trust . . . so will she be next?Botulism, anthrax, small pox, plague: as medical producer for television's highly-rated morning news program, "Key to America," Annabelle Murphy makes her living explaining horrific conditions to the nation. So when a KEY News colleague dies with symptoms terrifyingly similar to those of the latest scourge, she knows the panic spreading through the corridors of the Broadcast Center is justified. As one death follows another, Annabelle's co-workers look to her for assurance but she finds it hard to give comfort. To her, the circumstances of the infections begin to suggest that they may be diabolical murders. And when the authorities lock down the Broadcast Center with the identity of the killer still unknown, no one can be sure who to trust, and neither the victims nor the murderer can escape... ... Views: 7
A classic novella about crime, lust, murder, and money. Views: 7
The finest stories and nonfiction writings by a Native American author and activist Zitkala-Sa wrestled with the conflicting influences of American Indian and white culture throughout her life. Raised on a Sioux reservation, she was educated at boarding schools that enforced assimilation and was witness to major events in white-Indian relations in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Tapping her troubled personal history, Zitkala-Sa created stories that illuminate the tragedy and complexity of the American Indian experience. In evocative prose laced with political savvy, she forces new thinking about the perceptions, assumptions, and customs of both Sioux and white cultures and raises issues of assimilation, identity, and race relations that remain compelling today. Introduction and Notes by Cathy N. Davidson and Ada Norris Views: 7
Now, this is what I call space opera: huge ships exchanging any number of ravening beams of destruction, implacable alien menaces, doomsday weapons, plucky heroines and heroes fighting desperate odds. Oh, yeah, this is the big time! All of the familiar elements of Reynolds’ fiction are here, from the miraculous but corrupted and decaying technology to the once-glittering but now rather rusty civilizations and the damaged individuals hoping for some sort of redemption. Not to mention the various clades of humanity still managing to survive, despite themselves. Redemption Ark is set in the same universe as Revelation Space and Chasm City but roughly half a century after. Thanks to reefersleep, time dilation and nanotechnology, many of the characters from these two books are still alive and well. Certainly the Inhibitors — lupine machine intelligences that seem to have patrolled our galaxy since it was young — are very much ‘alive’ and well. So well, in fact, that they’re beginning to turn their glacial attention upon the human race with a view to wiping us out, as they’ve wiped out all other intelligent life for millions of years. The Conjoiners, arguably the best (and certainly the most technologically advanced) aspect of humanity, are now split over what to do about the Inhibitor menace. Having secured their own existence by easily defeating the other main human faction in a pointless war, they’re now making contingency plans to secure an even longer term future. But the old warrior Clavain (whom some may remember from an earlier Reynolds story, ‘Great Wall of Mars’, in Spectrum SF 1 ) is suspicious of the motives of Skade, the head of this project. Why is there so much secrecy smothering the new Conjoiner technological initiatives? Why, after a century’s moratorium, has star-drive manufacture now been restarted? And what is the Conjoiner Closed Council so terrified of? (I’m not giving too much away when I say that it might be the Inhibitors). Meanwhile, on the planet Resurgam — Reynolds books always have more than one seemingly-distinct thread in them — where conclusive proof of the existence of the Inhibitors was first discovered (in Revelation Space ), Ilia Volyova and Ana Khouri, late of the lighthugger ‘Nostalgia for Infinity’, have forced to change their own plans by the arrival of the first wave of Inhibitors in the system. Fortunately, the Inhibitors seem to be ignoring the regressive human colony — or are they just thinking bigger…? Redemption Ark is a great work of sf. We know Reynolds can write intelligent stories and build depressingly believable future societies, but now he seems to be getting the hang of writing realistic characters too. Clavain, in particular, is a likeable, intelligent and complex figure, but his opponent, Skade, is not simply a two-dimensional foil either. Both of them are striving towards the same long-term goal — it is mainly their methods that differ. Skade’s drive towards her goals, semi-exposed later in the book, eventually reveal her to be as much a victim as anyone. Similarly, the reasoning behind the Inhibitor mission — rather oddly, given that every character who encounters them speaks of their Lovecraftian evil — is shown to be morally rather more complex than, say, E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith would have allowed with his fearsome villains. As with all of Reynolds’ books, this is a long one. However, it doesn’t ever drag or feel padded out; rather it is exactly the right length. The ending leaves you sated but ready for the next installment. The end of Redemption Ark is only the end of the first skirmish in the war against the Inhibitors. I have the feeling that the best is very much yet to come… Views: 7
Martin Peters finds himself in Berlin. Once a British spy involved in a controversial loyalist shooting in Belfast, he spent time in Berlin infiltrating the Punk scene just before the Wall came down. Now in his thirties, he is a detective in the local police force.He is struggling - two naked headless corpses were dredged from the Havel river. There are no clues apart from a single word tattooed in Cyrillic on their left arms and the fact they were found a week apart after Christmas at exactly the same spot.Visiting his favourite swingers club, the seedy Der Zug, he comes across the bloated Lothar Blucher. Pressing his former Cold-War informer for help, Peters is instead led to a video showing the horrifically violent murder of a man tied to a chair. Not long after, a former girlfriend, Heike, gets in touch. She has received the same video - and rapidly the dead bodies start piling up at the hands of a demonic serial killer. With crimes darker than The Killing and... Views: 7
To Jan Coverdale, daughter of one explorer and half-sister of another, the history and legends of Peru had been familiar since childhood. But when her marriage broke down and her half-brother Edward invited her home for Christmas, they became all at one more personal and more threatening. It began with a body dressed in tramp's clothing, with incongruous green sequins on his lapel. He looked disconcertingly like Edward, whose wallet was in his pocket—but hadn't Edward and his wife flown to Peru? The discovery that 'the tramp' was an investigative jouranlist was a development DCI Webb could have done without, since it threw the case wide open. But why was the body dressed so shabbily and what was the meaning of those sequins? Only after a long and tortuous trail does Webb discover the truth about The Nine Bright Shiners, and who had killed to possess them. Views: 7
Raine Kendall has been in love with her boss, Macen Hammerman, for years. Determined to make the man notice that she’s a grown woman with desires and needs, she pours out her heart and offers her body to him. But when his friend, very single, very sexy Liam O’Neill watches the other Dom refuse to act on his obvious feelings for Raine.Hammer has buried his lust for Raine for years. Views: 7
Grace Brookman's husband is missing. He wasn't kidnapped or murdered (she's fairly certain); he just seems to have run away from home. He got up one morning, and with an offhand Gracie, I'll be back in a little while, he was gone. Laz had left before, but this time, when several weeks pass and he doesn't return, Grace copes with the situation by pretending to family and friends that he's still around.At first, Grace covers for Laz in little ways: rumpling the sheets on his side of the bed every morning for the housekeeper, turning up his favorite music so the neighbors will hear it, leaving the doorman a daily cup of coffee, just as Laz always did. Soon Grace's life is completely consumed with re-creating his life.Over time the deception takes on a life of its own as her charade becomes more elaborate and she begins lying to friends and family, even her overbearing, ever-present Upper East Side parents. Grace finds herself steeped in denial about the truth of her... Views: 7
