The immortal Emperor can grant a form of eternal life-after-death, creating an elite known as the Risen, and so has ruled the eighty worlds unchallenged for sixteen hundred years. The only thing he fears are the Rix, machine-augmented humans who worship AI compound minds. They are dedicated to replacing his prolonged rule with an eternal cybernetic dynasty of their own. Brilliant tactician Captain Laurent Zai of the Imperial Frigate Lynx faces a suicide mission: stopping the next thrust of the Rix invasion with just his own vessel. While ship-to-ship combat rages among the stars, Zai's lover, Senator Nara Oxham, is caught in a deadly political fencing match with the Emperor himself. The Emperor has a terrible secret, a secret Nara is in danger of finding out, a secret for which he would countenance the killing of worlds. Views: 468
Roland Deschain and his *ka-tet* are bearing southeast through the forests of Mid-World on their quest for the Dark Tower. Their path takes them to the outskirts of Calla Bryn Sturgis. But beyond the tranquil farm town, the ground rises to the hulking darkness of Thunderclap, the source of a terrible affliction that is stealing the town's soul. The wolves of Thunderclap and their unspeakable depredation are coming. To resist them is to risk all, but these are odds the gunslingers are used to. Their guns, however, will not be enough....
Set in a world of extraordinary circumstances, filled with stunning visual imagery and unforgettable characters, the Dark Tower series is unlike anything you have ever read. Here is the fifth installment. Views: 466
'Fast-moving and immensely readable ... a page turner from start to finish' - Maeve Binchy
Alexander Kinross is remembered in his native Scotland only as a shiftless boilermaker's apprentice. But when he writes from Australia to summon his bride, his relatives realize he is now a man to be reckoned with. Arriving in Sydney after a difficult voyage, sixteen-year-old Elizabeth Drummond meets her husband-to-be and discovers that he frightens and repels her. And, isolated in Alexander's great house, Elizabeth finds that marriage does not prompt her husband to enlighten her about his past life - nor his present one, in which his mistress, the sensuous, tough, outspoken Ruby Costevan, still plays a part... Views: 465
Join Brenda Novak in Dundee, Idaho, for a delightful story about two rivals who can't fight their growing attraction in this contemporary romance originally published as A Husband of her Own in 2003Rebecca Wells desperately wants to overcome her reputation. She's finally trying to put an end to her twenty-four-year rivalry with the perfect Josh Hill, a rivalry that began when she was a kid and the Hills moved in across the street. Great-looking, popular, a successful horse rancher, Josh is Dundee's golden boy—and the son her father always wanted.But even when her father insists they call a truce, it's hard for Rebecca to drop her resentment of Josh. She refuses to acknowledge that she feels more for him than she's ever let on. The man she loves to hate is also the man she'd hate to love... Views: 462
When 13-year-old Olive Oatman's wagon train is raided by outlaw Yavapai Indians, she and her sister are captured. After enduring harsh treatment, they are ransomed by a band of Mohaves. Olive struggles to adjust to her new life, but finds comfort in her faith and in an unexpected friendship. When the time comes for her to return to the white world, she is afraid she will never fit in. But she learns to see the Mohave design tattooed on her chin as a sign of God's love and deliverence, a mark of ransom. Views: 455
Two hundred years ago, the god Jovah created a legion of land dwelling angels, led by an appointed Archangel. Now, Jovah has a new appointee: Archangel Gaaron. For his life-mate, his Angelica, Jovah has chosen a woman named Susannah. Slowly, an unspoken affection develops between the two. But there is a terrible threat besetting the land-and the true hearts of Archangel and Angelica may never be known. Views: 454
Another dazzling collection of fact, fiction, and wit from the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning master of hard science fiction!Larry Niven is the New York Times bestselling author of such classic science fiction novels as Ringworld and Destiny's Road. His previous collection, N-Space, was lauded by the Houston Post as "outstanding . . . hours of entertainment," while Publishers Weekly called it "a must for science fiction fans." A follow-up volume, Playgrounds of the Mind, was similarly praised by Kirkus Reviews: "An abundance of Niven's curious yet disciplined inventiveness and his fun-filled knack for turning seemingly absurd notions into credible, absorbing fiction. Grand entertainment."Now, ten years later, Scatterbrain collects an equally engaging assortment of Niven's latest work, all in one captivating volume. Here are choice excerpts from several of his most recent novels, including his upcoming... Views: 454
Brilliant, painful, dazzling, and funny as hell, Yellow Dog is Martin Amis’ highly anticipated first novel in seven years and a stunning return to the fictional form.
When “dream husband” Xan Meo is vengefully assaulted in the garden of a London pub, he suffers head injury, and personality change. Like a spiritual convert, the familial paragon becomes an anti-husband, an anti-father. He submits to an alien moral system -- one among many to be found in these pages. We are introduced to the inverted worlds of the “yellow” journalist, Clint Smoker; the high priest of hardmen, Joseph Andrews; and the porno tycoon, Cora Susan. Meanwhile, we explore the entanglements of Henry England: his incapacitated wife, Pamela; his Chinese mistress, He Zhezun; his fifteen-year-old daughter, Victoria, the victim of a filmed “intrusion” that rivets the world -- because she is the future Queen of England, and her father, Henry IX, is its King. The connections between these characters provide the pattern and drive of Yellow Dog.
If, in the 21st century, the moral reality is changing, then the novel is changing too, whether it likes it or not. Yellow Dog is a model of how the novel, or more particularly the comic novel, can respond to this transformation.
But Martin Amis is also concerned here with what is changeless and perhaps unchangeable. Patriarchy, and the entire edifice of masculinity; the enormous category-error of violence, arising between man and man; the tortuous alliances between men and women; and the vanished dream (probably always an illusion, but now a clear delusion) that we can protect our future and our progeny.
*Meo heard no footsteps; what he heard was the swish, the shingly soft-shoe of the hefted sap. Then the sharp two-finger prod on his shoulder. It wasn’t meant to happen like this. They expected him to turn and he didn’t turn -- he half-turned, then veered and ducked. So the blow intended merely to break his cheekbone or his jawbone was instead received by the cranium, that spacey bulge (in this instance still quite marriageably forested) where so many delicate and important powers are so trustingly encased.
He crashed, he crunched to his knees, in obliterating defeat. . . . *-- from Yellow Dog
From the Hardcover edition. Views: 453
**Four generations of Jedi.
One common enemy.**
The Jedi Temple is a place of secrets and trust. Inside its walls, a legacy is passed down from generation to generation of peace, justice, and strength. But that legacy can be broken. Sometimes the greatest enemies rise from within....
Lorian Nod is a promising Jedi apprentice. A Padawan named Dooku is his best friend. Under the watchful eye of Yoda, they are preparing to become Jedi Knights. Dooku knows their fate is intertwined...yet he is not prepared for a turn of events that reveals the dark side to him for the first time.
Years later, Dooku is a Jedi Master and Lorian Nod is a pirating outcast. With an unforeseen desire for revenge, Dooku works to thwart his former friend -- even if it means crossing his own apprentice, Qui-Gon Jinn....
When Qui-Gon himself becomes a Jedi Master, the specter of Lorian Nod still looms. As Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan Kenobi struggle to find their place as Master and Padawan, they must work together to prevent an interplanetary threat -- and to outwit a very familiar enemy....
During the Clone Wars, Lorian Nod wants to play a pivotal role as the Republic battles to keep hold of a strategic planet. On one side, Obi-Wan and his apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, must decide whether they can trust such an infamous figure. On the other side, the now compromised Count Dooku has a score to settle against his old nemesis....
Four generations of trust and betrayal.
One legacy. Views: 451
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--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition. Views: 451
Three-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Albee’s most provocative, daring, and controversial play since Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Goat won every major award for best new play of the year: the Tony, New York Drama Critics Circle, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards. In the play, Martin—a hugely successful architect who has just turned fifty—leads an ostensibly ideal life with his loving wife and gay teenage son. But when he confides to his best friend that he is also in love with a goat (named Sylvia), he sets in motion events that will destroy his family and leave his life in tatters.
The playwright himself describes it this way: “Every civilization sets quite arbitrary limits to its tolerances. The play is about a family that is deeply rocked by an unimaginable event and how they solve that problem. It is my hope that people will think afresh about whether or not all the values they hold are valid." Views: 451
A serial killer who strikes by the light of the full moon has made Mary McLean his next target. She knows she should be cautious, but she can't stay away from Michael Gray, a mysterious man with an unearthly secret. But is he there to protect her? Or is he the real danger? Views: 450
