All Star High is a series of Hi-Lo books for reluctant readers set in the coolest school in the UK, where the pupils are so desperate to attend they audition for a place! Wannabe actors, singers, and dancers join the school in the hope that they will become the next big thing!Zeke and Becca try busking to earn some money to go on the All Star High Camping trip. Zeke's past comes back to haunt him and puts Becca in danger. Views: 65
The story of human evolution is a long and convoluted one, yet men are aware of little of it that is actual fact. Human myth is steeped in ignorance, incomplete science, supposition and religious credo to help themselves account for their absence of hard fact. To help them deal with the unknown. And the known.
Arrogantly man's scientists, historians, philosophers and others of learning proclaim a body of knowledge as fact. Mostly they are correct. Life evolved on Earth in the same manner as it must evolve everywhere else. It started with simple protein combinations and, over billions of years, from single celled organisms into complex, through reptiles, into mammals and finally, man's tool using predecessors. That is where man's story gets a little fuzzy. How men made the leap from tool using apes to modern men, in an evolutionary blink of the eye.
The truth is not as men see it. They cannot see it. They would be destroyed. Men would not be able to face it if it were cried from every street corner. If they faced the truth of it, the tenuous fabric of their nebulous make believe reality would unravel around them, and they would be left with nothing but the stark, unbearable horror of their own futility. Of their doomed place in destiny. The oblivion Fate had decreed them.
I have watched humanities transformation with my own eyes. Had I not seen it with my own eyes, I know that even I would have had a hard time facing the truth of it, so foreign is it to nature and common sense. So abrupt and radical has been the transformation. Once very much different than they are now, men have been made to evolve, metamorphosis, into beings much like myself. An induced evolution. We were once very much different, Vampires and Humans, one from the other. I was the evolutionary advancement, they the half formed beasts only barely cognizant of the differences between them and the other animals within the forests, jungles and savannahs of their primitive world.
That was then and this is now. Men have changed radically. They have been induced to evolve. They have had no more say in what has happened to them than I have had in the life I have lived, except that their change occurred gradually, over long eons, the transformation more controlled, more scientific, while my own was . . . a mistake.
Yet men are still ruled by those basest of animal needs. Induced into an accelerated evolution on the one hand, but too quickly for their instinctual requirements to compensate, form an equitable balance between new and old, on the other. Like myself and all Vampires, Humans are mix of contradictions.
All men are not ignorant, however. There are many enlightened souls who see through the fog of misinformation the unequivocal truth that lays in front of all mankind, but that most yet refuse to acknowledge. The truth too ugly, too vicious. There can be nothing that can be done. The Other's technological advantages too great. To acknowledge man's own frailties and weakness. To maintain mass sanity, men unconsciously accept the inescapable certainty of the inevitableness of their circumstances.
What other choice have they had?
The sun would soon be up and I would have to retreat indoors. The old myths of Vampires and sunlight are true. We cannot tolerate it. Not Sol, anyway. Not Earth's life giving star. We Vampires suppose there is a star somewhere more tolerable to our divided natures. To our half which is not Human. The Others must have evolved under a star somewhere, but a star in some way intrinsically different from Sol. Or possibly it is that they have traveled so long within the black depths of space, or have not lived on the surface of any world, under any star at all, for so long, that they may not be longer able to tolerate any such emissions as Sol gives. It is my belief that the Others travel across the vast gulfs of interstellar space at will, I presume at many multiples of the speed of light, but yet is not the Universe so vast that even at these velocities it may take generations to make crossings. Why else would they spend such time and resources trying to steal what is man's?
In either case, or if neither is true, all that matters is that the Others have passed on to Vampires their inability to tolerate the sun. This the entire point of their interaction with humanity. Their genetic manipulations. Slowly infuse humanity with their DNA, to acquire man's tolerance to Sol, and when entirely infused, slowly remove mankind from the picture, one snip of deoxribonucleic acid at a time, until the final result is a population one hundred percent the Others, yet tolerant of Sol.
That's what Vampires are. We are Breeds. Half Human. Half the Others. Except without the slow indoctrination which has occurred with humanity. Mayhap the very first experiment, I am unable to tolerate the sun any more than the Others. Given too much....
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When Arthur Moonlight, a financially troubled aristocrat, has second thoughts about selling the family mansion to the fanatical 'Forward Britain' movement he calls in his friend, London financier Mark Treasure, to stop the sale. But the situation is far more complicated than it first seems and when evidence comes to light that a valuable Shakespearean manuscript is hidden at Mitchell Hall, the Moonlight family's former country seat becomes a centre of death and intrigue.In the space of a few short days, an old lady has died of fright, a grave-digger has suffered a fatal fall, and linked to these strange incidents are a menacing American posing as a clergyman, a power-hungry MP, and a famous antiquarian supervising a team of Filipino labourers.This, the first of Mark Treasure's investigations, will lead to even more startling revelations - and unexpected rewards. Views: 65
Attractive and witty, Sarah has just graduated from Oxford and started a new job at the BBC. As she immerses herself in the excitement of 1960s London, her beautiful older sister, Louise, marries the famous, though admittedly difficult, novelist Stephen Halifax. Louise initially revels in the newfound wealth and glamor that her marriage affords her, but soon she finds her relationship the subject of bitter gossip and scathing tabloid headlines. Despite the distance that has always existed between the two sisters, Sarah finds herself bound to Louise as she faces the scrutiny of London society and the two begin to forge a connection they had previously thought impossible. With Margaret Drabble's signature eye for the subtleties and intricacies of everyday life, A Summer Bird-Cage is captivating, a dazzling, resonant portrait of two young women struggling to find their footing in a city as fickle as it is intoxicating. Views: 65
From Bram Stoker's Dracula to Stephenie Meyer's hugely successful Twilight series of books, writers, artists and film makers have been entranced by the vampiric legend for hundreds of years. In the West, the vampire myth is widely thought to have been based on the life of Vlad the Impaler, a 15th century Wallachian warrior-prince whose devotion to cruelty and killing made the lives of his subjects miserable, bloody and short. However, bloodsuckers of all shapes and sizes feature in many cultures.Vampires explores these diverse myths and legends, their impact upon popular culture and the possible explanations behind such phenomena. The book also investigates the lives of real-life individuals who have dedicated themselves to the pursuit of blood, drawing on the vampiric tradition for their inspiration.CONTENTS:1) The Rise of the Vampire Myth: river demons, house demons, vampire corpses, vampire bats, werewolves2) From Peasant to Nobleman: Dracula, baby vampires,... Views: 65
"What exactly is a Mother?" Mike Wilkins and Jim Parker have to ask this question, for in their 28th century world, women are unknown, children appear seemingly from nowhere, and "fatherhood" is the government-assigned duty of some, but not all, men. They still drive gasoline-powered cars, cigarettes are common, and their guns fire bullets, not laser beams. A man appears with the answer to their question, and the two Army officers find themselves drawn into a conspiracy to expose the hidden history of women. They learn of a man-made biological catastrophe that pitted the sexes against each other, and how the government's truly unique reaction to this crisis led to the rise of an absolute monarchy in America, and placed mankind's future in a very precarious position. Mike and Jim have serious doubts about the story at first, but when they find evidence to support it, and lives are terminated because of it, they become its most ardent advocates. They only hope that they are in time to save humanity from a fate literally worse than death. Views: 65
Old and forbidden desires began to reemerge when Brock Warner returned to Wyoming to help Kylie run his family's ranch. He hadn't pursued her years ago because she'd been too young and achingly innocent--and then his brother had claimed Kylie for his own. Kylie's failing marriage had ended with her unfaithful husband's death. Now she was left only with bittersweet memories, an empty bank account and a baby on the way. Brock's homecoming had her thinking back to the kiss they'd once shared. And had her wondering about what could have been... . Views: 65
From Publishers WeeklyFull of French political intrigue, Black's atmospheric 11th Aimée Leduc investigation (after 2010's Murder in the Palais Royal) finds the Paris PI's world turned upside down with the arrest of her godfather and longtime mentor, Commissaire Morbier, for murder. Worse yet, the victim—Morbier's inamorata, Xavierre d'Eslay—was with Aimée minutes before her death by strangulation. To clear Morbier, Aimée must dig deep as his fellow officers close rank and refuse to cooperate. Helping Aimée are her detective agency partner, René; her cousin, Sebastian; and her former policeman lover, Melac, who may or may not have an agenda of his own during the investigation. Though Xavierre lived a life of privilege in the posh suburb of Passy, Aimée discovers her past is shrouded in secrecy, linked to Basque separatists and terrorist acts. While the characters and their motivations can sometimes be hard to follow, the plot builds to a satisfying conclusion. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. ReviewPraise for the Aimée Leduc series: “No contemporary writer of noir mysteries evokes the spirit of Paris more than Cara Black in her atmospheric series starring P.I. Aimée Leduc.... Fearless, risk-taking Aimée is constantly running, hiding, fighting and risking her life—all while dressed in vintage Chanel and Dior and Louboutin heels.”—_USA Today_ “If you’ve never been to Paris, or you’d like to go back soon, let Cara Black transport you there.”—Linda Fairstein “Black does for Paris what Dashiell Hammett did for San Francisco. She makes the city shimmer.”—_Plain Dealer_ (Cleveland) “Charming.... Aimée is one of those blithe spirits who can walk you through the city’s historical streets and byways with their eyes closed.”—_The New York Times Book Review_ “Leduc has such a thorough grasp of the practicalities of investigation, plus a penchant for undercover work that will have readers on pins and needles.”—_San Francisco Chronicle_ Views: 65
The first thrilling story of horror, adventure, and survival during the alien invasion in Nicholas Sansbury Smith’s bestselling Orbs series has been completely remastered and re-edited since its original publication and now features a sneak peak at Orbs II!At the end of the world, who will survive? The year is 2061, and the planet is dying. Cataclysmic solar storms have forced leaders from around the world to finally put aside their differences and agree on one thing—to jump ship. The human race is headed to Mars. Dr. Sophie Winston is hired by New Tech Corporation to test a biosphere deep within the heart of Cheyenne Mountain; a mission she believes will help prepare NTC for the three-year flight to the red planet. But, just days into the assignment, things start to go wrong. When the blast doors hiss open, Winton's team finds a changed world outside. Humans are gone, vanished without a trace, and they aren't the only thing missing.... Views: 65
Stan Green is a New York City Homicide Detective who has seen better days.As his family life threatens to disintegrate and his work partner disappears, he is assigned to the most shocking case of his career-a strange and remarkably violent murder. Stan must look into the crime alone. He finds just one witness, a neurologically disabled recluse who sees through the souls of others as demonic hallucinations. As more murders occur, and he drifts further from his family and friends, Stan's suspicion and rage escalate. Soon he realizes that the deaths fall into the pattern of a serial killer—and starts to believe that his witness is not at all insane, but terrifyingly perceptive . . . Views: 65
Tascosa, New Mexico ... a town in which many a man played a double game, watching, waiting for an explosion of violence that would signify the end of a lawless intrigue. Into Tascosa, hunting a back-shooting killer and a gang of counterfeiters, rode Big Jim Rand, the relentless manhunter. With him came Benito Espina, the busiest pickpocket north of the Rio Grande.Also figuring in this suspense-filled battle of wits were the smiling, unscrupulous Mace Carrick, and Rowenstock, the shrewd and implacable lawman, and Shelley, the undercover gun who, in the moment of crisis, had good cause to be grateful for the intervention of Big Jim. Views: 65
