Dan divorced his wife, Gertrude Smith when their daughter was only five years old. He stole away in the middle of the night along with the house safe, the bed, the sofa, the rug, the refrigerator, the kitchen sink, and pretty much everything in the whole house.When Gertrude woke up, she found the house empty, except for some dirty socks, and her kid. She worked really hard, and soon her child...When Gertrude woke up, she found the house empty, except for some dirty socks, and her kid. She worked really hard, and soon her child grew up only remembering that her house was once robbed. The child, named Amanda, joined an organization called M.P.O.C. along with her friend Anne. Then, their troubles began. Views: 364
"Read what you enjoy, not what bores you," Nick Hornby tells us. That simple, liberating, and indispensable directive animates each installment of the celebrated critic and author's monthly column in the Believer. In this delightful and never-musty tour of his reading life, Hornby tells us not just what to read, but how to read.
Whether tackling a dismayingly bulky biography of Dickens while his children destroy something in the next room, or getting sucked into a serious assessment of Celine Dion during an intensely fought soccer match featuring his beloved Arsenal, or devouring an entire series of children's books while on vacation, Hornby's reviews are rich, witty, and occasionally madcap. These essays capture the joy and ire, the despair and exhilaration of the book-lover's life, and will appeal equally to both monocle-wearing salonnieres and people, like him, who spend a lot of time thinking about Miley Cyrus's next role. Views: 364
It’s not easy being a Vampire Angel
No one knows that better than Trond Sigurdsson. In the centuries since he last went out drinking and wenching with his Viking buds, Trond has been a gladiator, a cowboy, a ditch digger...even a sheik. But now he’s the baddest of them all: a kick-butt Navy SEAL kicking butts of terrorist immortals with the help of his hotter-than-Hades female partner, police officer-turned-Special Forces operative Nicole Tasso—whom Trond dearly hopes to “partner” with very shortly in a whole different way.
It’s not easy being a Vangel’s lover
The “cop” part of Nicole tells her there’s something bizarre about her gorgeous godlike teammate. But her “all-woman” side can’t help wondering how great it would be to have a virile Viking in her bed. Trond has secrets galore, but Nicole feels certain she can dig them out—and really get to the heart of this powerful, unnerving stranger whom she may be risking her soul to love. Views: 364
Konrad Savast is Death’s most trusted servant, charged with finding and punishing the vilest of killers. When he discovers the body of a wealthy society hostess lying in the cold, mist-shrouded reaches of the Bone Forest, the pressure is on to find her killer. Can he catch the killer without revealing himself as the Malykant?Detective. Judge. Executioner.The Malykant versus the murderer: will Konrad catch the killer, or die trying?Konrad Savast is the Malykant: the most secret servant of the God of Death. His job? To track down the foulest of murderers and bring them to The Malykt's Justice. No mercy. No quarter.Out in the mists of the Bone Forest lies the body of Lady Navdina Rostikova. Wealthy, beautiful and well-liked, she was at the forefront of high society in the city of Ekamet. But somebody wanted her dead. Who wielded the poisoned knife that slew her ladyship? Konrad must discover the killer - and quickly, for The Malykt is not a patient god.Aided by a pair of ghostly familiars, Konrad begins to investigate the truth about Navdina's life. But matters grow dangerously complicated when his identity is discovered, and the hunter finds himself hunted.From the author of The Draykon Series, this unique tale blends a classic murder mystery with elements of the supernatural - and a healthy dose of dark magic. Views: 364
Note: Despite chronology, it is recommended that The Emperor's Edge (book 1) be read first. This short story contains a spoiler for book 1.
Sicarius, the emperor’s personal assassin, returns from a successful mission only to discover that the enemy is retaliating by sending an assassin of their own. The target? Five-year-old Prince Sespian.
Shadows over Innocence is a 4,500-word short story set fourteen years before the first Emperor’s Edge novel. It is available for free on the author’s website: http://www.lindsayburoker.com/Shadows... Views: 364
Shadow is the second story in the 14 story McLaughlin City Series. A genetically engineered assassin resurfaces after a 7 year disappearance and is killing off her former employees one by one. This is shortly after her return from the tomb (the first book in the series)."Daniel Deronda", George Eliot's last, great novel, was highly acclaimed on its first publication in 1876. It tells the intertwining stories of two young people seeking their paths in life: the beautiful Gwendolen Harleth, and Daniel Deronda, whose parentage is a mystery to him. The work of an authoress at the height of her powers, it is, however, much less widely read nowadays than its predecessor "Middlemarch" - partly due to its extreme length and density.This abridgement shortens the book to about 60 per cent of its original length, whilst being careful to retain its character and all elements of the plot. It aims to make this important and insightful novel more accessible to today's general reader. Views: 363
What do you do if the wrong god answers your call? A short story about a divine problem.Killing another human being isn’t so hard. It’s the forgetting. After a while, the faces of those you’ve killed tend to sneak up on you. Sometimes it’s in a dream. Other times you might be sitting in a crowded coffee shop and have a nagging sense of familiarity from the person taking your order. Each death is another haunting, another memory, another bit of subconscious weight added to one’s being.For Mac Walker, that weight was never so great as when he killed that child. Views: 362
Malyna finds a dog in a trap. Her horses’ get bad colic and nitrate poisoning. Then Malyna’s brother’s horse dies. She then goes to a trial, burial and a birthday party to find out why these things were happening, and who was causing them.With the advent of hyperdrives in the 2300s, Humanity poured out to the stars in a great diaspora. The original terraformer families, paving the way for later waves of settlements, became Aristocracies of sorts on the plethora of new worlds. For eight hundred years civilization spreads, flowering into dozens of cultures. Then came the war, and the long dark age of Pandora. 3893,Pleiades, Caldris: A Princess Scholar-Archaeologist, brilliant, beautiful, and beloved of the world's people, is missing. The Royal Detectives, headed by a grisly old ex Royal Space Navy Special Forces Ranger, Officer Hammerstien, sets out to examine a thousand year old Fighter bomber the princess had discovered. There are numerous and powerful forces who want the technology on the ancient ship, and others who merely wish its story to remain lost in the well of time. Yet there is something else-something ancient, and alien, the boy senses.It is not long before the small group of investigators draws fire. The Transhuman Imperials, numerous galactic corporations, and underworld space syndicates all are suspect in an adventure that spans the civilized portion of the galaxy... "So what is it detective? What is it about the wormhole attack that you don't want to face?'He chortled a grumbling laugh that bordered on a burp, and looked at me with a bitter sweet half smile. "No hiding anything from you, aye?" His eyes darkened and I felt a rush of emotion he'd walled up for decades suddenly opening up, and its impact was palpable to me. His sense of self from that long ago decade was profoundly different-he had been young, a handful of years older than I. His self image from that time impacted me like a strange reflection of the man in front of me-leaner, with swift hair, a reckless step, and an unquenchable awe and thirst for adventure. Youth. Caldris had been in a territorial dispute with the Paramon Republic near the Pleiades.Paramon was always disputing some silly rock, and this time it was one of our Kingdom's trade stations near Baal One, a horrid seared rock of soullessness-but our trade station orbited it and operated important business with Chrysalis Isla, deep in the Pleiades Confederation. Hammerstein's memories came at me-the flight deck of his first assignment, glorying in the sight of the Kingdom's ships of the line at the ready. Anticipation, joy, a thrill of imminent combat-and then the impossible, the unheard of-a wormhole deep in the gravity well of Baal One sweeping at at them like a cobra, hard and fast and the young Hammerstein watched as the ships of the line-and all of his friends were on those ships-disintegrated in the irresistible shock wave. He was nineteen and alone. The only real family he had ever known had been those fellows on the other ships. He had been transferred from one of those very ships that morning.There was an awkward moment as the face of the young Hammerstein morphed into the older iron man in front of me, more muscled, more scarred, more resolute. Suddenly, I knew, he was still carrying his nineteen year old self around, standing forever on that flight deck watching his friends die, and an indescribable loneliness taking their place for the rest of his life. "Paramon and wormhole shock waves." I said, breaching the subject like pulling a patch from a wound-quickly so as not to drag out the inevitable. Most people would have barely perceived the slightest flicker in his eye. For me, however, it was as if the line of ships once again ruptured in violent sequence across his soul. He smiled, and I realized the old iron Detective had been forcing that smile for a very long, painful time. Views: 362
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. Views: 362
Rel and Dora's journey to Vessit is interrupted by a near-mythic Child of the Wild, thought long-extinct. If they're going to survive, Rel will have to trust the shady Gift-Giver, Taslin, but Taslin's plan involves hiding inside an unexplored portal to the Second Realm...A gifted young man, born into an obscure tribe, quickly becomes the leader of his people. His unparalleled skills, keen intellect, and extraordinary senses, along with his tireless work ethic turn him into the greatest hunter of all time.In his part of the world, there are no great beasts, yet rumor has it that elsewhere there are fierce creatures that wreak havoc on mankind. Aiden decides to leave his people, to seek out adventure, and test his skills against these beasts. He quickly discovers that the threat is beyond anything imaginable. It becomes his mission to conquer the creatures, particularly the ferocious dragon, Dromreign, and to save the world. But, is this his destiny? Views: 362
