Scarlett and Sam are back again in a twist on the biblical adventure tale of Jonah and the whale. When the twins take Grandma Mina's special carpet to be cleaned and repaired, they encounter a strange person who steps on the rug and disappears! Scarlett and Sam follow him back through time to ancient Israel, where they find themselves on a ship. Why have they been sent back in time to this ship on a stormy sea? Soon the answer comes. The man is Jonah and they're in the story of Jonah and the whale! Sam and Scarlett know that they must do what the ship's captain cannot—get Jonah overboard—even if that means that they must go overboard, too! Views: 188
On her way from the remote district she lives in, to the Imperial capital, Justicar Jhee and her family's yacht is damaged, and they are forced to halt for repairs at a secluded abbey.With communications disrupted, they are invited to stay by the abbess, but soon their visit takes a frightening turn when Jhee sees a masked figure acting suspiciously.Dismissed as ghosts by the others, Jhee's natural instinct is to investigate, and she discovers that the previous abbess and several novices had died under suspicious circumstances and rumors abound of an ancient cult, risen once more and led by a figure called the Mist Abbess.As she digs ever deeper into the mystery, she discovers even more shocking revelations, with refugees from the sea going missing and smugglers, human traffickers, and anarchists operating at will.There is more to the abbey than meets the eye, and soon, Jhee's life is threatened by the malevolence that stalks its confines. Trapped by circumstances and with no way for help to arrive, can she uncover the truth before she or her family become the next victims of the sinister forces that lurk just out of sight? Views: 188
From the author of 'A Man without Qualities,' a novel about spirituality in the modern world. Agathe is the sister of Ulrich, the restless and elusive "man without qualities" at the center of Robert Musil's great, unfinished novel of the same name. For years Agathe and Ulrich have ignored each other, but when brother and sister find themselves reunited over the bier of their dead father, they are electrified. Each is the other's spitting image, and Agathe, who has just separated from her husband, is even more defiant and inquiring than Ulrich. Beginning with a series of increasingly intense "holy conversations," the two gradually enlarge the boundaries of sexuality, sensuality, identity, and understanding in pursuit of a new, true form of being that they are seeking to discover.Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities is perhaps the most profoundly exploratory and unsettling masterpiece of twentieth-century fiction. Agathe, or, The Forgotten... Views: 188
What does it mean to be haunted? Why do certain places give us a sense of the uncanny? And should we run from the things that haunt us, or embrace them? In his late thirties, the ghost story writer Edward Parnell found himself without a family. His parents had died in quick succession in his teens, before his beloved brother succumbed to the same disease years later. In his grief, he turned to his bookshelves. In Ghostland, Parnell goes in search of the 'sequestered places' of the British Isles, our lonely moors, our moss-covered cemeteries, our barren shores and our mysterious and ancient woodlands. At the same time he explores how these places conjured and shaped a kaleidoscopic spectrum of our literature and cinema, from the ghost stories of MR James, Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood to Alan Garner and Susan Cooper's fantasies, from WG Sebald's The Rings of Saturn and Graham Swift's Waterland to Robin Hardy's 'folk horror' film The Wicker Man. Ghostland is an evocative and... Views: 188
A mysterious visitor at the door...Can danger be far behind?Quarter Horse breeder Fox Colton is a loner by nature. So when an anonymous infant appears on his doorstep, he reluctantly takes in the baby—and new assistant Kelsey Lauder. As he grows to cherish his unexpected family, Fox works to track down Baby John Doe's real parents. But when secrets from Fox's own past are unearthed, he could find himself alone again, just as he's come to love the new people in his life. Views: 188
LIGHTSPEED is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine. In its pages, you will find science fiction: from near-future, sociological soft SF, to far-future, star-spanning hard SF—and fantasy: from epic fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, and contemporary urban tales, to magical realism, science-fantasy, and folktales.Welcome to LIGHTSPEED's 112th issue! This month's cover art is from Galen Dara. It's illustrating a new fantasy short by Brooke Bolander, "A Bird, a Song, a Revolution," that blends the Neolithic with the post-apocalyptic. We also have a new Weird Western short from Rajan Khanna ("All In"), and fantasy reprints by Micah Dean Hicks ("Flight of the Crow Boys") and Kiini Ibura Salaam ("Desire"). Our original science fiction shorts include a very unique prison experience run by some very unique artificial intelligences in Adam-Troy Castro's new short, "Sacrid's Pod." In our other original short, Jenny Rae Rappaport... Views: 188
The Petersons are off to a weekend in the woods. Charles is excited to venture into the outdoors with his puppy, Buddy. When the family arrives at Misty Valley, Charles discovers that a smart Weimaraner named Bentley is lonely and in need of a home. But Charles is only there for the weekend. Can he find Bentley a home in just three days? Views: 188
