Monsters are real.But so are heroes.Sparks are champions of weird science. Boasting capes and costumes and amazing super-powers that only make sense if you don't think about them too hard, they fight an eternal battle for truth and justice . . . mostly.Darklings are creatures of myth and magic: ghosts, vampires, were-beasts, and the like. Their very presence warps reality. Doors creak at their approach. Cobwebs gather where they linger. Kim Lam is an ordinary college student until a freak scientific accident (what else?) transforms Kim and three housemates into Sparks—and drafts them into the never-ending war between the Light and Dark. They struggle to master their new abilities—and (of course) to design cool costumes and come up with great hero-names.Turns out that "accident" was just the first salvo in a Mad Genius's latest diabolical scheme. Now it's up to four newbie heroes to save the day, before they even have a chance to... Views: 35
THE HUNTEDThe idea sounded like such fun to Susan Benning. Camping on the pristine mountains of Idaho with her old high school gang right after their thirty-year reunion. Even the kids were looking forward to it. But something felt wrong the deeper they traveled into the woods. Something was watching them from behind the thick undergrowth.Waiting . . . THE HUNTERS Their race had lived among the Great Trees in peace for centuries. The "others" came to kill animals with strange weapons and poison their sacred waters with the things they carelessly left behind. But they would soon learn to stay away. The Old Hunger would teach them. Especially the little ones. Views: 35
'I caught my breath, even from across the room. All I wanted to do was look into her eyes. It was as if she knew the reason I was there and that I was looking for her.'
The body of a young woman found in an Arizona border town walks out of the morgue. To the CDC investigator called in to consult the local police, it's a bizarre medical mystery.
More bodies, dead of a mysterious disease that solidifies their blood, begin disappearing from morgues nearby. In a futile game of catch-up, the CDC, the FBI and the US government realise that it's already too late to stop it: the vampire epidemic will sweep first the United States, and then the world.
Impossibly strong, smart, beautiful, and commanding, these creatures refuse to be called 'vampires', they prefer 'gloamings'. They quickly rise to prominence in all aspects of modern society: physically graceful at sports, endlessly enthralling on TV and incredibly intelligent at business - soon people are begging to be 're-created', willing to risk death if their bodies can't handle the transformation.
But just as the world begins to adjust, the stakes change yet again when a charismatic and wealthy businessman, recently turned, decides to do what none of his kind has done before: run for political office.
This sweeping yet deeply intimate fictional oral history - told from the perspective of several players on all sides of the vampire uprising - is a genre-bending, shocking, immersive and subversive debut that is as addictive as the power it describes.
**Review
Praise for *A People's History of the Vampire Uprising*
''A wide-angle, wild and weird exploration of politics, pop culture, and a diseased America. This tale of misguided hero worship and encroaching terror may be the perfect analogy for our own strange times.'' --Thomas Mullen, author of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist *Darktown*
''A People's History of the Vampire Uprising is that rarest of rare creatures, an absolutely unique work of the writer's art that, while drawing on several distinct streams of narrative style, emerges from all of those rivers without any parallels... Villareal starts this brilliant sideways take on the vampire genre by setting up 'The Gloamings'--his sardonic name for the vampire changelings that are the book's driving force--as a problem for, get this, the Center for Disease Control, a witty--and risky--take that, in less skilled hands, could have forced the book into a narrative box car on a one-way track to Been There Ville. Because Villareal has the skills to hold several competing plot-lines and a cast of intriguing characters in his head and the talent to deal them out with economy, style, and a sardonic wit, the book becomes, among other gonzo things, a political parable for these lunatic times, a horror story, a trip down some of the darkest corridors of The Ancient World, and finally, an oddly epiphanic take on what it means, exactly, to be human. It cries out to be made into--not a movie--it's too good for that -- but into a television series, and when this happens, and it will, I'll be binge-watching it. Well done, Raymond Villareal. Welcome to the world of writers, and may God save your immortal soul.'' --Carsten Stroud, author of *Niceville*
''Told in the jumbled, frenetic urgency of a discarded case file, this is the history of both a social movement and a vector for disease. Mr. Villareal's vampires are not the ones we find most comforting. They are not seductive or beautiful or tormented anti-heroes. No, they are more terrifying than anything like that, an infection that will spread throughout our body politic, our institutions, our history, and ourselves.'' --Paul Park, author of The White Tyger and *All Those Vanished Engines*
''A major document dump--and that's a good thing! We have it all here: a complete oral history of how our world--our species changed forever. Raymond Villareal's sense of fun is palpable as he plays with legal thrillers; good, old, dogged police work; international intrigue; hard science; dirty politics; and, yes, classic, heart-stopping horror. Somewhere, Dracula himself is sitting up late into the day enjoying the hell out of this.'' --John Griesemer, author of Signal & Noise and filmmaker of the web series *Parmalee*
About the Author
Raymond Villareal is a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, and is currently a practicing attorney. This is his first novel. Views: 35
Two stories from the early years of Andrea Cort, later the heroine of the Philip K. Dick Award-winning novel, Emissaries from the Dead."The Coward's Option": On the hostile home-world of the Caith, Andrea Cort has been assigned the case of a murderer who's been condemned to a horrible death. All legal options have been exhausted, but the Caith offer a rarely-used alternative to execution, one that purports to ensure that the accused will never break the law again. Alas, it's not so much another chance at life, but deliverance into a hell far worse than mere death..."Tasha's Fail-Safe": Once, she and Andrea Cort hated each other. Now, the victim of a savage assassination attempt by a traitor to the Confederacy, she lies in an unresponsive state, the identity of her assailant locked inside her head. Can Andrea penetrate a vital secret she never even knew existed? Views: 35
ABOUT THIS BOOK...In 1961, Derek Leech emerges fully formed from the polluted River Thames, destined to found a global media empire. In 1978, three ambitious young men strike a deal with Leech. They are offered wealth, glamour, and success, but a price must be paid. In 1994, Leech's purpose moves to its conclusion, and as the men struggle, they realize to truth of the ultimate price. Views: 35
Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr had been the very model of a Confederation Marine. But when she learned the truth about the war the Confederation was fighting, she left the military for good. But Torin couldn't walk away from preserving and protecting everything the Confederation represented. Instead, she drew together an elite corps of friends and allies to take on covert missions that the Justice Department and the Corps could not—or would not—officially touch. Torin just hoped the one they were about to embark on wouldn't be the death of them. Ancient H'san grave goods are showing up on the black market—grave goods from just before the formation of the Confederation, when the H'san gave up war and buried their planet-destroying weapons...as grave goods for the death of war. Someone is searching for these weapons and they're very close to finding them. As the Elder Races have turned away from war, those searchers can only be members of the Younger... Views: 35
The author of sixty-two books, more than forty of them published commercially, Ardath Mayhar (1930-2012) began her career in the early 1980s with science fiction novels from Doubleday and TSR. Atheneum published several of her young adult and children's novels. Changing focus, she wrote westerns (as Frank Cannon) and mountain man novels (as John Killdeer), four prehistoric Indian books under her own name, and historical western High Mountain Winter under the byline Frances Hurst.This collection — which features 27 fantasy & science fiction stories — was originally published in paperback as "The Methodist Bobcat and Other Tales." Included are:THE METHODIST BOBCATTHE LYCH ROADTHE VEAULESMAY BANKED FIRES RISE ANEWTHE GUARDIANS OF THE SHRINEARPEGGIA'S DEATHSONGTHE PLACE OF THE ANCIENTSOLD MAN, BAD SCENETHE SWAMP RUNNERFATE HAS THREE FACESMINDBENDIN THE LONE GRAYTHE DAY OF THE DRUMDEEP WOODS LADYWELCOME TO SHIARATHE LAST... Views: 35
The Earth has been colonised.Ben Mason fought the war and lost. The Earth has been taken by an implacable alien intelligence: our cities terraformed, our people broken.Now Mason—back in the arms of task force OMBRA—needs answers to the most desperate questions. Can nothing be done? What do the invaders want with Earth?When all hope of survival is gone, all that's left is to seek revenge... Views: 35
From the authors of the New York Times bestselling novel Welcome to Night Vale and the creators of the #1 international podcast of the same name, comes a collection of episodes from Season Two of their hit podcast, featuring a foreword by the authors, behind-the-scenes commentary, and original illustrations.In June of 2012, the creators of Welcome to Night Vale began airing twice-weekly podcasts, hoping to be heard by anyone outside their close circles. By the anniversary show a year later, the fanbase had exploded, vaulting the podcast into the #1 spot on iTunes. Since then, its popularity has grown by epic proportions, hitting more than 100 million downloads, and Night Vale has expanded to a successful live multi-cast international touring stage show and a New York Times bestselling novel. Now the first two seasons are available as books, offering an entertaining reading experience and a valuable reference guide to past episodes.In The Great Glowing Coils of the... Views: 35
