Terry Brooks is one of a handful of writers whose work defines modern fantasy fiction. His twenty-three international bestsellers have ranged from the beloved Shannara series to stories that tread a much darker path. Armageddon’s Children is a new creation–the perfect opportunity for readers unfamiliar with Brooks’s previous work to experience an author at the height of his considerable storytelling powers. It is a gripping chronicle of a once-familiar world now spun shockingly out of control, in which an extraordinary few struggle to salvage hope in the face of terrifying chaos.
Logan Tom is doomed to remember the past and determined to rescue the future. Far behind him lies a boyhood cut violently short by his family’s slaughter, when the forces of madness and hate swept our world after decadent excesses led to civilization’s downfall. Somewhere ahead of him rests the only chance to beat back the minions of evil that are systematically killing and enslaving the last remnants of humanity. Navigating the scarred and poisoned landscape that once was America and guided by a powerful talisman, Logan has sworn an oath to seek out a remarkable being born of magic, possessed of untold abilities, and destined to lead the final fight against darkness.
Across the country, Angel Perez, herself a survivor of the malevolent, death-dealing forces combing the land, has also been chosen for an uncanny mission in the name of her ruined world’s salvation. From the devastated streets of Los Angeles, she will journey to find a place–and a people–shrouded in mystery, celebrated in legend, and vital to the cause of humankind . . . even as a relentless foe follows close behind, bent on her extermination. While in the nearly forsaken city of Seattle, a makeshift family of refugees has carved out a tenuous existence among the street gangs, mutants, and marauders fighting to stay alive against mounting odds–and something unspeakable that has come from the shadows in search of prey.
In time, all their paths will cross. Their common purpose will draw them together. Their courage and convictions will be tested and their fates will be decided, as their singular crusade begins: to take back, or lose forever, the only world they have.
In Armageddon’s Children, Brooks brings his gifts as a mythmaker to the timeless theme of the unending, essential conflict between darkness and light–and carries his unique imaginative vision to a stunning new level. Prepare for a breathtaking tour de force. To those who are new to Terry Brooks, welcome. And to those who have read him for many years: prepare for a dramatic surprise.
From the Hardcover edition. Views: 993
This volume brings together three of Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett’s major short stories and thirteen shorter pieces of fiction that he calls texts for nothing.” Here, as in all his work, Beckett relentlessly strips away all but the essential to arrive at a core of truth. His prose reveals the same mastery that marks his work from Waiting for Godot and Endgame to Molloy and Malone Dies. In each of the three stories, old men displaced or expelled from the modest corners where they have been living bestir themselves in search of new corners. Told, You can’t stay here,” they somehow, doggedly, inevitably, go on. Views: 993
Internationally acclaimed, New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of Science Fiction, Urban Fantasy, and Paranormal Romance, S.E. Smith, brings another action, adventure, and suspense-filled story to transport readers out of this world!
Lieutenant Commander Ashton “Ash” Haze has always embraced two things in his life: adventure and women, but when he awakens on an alien planet, there’s no time for anything other than survival – or so he thinks.
Kella Ta’Qui is one of the Turbinta – a guild that discards their genetic identities in favor of what they train to become: assassins. Kella has been honing this deadly skill set since she was taken from her home as a child to train. Her first mission is to find and kill whatever was inside the unusual capsule that landed on Tesla Terra, but predator becomes prey when she is wounded by her target. Dazed and confused, she stumbles into a group who plan to sell her to the highest bidder – until a rescuer appears.
Ash has always been a trouble-maker, and his Navy training ensured that he was able to handle almost anything thrown his way in the past. But when he enters a city in the middle of the desert and discovers a wounded alien woman, nothing could have prepared him for how she affects him. He soon learns that she knows where his fellow crew member might be located, and that knowledge unwittingly thrusts him into the middle of a local civil war.
The fight begins and the race is on to find the other members of Project Gliese 581g crew before the Legion does. Can an easy-going Navy pilot and an alien assassin work together to reach the location of one of the other capsules on the cutthroat Turbintan planet, or will Ash find himself served up to the Legion for the highest number of credits?
Whatever happens, the war has begun with the first awakening of the resistance – a resistance that Ash unwittingly volunteered to fight for. Views: 993
summer is a time to grow
seeds
Polly has an idea that she can't stop thinking about, one that involves changing a few things about herself. She's setting her sights on a more glamorous life, but it's going to take all of her focus. At least that way she won't have to watch her friends moving so far ahead.
roots
Jo is spending the summer at her family's beach house, working as a busgirl and bonding with the older, cooler girls she'll see at high school come September. She didn't count on a brief fling with a cute boy changing her entire summer. Or feeling embarrassed by her middle school friends. And she didn't count on her family at all. . .
leaves
Ama is not an outdoorsy girl. She wanted to be at an academic camp, doing research in an air-conditioned library, earning A's. Instead her summer scholarship lands her on a wilderness trip full of flirting teenagers, blisters, impossible hiking trails, and a sad lack of hair products.
It is a new summer. And a new sisterhood. Come grow with them. Views: 993
When Daniel X discovers that a duo of evil extraterrestrials is plotting to control kids around the world through videogames, he's determined to take them both out of commission. This pair of wicked game masters wants to destroy the human race by turning brainwashed videogamers into an unstoppable army of doom They're also running an endangered species hunting club on the side, and their next target is none other than Daniel. He'll have no choice but to turn to the aliens' rebellious son who needs help to stand up to his malicious parents. But can Daniel trust the progeny of this treacherous twosome? Or will it be "Game Over" for the alien hunter? Views: 992
According to ancient Japanese protocol, foreigners deigning to approach the emperor did so only with fear and trembling. Terror and self-abasement conveyed respect. Amélie, our well-intentioned and eager young Western heroine, goes to Japan to spend a year working at the Yumimoto Corporation. Returning to the land where she was born is the fulfillment of a dream for Amélie; working there turns into comic nightmare.
Alternately disturbing and hilarious, unbelievable and shatteringly convincing, Fear and Trembling will keep readers clutching tight to the pages of this taut little novel, caught up in the throes of fear, trembling, and, ultimately, delight. Views: 992
Long hailed as the grand master of adventure fiction, Clive Cussler has continued to astound with the intricate plotting and astonishing set pieces of his novels. Now, with a surprising twist, he gives us his most audacious work yet.
In the final pages of Valhalla Rising, Dirk Pitt discovered, to his shock, that he had two grown children he had never known-twenty-three-year-old fraternal twins born to a woman he thought had died in an underwater earthquake. Both have inherited his love of the sea: the girl, Summer, is a marine biologist; the boy, himself named Dirk, is a marine engineer. And now they are about to help their father in the adventure of a lifetime.
There is a brown tide infesting the ocean off the shore of Nicaragua. The twins are working in a NUMA(r) underwater enclosure, trying to determine its origin, when two startling things happen: Summer discovers an artifact, something strange and beautiful and ancient; and the worst storm in years boils up out of the sky, heading straight not only for them but also for a luxurious floating resort hotel square in its path.
The peril for everybody concerned is incalculable, and, desperately, Pitt, Al Giordino, and the rest of the NUMA(r) crew rush to the rescue, but what they find in the storm's wake makes the furies of nature pale in comparison. For there is an all-too-human evil at work in that part of the world, and the brown tide is only a by-product of its plan. Soon, its work will be complete-and the world will be a very different place.
Though if Summer's discovery is to be believed, the world is already a very different place... Views: 992
In December 2015, I started a free monthly competition challenging my blog visitors to provide me with prompts for me to choose my favourite and write their story in around 500 words. The three pieces published here are the winning prompts from the Jan / Feb 2016 competition, as well as those that came second and third. The prompts submitted can be found at the end of each story.In December 2015, I started a free monthly competition challenging my blog visitors to provide me with prompts for me to choose my favourite and write their story in around 500 words. The three pieces published here are the winning prompts from the Jan / Feb 2016 competition, as well as those that came second and third. The prompts submitted can be found at the end of each story.In the first - the title - story, 'The Maestro', we meet Amontillado-swigging Joe 'The Bricklayer' Marsh who has been seeking revenge for the past ten years.The second, 'Jungfrau', is another revenge story and features Zurich-born Birgitta who, unlike Joe, has nothing to lose.Finally, 'Is it me?', introduces us to job-seeking Dubliner, Arthur, who turns his back on sales for a more interesting career. Views: 992
New York Times and USA TODAY Bestselling Author returns with an emotionally charged fantasy adventure story filled with heart pounding action and suspense for readers of all ages.
Makayla Summerlin is excited about joining her grandfather in Hong Kong during a college break. Her plans to help him sail the next leg of his journey around the world on the Defiance turn to fear when he and the Defiance disappear. Unsure of what to do, Makayla reaches out to an old friend for help.
Brian Jacobs is working as the Consultant General in Hong Kong when he receives a frantic call for help from a friend. Their meeting quickly turns to one of survival when Makayla is almost kidnapped in front of him. Seeing Makayla again awakens old feelings inside Brian and he will do everything he can to help her.
When the situation turns deadly, both Brian and Makayla find unexpected help from another old friend and a Hong Kong detective. Together, the four are in a race to find Henry and protect Makayla as they search for the Defiance and to find answers as to why a wealthy crime lord is targeting Henry and Makayla.
Will they be able to discover the truth before time runs out for Henry? Views: 992
James Patterson's scariest, sexiest standalone thriller since The Quickie. Ben isn't like most people. Unable to control his thoughts, he's a man consumed by his obsessions: cars, tennis, marathons, trains, yachts-and Diana Hotchkiss, a beautiful woman Ben knows he can never have.
When Diana is found dead outside her apartment, Ben's infatuation drives him on a hunt to find out what happened to the love of his life.
But Ben quickly discovers that the woman he pined for was hiding a dangerous double life. To her family, she's a sweet Midwestern girl who helped her brother get clean. But in the political world of Washington DC, she's a manipulative go-getter who uses her sexual prowess to get what she wants.
And now someone is out to stop Ben from uncovering the truth about Diana's illicit affairs.
In his most heart-pumping thriller yet, James Patterson plunges us into the depths of a mind tortured by paranoia and obsession, on an action-packed chase through a world of danger and deceit. Views: 991
An intellectual thriller putting forth the supposition that Christ did not rise from the dead. It questions what effect this revelation would have on the individual believer, on the Church as a whole and on the political stability of the world. Read has also written "A Season in the West". Views: 991
In this intense and brilliant book Bowles focuses on Morocco, condensing experience, emotion, and the whole history of a people into a series of short, insightful vignettes. He distills for us the very essence of Moroccan culture. With extraordinary immediacy, he takes the reader on a journey through the Moroccan centuries, pausing at points along the way to create resonant images of the country, it's landscapes, and the beliefs and characteristics of its inhabitants. Views: 991
'Myself and Hugh . . . We're taking a break.'
'A city-with-fancy-food sort of break?'
If only.
Amy's husband Hugh says he isn't leaving her.
He still loves her, he's just taking a break - from their marriage, their children and, most of all, from their life together. Six months to lose himself in south-east Asia. And there is nothing Amy can say or do about it.
Yes, it's a mid-life crisis, but let's be clear: a break isn't a break up - yet . . .
However, for Amy it's enough to send her - along with her extended family of gossips, misfits and troublemakers - teetering over the edge.
For a lot can happen in six-months. When Hugh returns if he returns, will he be the same man she married? And will Amy be the same woman?
Because if Hugh is on a break from their marriage, then isn't she?
The Break isn't a story about falling in love but about staying in love. It is Marian Keyes at her funniest, wisest and brilliant best. Views: 991
Adrian Mole, now age thirty-four and three quarters, needs proof that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction so he can get a refund from a travel agency of the deposit he paid on a trip to Cyprus. Naturally, he writes to Tony Blair for some evidence.
He’s engaged to Marigold, but obsessed with her voluptuous sister. And he is so deeply in debt to banks and credit card companies that it would take more than twice his monthly salary to ever repay them. He needs a guest speaker for his creative writing group’s dinner in Leicestershire and wonders if the prime minister’s wife is available.
In short, Adrian is back in true form, unable—like so many people we know, but of course, not us—to admit that the world does not revolve around him. But recognizing the universal core of Adrian’s dilemmas is what makes them so agonizingly funny. Views: 991
