James returns to Addieville to finish what Mr. Turner started years ago when the old boneshaker burned his books and set half the town aflame. James returns to recover Mr. Turner's runes and so link his bloodline to that of a cursed family whose study of an ancient and lost alphabet doomed them to suffering and pain. But to James, such a curse is a small cost to pay to bury a dead town’s bones.Addieville offers no friendship to James Frost’s family. James’ father refuses to remove that vile book of Mr. Turner’s poetry from the town library, and so the residents of Addieville view the Frosts as a family undeserving of their trust. Mr. Turner doesn’t allow the kindness the Frosts show him go unreturned, and as Addieville begins to torment the Frosts to drive them out of town, that old poet unravels captivating magic to their son James. Mr. Turner and James learn they share much more in common than their ugliness, and the young boy and old man begin a last ritual for Addieville when they burn books upon a great pyre and spread a cleansing blaze through town. Views: 752
Mankind can only guess how long the alien water baskets have stood upon the planet of Sutherland. No clues have been found of the alien race who constructed such delicate mechanisms so long ago to harvest water from the arid planet's atmosphere. Those of the United Systems simply recognize the water's value, and so they refuse to allow the settlers of Zeb to jeopardize such ancient artifacts.The actions of those settlers who call Zeb Griffin their teacher, mentor and prophet once again mortify Operative Sheridan, sent to the barren and rocky planet named Sutherland in order to protect the ancient water baskets that harvest moisture from a dry sky. Some settler of Zeb has broken an ancient water basket. Some settler of Zeb has failed to appreciate the water baskets' value and splendor. The baskets represent the first traces of another intelligence other than mankind's amid the stars. The water baskets harvest water, mankind's most precious resource in the colonization of the stars. Yet those who claim to follow the long-dead philosopher named Zeb Griffin still damage the mechanisms their clumsy hands cannot work, whose design their closed minds cannot understand. Operative Sheridan holds the pieces of a water basket destroyed by a careless settler of Zeb, and his crafty mind hatches a plan to secure those incredible devices from the settlers' folly. He will fire no shot, nor request a single soldier. Yet in the end, those who call Zeb their mentor will serve as puppets to Operative Sheridan's designs. Views: 750
A reunion with his life’s only true love, Maxine, relieves Gerald Hollenkamp from his years of regret. Time, however, cannot be paused for the sake of memory; and Gerald fears he has lost his true love for good when Maxine’s weakening mind places her in a retirement home. Yet a magic remains, and with a glamour masking his gray beard, Gerald has a chance to remain next to Maxine.Fate separated Gerald Hollenkamp from his life's only true love Maxine so many lost years ago. Though Maxine moved forward in her life and raised a family of her own, in a home shared with a loving husband, Gerald drifted from one job to the next, with a small key kept in his pocket to always remind him of Maxine, with a key's charm in his pocket protecting him from the dangers his drifting years encountered. And just when Gerald thinks he will no longer have to taste the bitter regret that has plagued his days, Maxine's weakening memory once again separates Gerald from his love. Only, that small key holds a last hope, a power to veil Gerald's face in shimmering magic, a power that gives Gerald a chance to in the end remain next to Maxine's side. Views: 750
Until the arrival of a pair of brothers, Buck would have whispered to anyone who could hear him that loneliness was the most painful aspect of his haunting. With the arrival of brothers, Buck's old home is filled with games that remind Buck how to laugh. But when an uninvited spirit intrudes, Buck's ghost will transform into any shape needed to defend the new brothers he comes to call family.Their family's new move into the large home in the country makes brothers Trent and Trevor very happy. They enjoy the space now provided in the home for their toys and games. They enjoy the open air of the woods behind their home. And most of all, Trent and Trevor enjoy the company of the ghost residing in the home who joins them in contests of video game hockey. Trent and Trevor's mother, however, does not share her sons' excitement for a trespassing ghost. When she returns from a business trip with a voodoo mask she believes will exorcise the young ghost from her home, she instead brings a far more terrible, and vengeful, spirit into the brothers' room. That terrifying new spirit shrieks and chokes, and the war Carol and her sons will wage with that wraith reminds them that blood is not the only defining marker of family. Views: 745
The Khy'Meir tribes posses few weapons with which to combat the Alhambran Empire. The tribes cannot match the empire's swords, nor do they have the stones with which to build walls. The tribes' only weapon is fear, wielded by their shadows infiltrating the enemy's homeland. But the tribes underestimate how deeply the fear cuts, realizing too late the doom shadows help to summon.The Alhambran Empire has captured a shadow agent of the Khy'Meir tribes. Though they would be happy to murder an agent responsible for casting so much fear through their empire of glowing temples and paved roadways, the captors must stay their hand, for the warlock has told them the shadow agent must be kept alive and lucid. The warlock and his king have forged from the legends of the Khy'Mier tribes a weapon of unparalleled power, a weapon with which to finally scatter the enemy tribes to ash. But the warlock and the king find they cannot put that weapon back in its cage, and so the fate of two enemies hinge on whatever answers a shadow is able to voice. Views: 737
Brandon Tuggle slumbers and toils upon the world's sharpest acres. During the day, he mans the salvage crane and stacks refuse into teetering piles. During the night, he traces maps in his dreams. His skin is scarred by the salvage yard's sharp piles, and lonely Brandon wonders where all his uncles have gone. It takes a surprise visit from Mercy before Brandon can see a color other than rust.Loneliness irritates Brandon Tuggle's scarred skin. He never knew his mother, and his father has left him behind in the Tuggle salvage yard to be raised by a crowd of uncles. Each day, Brandon operates the yard's giant crane as a fleet of trucks dumps the world's refuse at his doorstep. He is helpless as his uncles vanish amid the maze of junk piles looming throughout the yard, and Brandon can't help but worry that he too will soon find himself lost in that jungle of sharp steel and rusting ore. But a day comes when a truck delivers him Mercy, opening the door to color and splendor that Brandon never thought he would see floating between his family's junk piles. Views: 728
No one writes about mountaineering and its attendant victories and hardships more brilliantly than Jon Krakauer. In this collection of his finest essays and reporting, Krakauer writes of mountains from the memorable perspective of one who has himself struggled with solo madness to scale Alaska's notorious Devils Thumb.
In Pakistan, the fearsome K2 kills thirteen of the world's most experienced mountain climbers in one horrific summer. In Valdez, Alaska, two men scale a frozen waterfall over a four-hundred-foot drop. In France, a hip international crowd of rock climbers, bungee jumpers, and paragliders figure out new ways to risk their lives on the towering peaks of Mont Blanc. Why do they do it? How do they do it? In this extraordinary book, Krakauer presents an unusual fraternity of daredevils, athletes, and misfits stretching the limits of the possible.
From the paranoid confines of a snowbound tent, to the thunderous, suffocating terror of a white-out on Mount McKinley, Eiger Dreams spins tales of driven lives, sudden deaths, and incredible victories. This is a stirring, vivid book about one of the most compelling and dangerous of all human pursuits. Views: 717
The followers of Griffin have built their thirteenth colony in record time. The United Systems rewards the effort by placing the governance of Griffin XIII into the hands of the colonists. For the thirteenth time, the followers of Zeb may live in true freedom. Only none of the twelve previous colonies named Griffin remain, and the ultimate danger resides in the colonists themselvesKassie Mayhap strives to live her life true to the tenants of Zeb Griffin. While the lethal, lavender and gold skies of Griffin XIII sway beyond her colony's glass dome, Kassie vows to live a life of self-reliance. She will answer to no government. Nor will she seek to establish any rule over her neighbors. Kassie will seek no charity, and she will pay no tax. The United Systems has retreated back into the stars with a promise to leave the colonists of Griffin XIII to themselves. Only, the United Systems delivers a final tool to each patriot of Griffin XIII as a last payment for his or her labor. Though the tool feels so soothing in each hand that grips it, the tool empowers each colonist with the power to both preserve and destroy. Though all twelve of the previous colonies of Griffin XIII have perished, Kassie remains faithful that the thirteenth effort of her people will survive in the merciless worlds beyond the supervision of the United Systems. Views: 700
A brand new young fiction series by TV broadcaster and intrepid explorer Ben Fogle, inspired by his real-life animal experiences... Co-written with best-selling children's author Steve Cole and illustrated throughout with beautiful black and white illustrations by Nikolas Ilic. You can always count on Mr Dog to help an animal in trouble... When Mr Dog takes a trip into town, he doesn't expect to stay for long. But then he meets a fox who needs his help – a fox who's very far from home... Views: 687
John Johnson is tired of his family and name, and so his dreams weave elaborate stories to replace the mediocrity of his days. And then one summer night, a tattooed wizard arrives at the community park to unfold magic of the most incredible kind. With a final unraveling of chain, that stranger transforms John Johnson into a new man by replacing the bonds John knows with much more sinister knots.A tattooed wizard unleashes double-edged magic in this excerpt from the novel The Sisters Will Dance by Brian S. Wheeler. The wizard with the strange patterns of ink swirling across his skin discovers an audience of one in the young man named John Johnson. Spells of earth and smoke unfurl at the wizard's summons and captivate John, whose life until witnessing such magical powers felt timid and dull. The wizard saves his most amazing, and most diabolical, trick until the end. With water and chain, that wizard wraps John's soul into floating, iron chain, and so forever shatters the smooth conformity until then known by John Johnson's days. Views: 685
Grandfather Henry clutches his granddaughter, his Sunflower, close as armies prepare to turn his village nestled in the valley into a battlefield. The roses still bloom no matter that the surrounding hills are so dry, and Henry knows the village defenders will once more rise to protect them. Only, Sunflower must know the dark, and bitter, tale of their defenders’ origins.The roar of cannons and the crack of rifles whistle over Sunflower's village as the frightened child clutches her grandfather. Sunflower's grandfather assures her that the legends regarding the defenders of that village nestled between the hills are indeed true, that the village's defenders will rise from the dust and destroy those who descend from the hills seeking to harm the blossoms that provide such uncanny color in a land teeming with dust. But the grandfather holds no detail of his story back from his Sunflower, aware that even his granddaughter must know the truth of those monsters she wishes would rise from the dirt. Views: 685
Llungruel linger in the lom fields around the village. The llungruel is a feared lizard, whose bite brings ravaging fever that drives the mind wild. Malek and Elloch hate the creature, but they must bear the poisonous lizard to grow a sustaining harvest. But after the llungruel kills a brother, Malek and Elloch vow to destroy the lizard, and so discover secrets more bitter than the choking lomMalek and Elloch's village has not hungered since the gray men and their gray ships transformed the surrounding swamps into fields by planting the lom seed onto the land. Though a prevalent and hardy staple crop, the lom is also bitter. The llungruel lizard, with its venom that turns its victims' minds wild, multiplies in the fields and plagues the villagers depending upon the lom. Malek and Elloch vow to destroy the llungruel after they must witness a brother succumb to the lizard's poison. They vow to ignore any of the gray men's rules that prevent them from banishing that fearful creature. Their quest will unveil bitter truths, and demand further sacrifice, before a more delicate balance can be rediscovered to bring relief from the llungruel hissing in the field Views: 679
A long-ago trauma and a family mystery may shed light on her troubled sleep—or pull her into the darkness once and for all . . .As a child, Grace Cooper suffered from bouts of sleepwalking. Now, after the unexpected death of her husband, she's moved back to Woodburn cottage, her childhood home—and the sleepwalking returns. It's all stirring up dark memories—memories that involve the disappearance of her brother Simon, who vanished one night when he was a child, and the death of her father, who fell from an upstairs window.With her mother in a care home with dementia and her sister living in a nearby village, Grace tries to settle in—but with the passage of time, the sleepwalking only becomes more regular and the blurred memories of the past only become more disturbing. Spurred on by these hazy dreamlike recollections, Grace becomes determined to find out what happened to Simon that fateful night. But digging up the past isn't always a... Views: 674
Chuck Wuebbles has lost much since his relocation into Old Town. All of the possessions Chuck earned as a younger man have been noted in the Administrators' black notebooks, to be liquidated to pay for the care Chuck's age will inevitably demand. Yet the Administrators have not taken all. Chuck still possesses his old skills; and with a knife and cleaver, Chuck vows to keep one final freedomThe sick and the old fuel the modern world's economy. Age and disease supply a final, and renewable, resource for a new world's commerce. Chuck Wuebbles has turned old, and so the Administrators have assigned him to a housing unit in the Old Town district, where the care which Chuck will, surely, one day soon need may be delivered quickly. Only that care, that supervision and concern comes with a cost which forces Chuck to watch the Administrators claim possession of his wealth in order to pay for all the doctor and hospital bills eventual sickness will demand. Yet when the pain visits, Chuck vows to keep his suffering a secret with a plan to keep the last possession of his pride through the end. Views: 651
Larry McPeak has come to the seer's crimson table in hopes of reaching beyond the veil separating the living from the dead. Among those gathered at the table, only Larry doesn't hide his face behind a mask, and he fears the oversight will prevent him from peering into the table's waters. But the seer promises him his turn, and so Larry stares in the rippling cloth hoping to touch the other side.Like all the others who shamble out of the shadows to find the light of the seer's crimson table, Larry McPeak's loneliness yearns to reconnect with lost loved ones. It is Larry's first time seated before the table, and he realizes as the others gather that only he does not cover his face with a ghastly mask. The seer assures Larry that the donning of any mask is not required to gaze into the waters that ripple from the crimson table. The seer promises Larry that he will get his to gaze into the table's vision, to hope that someone waits on the other side to hear his voice whispering across the divide. Larry gazes at what his companions seated at the table call into the waters, and in the end, learns we he too wishes for a mask. Views: 641
