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The Keeping Place

*'Look out,' I screamed. The flying creature lashed out and I stared in horror at Rushton's bloodied arm. Maruman leapt between us in his tyger form. 'Let me go to him!' I screamed. 'He is in a dream but the beast is not. It comes! Wake!'* After a kidnapping, Elspeth Gordie and the Misfits are forced to join the rebellion against the oppressive Council, using their extraordinary mind powers. But Elspeth must also seek out clues left by the long-dead seer, Kasanda, vital to her quest to destroy the Beforetime weaponmachines. One clue is lost in the past, forcing Elspeth to travel the Dreamtrails, stalked by a terrifying winged beast, with the cat, Maruman, as her guide and guardian. Only there can she learn more of the Beforetimer Misfits and their enemy, Govamen. Gradually Elspeth realises her quest is intimately linked to the Misfits' refuge, Obernewtyn - its past and its future...
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The Dragons of Dorcastle

For centuries, the two Great Guilds have controlled the world of Dematr. The Mechanics and the Mages have been bitter rivals, agreeing only on the need to keep the world they rule from changing. But now a Storm approaches, one that could sweep away everything that humans have built. Only one person has any chance of uniting enough of the world behind her to stop the Storm, but the Great Guilds and many others will stop at nothing to defeat her. Mari is a brilliant young Mechanic, just out of the Guild Halls where she has spent most of her life learning how to run the steam locomotives and other devices of her Guild. Alain is the youngest Mage ever to learn how to change the world he sees with the power of his mind. Each has been taught that the works of the other’s Guild are frauds. But when their caravan is destroyed, they begin to discover how much has been kept from them. As they survive danger after danger, Alain discovers what Mari doesn’t know—that she was long ago prophesized as the only one who can save their world. When Mari reawakens emotions he had been taught to deny, Alain realizes he must sacrifice everything to save her. Mari, fighting her own feelings, discovers that only together can she and Alain hope to stay alive and overcome the Dragons of Dorcastle.
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Clones

How would you raise yourself?Your cloned child is a mirror, simultaneously reflecting who you are and what you might have been. It's potential was your potential. Can your clone achieve those dreams that fell to the wayside in your own life, or is it doomed to repeat your mistakes?How would you raise yourself?Your cloned child is a mirror, simultaneously reflecting who you are and what you might have been. It's potential was your potential. Can your clone achieve those dreams that fell to the wayside in your own life, or is it doomed to repeat your mistakes?Clones is a collection of speculative short-stories exploring the relationship dynamics between parents and their cloned children. It inspires speculation as it entertains, probing issues we will face in our lifetimes.
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A Shiver of Light

*I am Princess Meredith NicEssus. Legal name Meredith Gentry, because Princess looks so pretentious on a driver's license. I was the first faerie princess born on American soil, but I wouldn't be the only one for much longer...* Merry Gentry, ex-private detective, now full-time princess, knew she was descended from fertility goddesses, but when she learned she was about to have triplets, she began to understand what that might mean. Infertility has plagued the high ranks of faerie for centuries. Now nobles of the both courts of faerie are coming to woo Merry and her men at their home in exile in the Western Lands of Los Angeles, because they will do anything to have babies of their own. Taranis, King of Light and Illusion, is a more dangerous problem. He tried to seduce Merry, and failing that, raped her. He's using the human courts to sue for visitation rights, claiming that one of the children is his. And though Merry knows she was already pregnant when he took her, she can't prove it. To save herself and her babies from Taranis Merry will use the most dangerous powers in all of faerie: a god of death, a warrior known as the Darkness, The Killing Frost, and a king of nightmares. They are her lovers, and her dearest loves, and they will face down the might of the high courts of faerie - while trying to contain the war, to keep it from spreading to those innocent humans who are in very real danger of becoming collateral damage...
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Arena One: Slaverunners (Book #1 of the Survival Trilogy)

“Grabbed my attention from the beginning and did not let go….This story is an amazing adventure that is fast paced and action packed from the very beginning. There is not a dull moment to be found.” --Paranormal Romance Guild {regarding Turned}“Shades of THE HUNGER GAMES permeate a story centered around two courageous teens determined to buck all odds in an effort to regain their loved ones. But the true strength in any story lies not so much in its setting and events as in how the characters come across, come alive, and handle their lives--and it's here that ARENA ONE begins to diverge from the predictable and enters the more compelling realms of believability and strength….ARENA ONE builds a believable, involving world and is recommended….for those who enjoy dystopian novels, powerful female characters, and stories of uncommon courage.” --Midwest Book Review D. Donovan, eBook Reviewer The #1 Bestseller! New York. 2120. American has been decimated, wiped out from the second Civil War. In this post-apocalyptic world, survivors are far and few between. And most of those who do survive are members of the violent gangs, predators who live in the big cities. They patrol the countryside looking for slaves, for fresh victims to bring back into the city for their favorite death sport: Arena One. The death stadium where opponents are made to fight to the death, in the most barbaric of ways. There is only one rule to the arena: no one survives. Ever. Deep in the wilderness, high up in the Catskill Mountains, 17 year old Brooke Moore manages to survive, hiding out with her younger sister, Bree. They are careful to avoid the gangs of slaverunners who patrol the countryside. But one day, Brooke is not as careful as she can be, and Bree is captured. The slaverunners take her away, heading to the city, and to what will be a certain death. Brooke, a Marine’s daughter, was raised to be tough, to never back down from a fight. When her sister is taken, Brooke mobilizes, uses everything at her disposal to chase down the slaverunners and get her sister back. Along the way she runs into Ben, 17, another survivor like her, whose brother was taken. Together, they team up on their rescue mission. What follows is a post-apocalyptic, action-packed thriller, as the two of them pursue the slaverunners on the most dangerous ride of their lives, following them deep into the heart of New York. Along the way, if they are to survive, they will have to make some of the hardest choices and sacrifices of their lives, encountering obstacles neither of them had expected—including their unexpected feelings for each other. Will they rescue their siblings? Will they make it back? And will they, themselves, have to fight in the arena? ARENA ONE is Book #1 in the Survival Trilogy, and is 85,000 words. Book #2 in the series, ARENA TWO, is now also available. “Grabbed my attention from the beginning and did not let go….This story is an amazing adventure that is fast paced and action packed from the very beginning. There is not a dull moment to be found.” --Paranormal Romance Guild {regarding Turned} "I will admit, before ARENA ONE, I had never read anything post-apocalyptic before. I never thought it would be something I would enjoy….Well, I was very pleasantly surprised at how addicting this book was. ARENA ONE was one of those books that you read late into the night until your eyes start to cross because you don't want to put it down….It is no secret that I love strong heroines in the books I read….Brooke was tough, strong, un-relentless, and while there is romance in the book, Brooke wasn't ruled by that....I would highly recommend ARENA ONE.” --Dallas Examiner
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Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2

Contents Introduction (Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2) • (1953) • essay by Frederik Pohl Disappearing Act • (1953) • short story by Alfred Bester It's a Good Life • (1953) • short story by Jerome Bixby The Clinic • (1953) • short story by Theodore Sturgeon The Happiest Creature • [Quarantine] • (1953) • short story by Jack Williamson The Odor of Thought • (1953) • short story by Robert Sheckley F Y I • (1953) • short story by James Blish Critical Factor • (1953) • short story by Hal Clement The Remorseful • (1953) • short story by C.M. Kornbluth A Pound of Cure • (1953) • short story by Lester del Rey Friend of the Family • (1953) • short story by Richard Wilson Hormones • (1953) • short story by Fletcher Pratt Conquest • (1953) • short story by Anthony Boucher The Purple Fields • (1953) • short story by Robert Crane The Congruent People • (1953) • short story by Algis Budrys
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The Green Odyssey

The Green Odyssey has been called "rollicking science-fiction adventure," "uproarious," "swashbuckling," and "sheer fun," and described by science-fiction critic Sam Moskowitz as "filled with engaging humor." The adventure begins when Alan Green arranges passage on a "wind roller," a sailing vessel of the plains, by dazzling the captain with a financial scheme that offers rich profits to overcome his reluctance to help a fugitive. Setting "sale" with the captain, Green thinks he's escaped from his dominating wife--but he's wrong. Throw in pirates, floating islands, and a black cat-goddess with a taste for beer, picked up after shipwreck on one of the wandering Islands of the Xurdimur, and you have the recipe for science-fantasy adventure as irresistible as Riverworld itself. Newly designed and typeset in a modern 6-by-9-inch format by Waking Lion Press.
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Now Wait for Last Year

Dr. Eric Sweetscent has problems. His planet is enmeshed in an unwinnable war. His wife is lethally addicted to a drug that whips its users helplessly back and forth across time -- and is hell-bent on making Eric suffer along with her. And Sweetscent's newest patient is not only the most important man on the embattled planet Earth but quite possibly the sickest. For Secretary Gino Molinari has turned his mortal illness into an instrument of political policy -- and Eric cannot tell if his job is to make the Male better or to keep him poised just this side of death. Now Wait for Last fear bursts through the envelope between the impossible and the inevitable. Even as ushers us into a future that looks uncannily like the present, it makes the normal seem terrifyingly provisional -- and compels anyone who reads it to wonder if he really knows what time it is. From the Trade Paperback edition.
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This World We Live In

It’s been a year since a meteor collided with the moon, catastrophically altering the earth’s climate. For Miranda Evans, life as she knew it no longer exists. Her friends and neighbors are dead, the landscape is frozen, and food is increasingly scarce. The struggle to survive intensifies when Miranda’s father and stepmother arrive with a baby and three strangers in tow. One of the newcomers is Alex Morales, and as Miranda’s complicated feelings for him turn to love, his plans for his future thwart their relationship. Then a devastating tornado hits the town of Howell, and Miranda makes a decision that will change their lives forever.
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Forge of Stones

In a world dominated by a theocratic regime, a revolution is about to erupt. A rebel seeks out a curator's apprentice on the run. They will soon be carried away in a mysterious place, entangled in an adventure that will reveal an earth-shattering truth. In the meantime, a strange sort of pilgrim from afar will meet with a man seeking knowledge and power, changing their world for ever.Rob Hamilton, a disaffected insurance lawyer, and Toni Haast, a quietly ambitious claims clerk, are sent to Exmouth, a small town on New Zealand's West Coast, to investigate the suspicious death of Artemis Washburn. On family holidays in Exmouth, Rob's father had filled his young son's mind with ideas of the fifth season - the time when things don't quite fit, like rain when it's sunny. As they delve into the truth behind Artemis's death and their relationship develops, Rob and Toni glimpse life in the fifth season. Meanwhile, back in Wellington, the gilded life of Andy Wu, the Dependable Insurance Company’s stellar CEO, starts to tarnish. Can his marriage to Samantha survive his jealousy of Owen Huntly, top salesman and Lothario? Against a background of modern corporate culture and a tragic death, this bitter-sweet comedy weaves stories of love and relationships, ambition and folly.
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Hell's Legionnaire

A triumphant tale. Sentenced to a French penal colony for killing an officer (in self-defense), American Dusty Colton flees the French Foreign Legion he so willingly joined and rushes headlong into a Berber tribal lair. To his horror, he discovers a captive American woman who's in the process of being whipped and tortured by the bandit leader. Despite the low odds of him winning out against the entire Berber tribe alone, Dusty can't leave the woman behind. Even if he figures out an escape from the camp, he still has to manage a way to get them both out of the country alive with both the Foreign Legion and the Berbers at their heels. ALSO INCLUDES THE ADVENTURE STORIES "THE BARBARIANS" AND "THE SQUAD THAT NEVER CAME BACK" .".".pulse-pounding...The opening pulls readers in..." "--Publishers Weekly
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Revealing Eden

Eden Newman must mate before her 18th birthday in six months or she'll be left outside to die in a burning world. But who will pick up her mate-option when she's cursed with white skin and a tragically low mate-rate of 15%? In a post-apocalyptic, totalitarian, underground world where class and beauty are defined by resistance to an overheated environment, Eden's coloring brands her as a member of the lowest class, a weak and ugly Pearl. If only she can mate with a dark-skinned Coal from the ruling class, she'll be safe. Just maybe one Coal sees the Real Eden and will be her salvation her co-worker Jamal has begun secretly dating her. But when Eden unwittingly compromises her father's secret biological experiment, she finds herself in the eye of a storm and thrown into the last area of rainforest, a strange and dangerous land. Eden must fight to save her father, who may be humanity's last hope, while standing up to a powerful beast-man she believes is her enemy, despite her overwhelming attraction. Eden must change to survive but only if she can redefine her ideas of beauty and of love, along with a little help from her "adopted aunt" Emily Dickinson.
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Ticker

A girl with a clockwork heart must make every second count. When Penny Farthing nearly dies, brilliant surgeon Calvin Warwick manages to implant a brass “Ticker” in her chest, transforming her into the first of the Augmented. But soon it’s discovered that Warwick killed dozens of people as he strove to perfect another improved Ticker for Penny, and he’s put on trial for mass murder. On the last day of Warwick’s trial, the Farthings’ factory is bombed, Penny’s parents disappear, and Penny and her brother, Nic, receive a ransom note demanding all of their Augmentation research if they want to see their parents again. Is someone trying to destroy the Farthings...or is the motive more sinister? Desperate to reunite their family and rescue their research, Penny and her brother recruit fiery baker Violet Nesselrode, gentleman-about-town Sebastian Stirling, and Marcus Kingsley, a young army general who has his own reasons for wanting to lift the veil between this world and the next. Wagers are placed, friends are lost, romance stages an ambush, and time is running out for the girl with the clockwork heart.
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Ring of Fire II

A mysterious cosmic force—the “Ring of Fire”—has hurled the town of Grantville from 20th century West Virginia back to 17th century Europe, and into the heart of the Thirty Years War. With their seemingly magical technology, and their radical ideas of freedom and justice, the time-lost West Virginians have allied with Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, to form the Confederated Principalities of Europe, changing the course of history—in ways both small and large. MORE TO COME.
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The Wolf Lord

Roguish. Reckless. Unreliable. Raff Pineda has a certain reputation among the Animari. He’s the one to call if there’s a party starting, not the man to rely on when all hell breaks loose. Though he’s nominally the leader of the Pine Ridge pack, he defers to his second on the tough calls. Raff prefers to live fast and hard and keep his heart hidden, but a certain Eldritch princess won’t fall for his usual tricks, and their contract political marriage may be anything but convenient. Ambitious. Elegant. Isolated. Princess Thalia Talfayen may not have been raised by a witch in a tower, but she’s spent the last few decades locked up for a failed insurrection. Plotting and scheming comes naturally to her; personal connections do not. Since she’s come this far in her unstoppable quest to claim the silver throne, she won’t hesitate to do whatever it takes to unite her people, even if that means giving herself to the big bad wolf…
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