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A hilarious spoof on the classic country-house murder mystery, from the Russian masters of sci-fi—never before translated
When Inspector Peter Glebsky arrives at the remote ski chalet on vacation, the last thing he intends to do is get involved in any police work. He’s there to ski, drink brandy, and loaf around in blissful solitude.
But he hadn’t counted on the other vacationers, an eccentric bunch including a famous hypnotist, a physicist with a penchant for gymnastic feats, a sulky teenager of indeterminate gender, and the mysterious Mr. and Mrs. Moses. And as the chalet fills up, strange things start happening—things that seem to indicate the presence of another, unseen guest. Is there a ghost on the premises? A prankster? Something more sinister? And then an avalanche blocks the mountain pass, and they’re stuck.
Which is just about when they find the corpse. Meaning that Glebksy’s vacation is over and he’s embarked on the most unusual investigation he’s ever been involved with. In fact, the further he looks into it, the more Glebsky realizes that the victim may not even be human.
In this late novel from the legendary Russian sci-fi duo—here in its first-ever English translation—the Strugatskys gleefully upend the plot of many a Hercule Poirot mystery—and the result is much funnier, and much stranger, than anything Agatha Christie ever wrote. Views: 759
(Suncoast Society series #73, MF, BDSM)
Between losing her job, surviving cancer, and her long-term Dom dumping her, Meri’s hit rock-bottom. When her Dom of a little brother unexpectedly shows up on her doorstep in St. Louis with a moving truck to bring her home with him, she’s ready to go.
Returning to Florida means reunions with old friends and getting involved with kinky locals in the Suncoast Society. Except she doesn’t expect to run into her old high-school teacher, Elvin. She definitely didn’t expect him to look so…haaawwtt.
Elvin was only a couple of years older than Meri when she was his student. Since then, he’s survived a crushing divorce and a near-fatal accident. He’s rebuilt himself inside and out and is ready to truly be himself. He never thought he’d date a former student…except Meri’s all grown up, and has way more experience in kink than he does. Now it’s time to see if Elvin can learn a few lessons of his own. Views: 759
Things are disappearing. Parts of buildings, parts of people, parts of the whole world—they’re here today, gone tomorrow. Old Shellback—a character as crazy-smart as Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future—thinks he needs glasses. But all he really has to do is open his eyes . . . and see the light.
Or so says George Smiley—otherwise known as the Messiah. George claims that the reason things are vanishing is because he wants them to go away. He has no more use for the world . . . and so it goes. Say goodbye. But Old Shellback has a different idea, and since he is the most stubborn man in the universe, you might want to hear him out.
What’s Shellback’s idea? That two can play at this game. While George is making this world disappear, Old Shellback will make another one appear. Join him on an amazing odyssey—as he heads back to a future of his own making.
By the spring of 1938, Hubbard’s stature as a writer was well established. As author and critic Robert Silverberg puts it: he had become a “master of the art of narrative.” Hubbard’s editors urged him to apply his gift for succinct characterization, original plot, deft pacing and imaginative action to a genre that was new, and essentially foreign, to him—science fiction and fantasy. The rest is Sci-Fi history.
Also includes the Science Fiction adventures, A Can of Vacuum, in which a practical joke on a space station proves that a good sense of humor is timeless, and 240,000 Miles Straight Up, the thrilling story of a race to the moon . . . and the one man who may be able to save the earth from Armageddon. Views: 758
A mysterious murder in a dystopian future leads a novice investigator to question what she’s learned about the foundation of her population-controlled society.
Decades after economic and environmental collapse destroys much of civilization in the United States, the Coast Road region isn’t just surviving but thriving by some accounts, building something new on the ruins of what came before. A culture of population control has developed in which people, organized into households, must earn the children they bear by proving they can take care of them and are awarded symbolic banners to demonstrate this privilege. In the meantime, birth control is mandatory.
Enid of Haven is an Investigator, called on to mediate disputes and examine transgressions against the community. She’s young for the job and hasn't yet handled a serious case. Now, though, a suspicious death requires her attention. The victim was an outcast, but might someone have taken dislike a step further and murdered him?
In a world defined by the disasters that happened a century before, the past is always present. But this investigation may reveal the cracks in Enid’s world and make her question what she really stands for. Views: 758
**The steamy outtake that takes readers even further into Laurell K. Hamilton’s bestselling novel, *Kiss the Dead*.**
*You’d think I’d get used to seeing such a beautiful man and knowing he was mine, but it never grew old, as if his beauty and the fact that he was mine, and I was his, would forever surprise me.*
With a vampire like Jean Claude around, it’s far too easy for Anita Blake to doubt her own appearance—and the hold it has on those who love her. But one hot tub and two incredibly sexy men—Jean Claude and Asher—will make her feel like the most lusted-after woman alive…or undead. Not bad for a mere human…
“Hamilton remains one of the most inventive and exciting writers in the paranormal field.”—Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
Includes an excerpt of *Kiss the Dead*, the new Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novel Views: 758
A baker's dozen of stories, some very short, some quite long, of times past, present or possible future, ranging from an imagined childhood, through adolescence and maturity, to old age, death and beyond. Mostly optimistic and light-hearted though with an occasional touch of the weird or macabre.The loss of a child's pet leads to grief but eventual acceptance; two stories offered to a magazine raise questions of which is fact and which is fiction; the tale of a wise and beneficent Empress with a surprising origin is recalled through her gift of a child's bauble; showing off to impress a girl has grim results; the romance between a mediaeval serving-maid and the page of her lord's best friend interacts through a roughly-executed fifteenth-century portrait with present-day occupants of the same castle; machinations in the rivalry between two church choirs, and their involvement with a murdered Russian oligarch, climax in the resolution of a long-standing quarrel; an ancient musical instrument passes through a succession of modern families until it reaches the player for whom it is destined; misunderstandings by an over-confident novice missionary, stranded in the wilds by the illness of his mentor, lead to horrifying blunders; an elderly man, reminded by a simple melody of his youthful infatuation with a friend's sister, revisits the site of a 1920s house-party associated with her and at last achieves peace; the psychological significance of a particular recurrent dream is recognised after many years; a curious ring given by a French aristocrat to his executioner during the Terror proves surprisingly helpful; and a deceased author, entertained by the characters in one of his uncompleted stories who have finished it themselves, is finally reconciled with a long-lost love. Views: 758
New York Times bestselling author Lili St. Crow thrilled legions of fans with her dark paranormal series Strange Angels. Now she has created a stirringly romantic, deliciously spooky update of Cinderella, the alluring second volume in her trilogy Tales of Beauty and Madness.
Ellie Sinder is a Charmer—the most powerful of her age that St. Juno’s Academy has ever seen. But Ellie’s stepmother, Laurissa, wields manipulation and abuse to force Ellie to work her spells ever more intensely, for Laurissa’s profit.
Then a train from over the Wastelands arrives in New Haven, bearing on it golden boy Avery Fletcher, newly returned from prep school, wearing a sweater Ellie’d love to bury her face in and a smile as bright as his blond hair. Avery’s arrival sets Laurissa off on a dark and dangerous scheme—and this time the soul up for grabs is Ellie’s.
New York Times bestselling author Lili St. Crow has created a stirringly romantic, deliciously spooky update of Cinderella, the alluring second volume in her trilogy Tales of Beauty and Madness. Views: 758
The story is set in an alternate universe, taking place after the “Voodoo Wars”, a conflict between humans and the “Others”. The Others mainly consist of vampires, werewolves, and demons, though the main conflict occurs between humans and vampires. As a result of this war, “bad spots”, or places where black magic thrives, have appeared more frequently. Rae "Sunshine" Seddon, the pastry-making heroine of the novel, has the misfortune of being caught off-guard at her family's old lake side cabin and is abducted by a gang of vampires. She is confined to the ballroom of an abandoned mansion with Constantine, a vampire shackled there by vampires of a rival gang, led by Constantine’s enemy Bo. . . Views: 758
Combining elements of horror and sword and sorcery, John Grover weaves an epic fantasy tale full of action, mystery and suspense.A long vanquished evil has returned to the beautiful and peaceful realm of Orum. An evil that will stop at nothing to plunder and enslave all of the realm’s people and lay waste to its lands.Combining elements of horror and sword and sorcery, John Grover weaves an epic fantasy tale full of action, mystery and suspense.A long vanquished evil has returned to the beautiful and peaceful realm of Orum. An evil that will stop at nothing to plunder and enslave all of the realm’s people and lay waste to its lands. An evil that refuses to die, that has ravaged every realm it has touched. Its name is Sinnia, the Spider Queen and she has set her eyes back on the one world that eludes her grasp.The leadership races must come together and harness the old power of their ancestors, sing their song of lore as one people and defeat this horror once and for all. These races will come to discover a long lost secret about their own ancestry, their connection to each other and the realm itself, a secret that will change their world…forever.Novella. 20,000 words. Views: 758
In association with The Edge Books.theedgebooks.blogspot.com/Small town science teacher Keith Bradley climbs into a red Tesla with English teacher Talia Ramin for the field trip of a lifetime. At stake is a missing copy of the Scriptures on gold tablets. At risk is the trust of an ancient order sworn to keep the tablets safe.In association with The Edge Books.theedgebooks.blogspot.com/Small town science teacher Keith Bradley climbs into a red Tesla with English teacher Talia Ramin for the field trip of a lifetime. At stake is a missing copy of the Scriptures on gold tablets. At risk is the trust of an ancient order sworn to keep the tablets safe. Talia's archaeologist aunt and uncle may have lost their last clue to artifact thieves. A government ultimatum might undo every lesson they have taught their students about keeping the Word safe.from Chapter Eighteen – “Are You So Selfish?”“What?” Keith jumped up. “What are you saying? We’re supposed to take the kids’ Bibles away from them? Their prayer journals? Their memory cards?”“There’s no need to be defensive.” Doctor Williams glared up at him. “Please be seated. You will only be borrowing them, to get them scanned. And we want materials from everyone in the community. Parents, grandparents, ministers – Anyone who studies the Bible. Don’t you see? This will become a resource people all over the world can use, for all time. Mr. Bradley, your prayers, your thoughts, your study of the Bible could teach someone in Thailand, Mali, Alaska – someone in a spaceship traveling to Mars – these insights will become eternal.”“But it’s voluntary, right?” Talia asked. “People don’t have to give us their Bibles, do they?”“This program fails if it doesn’t accomplish the critical goal of gathering all the possible data,” Doctor Williams insisted.“What exactly do you mean by ‘this program fails’?” Keith’s dad demanded.“It doesn’t fulfill the requirements,” Doctor Williams said. “It doesn’t qualify for the grants.”“You mean we lose everything we’ve gotten from implementing the Bible as Literature program?” Principal Bradley choked.“Really, there’s nothing scary or unreasonable being asked for here. Are your Bible studies secret? Why does the idea of sharing them with the world disturb you? Are you that selfish?” Views: 757
What we do for one another is a mystery.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. Views: 757
While humans and alien Zhirrzh prepare for galactic war, a handful of individuals from both sides learn that the reason was all a misunderstanding. Both were mistaken. To avoid extinction for both their races, this band becomes the focus of a subtle dangerous force that intends overall destruction. Views: 757
Humanity's complex relationship with technology spirals out of control in this first book of an all-new trilogy from "the owner of the most powerful imagination in science fiction" (Ken Follett).
In 2204, humanity is expanding into the wider galaxy in leaps and bounds. A new technology of linked jump gates has rendered most forms of transporation--including starships--virtually obsolete. Every place on earth, every distant planet mankind has settled, is now merely a step away from any other. And all seems wonderful...until a crashed alien spaceship is found on a newly-located world 89 light years from Earth, harboring seventeen human victims. And of the high-powered team dispatched to investigate the mystery, one is an alien spy...
Bursting with tension and big ideas, this standalone series highlights the inventiveness of an author at the top of his game, as the interweaving story lines tell us not only how humanity arrived at this moment, but also the far-future consequences that spin off from it. Views: 757
A short, episodic, tongue-in-cheek story based on the Time Meddlers series. Thirteen-year-old Matt Barnes, while searching for his time-travelling father, stumbles into a canyon maze on Mars, and makes a grisly discovery – not for weak stomachs. Is this a strange twist of evolution - another species colonizing Mars - or a prediction of their fate?Thirteen-year-old Matt Barnes, while searching for his father, a scientist trapped in quantum foam, ventures onto the red planet. He and his faithful, though reluctant, companion, Sarah Sachs, stumble through a canyon maze and make a grisly discovery - perhaps a strange twist of evolution. Things go downhill from there. After all, Mars is a planet with an unbreathable atmosphere and hurricane-force winds where your blood might boil. The perfect place for a summer vacation, or a short disastrous adventure. Will they escape the maze, and will they stop arguing long enough to survive their next deadly encounter? Views: 757
