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Fifi and the Swiftifoots and how they found the Flowers of Paradise, tells of Fifi, a lost fairy, who lands in the forest of the Swiftifoots - small people resembling mushrooms - and their search for a new home and the flowers of immortality. They travel back in time, collecting colourful creatures en route, until finally finding the flowers and their extraordinary queen.Fifi and the Swiftifoots and how they found the Flowers of Paradise tells of Fifi, a fairy who accidentally flies into the forest of the Swiftifoots - mushroom people whose homes have been flooded and whom she joins in a search for new homes and the fabulous flowers of immortality. En route, travelling back through time, they meet and are joined by a string of creatures- improbable but biologically based on fact. They narrowly miss a disastrous clash with Man, before finally finding the flowers and their exotic queen. Views: 579
The course of true love never did run smooth...When attractive redhead Lorna Fernie is taken on to play saxophone in a post-war Glasgow dance band, she is over the moon. She finally gets to do what she loves in front of an audience. Even more exciting is the fact that she gets to work alongside the handsome and likeable trumpet player Rod Warren. It doesn't take long for the two to fall in love.But then disaster strikes – Rod leaves and Lorna loses her job. It is only when she forms her own band, the Melody Girls, that the future gradually brightens. Fate, however, still holds a surprise for her. Will she have the strength to fight for herself and find love again?An uplifting post-war saga set in Glasgow, perfect for fans of Margaret Thornton and Rosie Clarke. Views: 579
When Kate Mitchell decided to research the mysterious portrait in the student gallery, she had no idea how her life would change. She thought she knew what she wanted in life. She had a great boyfriend, a promising career, and a clear path. How could one simple portrait change all that? A photograph. A sculpture. A painting. One clue leads to another, and Kate learns that pieces of the past might leave unexpected marks on her own future, too. And how, exactly, did she end up in an irritable sculptor's studio? One portrait may hold the answers, but learning its secrets will challenge everything Kate thought she knew about love, art, and life. A single picture can tell more than one story, and in the end, a young artist will discover that every real love story is a unique work of art. Views: 579
Rook Barkwater lives in the network of sewer-chambers beneath Undertown, the bustling main city of the Edgeworld. He dreams of becoming a librarian knight – one of those sent out to explore the mysteries of their world. Somewhere out there lie the secrets of the past – including the lost floating city of Sanctaphrax – and hope for a future free from the fear of tyranny.
When his chance comes, Rook breaks all the rules and sets out on a journey to the Free Glades. His luck and determination lead him from one peril to another until he encounters a mysterious character – the last sky pirate – and is thrust into an extraordinary adventure.
The Last of the Sky Pirates is the first book of the Rook Saga – third trilogy in The Edge Chronicles. There are now 13 titles and four trilogies in the series, but each book is a stand-alone adventure, so you can read The Edge Chronicles in any order you choose. Views: 579
In a time of deadly crisis, Linden alone has the power to save her people.
The faeries of the Oak are in danger of extinction, and their only hope for survival rests in fifteen-year-old Linden. Armed with the last of her people's magic, she travels bravely into the modern human world. Along the way she makes a reluctant ally—a human boy named Timothy.
Soon Linden and Timothy discover a danger much worse than the Oakenfolk's loss of magic: a potent evil that threatens to enslave faeries and humans alike. In a fevered, desperate chase across the country, Tim and Linden must risk their lives to seek an ancient power before it's too late to save everyone they love.
R. J. Anderson has artfully crafted a world of stunning magic, thrilling adventure, and delicate beauty, where the key to the future is in an unexpected, forbidden friendship. Views: 579
What happens between book 9 of the Young Wizards series, "A Wizard of Mars," and the forthcoming book 10, "Games Wizards Play"? Diane Duane answers the question in this volume, collecting together the three canonical works that constitute a "transitional trilogy" between books 9 and 10 -- a 150,000-word extravaganza of untold tales to help keep you going until the tenth book comes out in February 2016.
"Interim Errantry" contains:
The novella "Not On My Patch", the tale of an unusual Halloween in the Young Wizards' neighborhood, featuring overage Trick Or Treating, suburban zombies, and the Attack of the Killer Pumpkins.
The novelette "How Lovely Are Thy Branches", a holiday-themed Young Wizards story in which an alien wizard who looks a lot like a Christmas tree gets the gift he wants most -- decorations -- and a memorable party and sleepover party are disrupted by a superblizzard and an incursion of alien ghosts.
And finally, the new original Young Wizards novel "Lifeboats", the tale of a distant world threatened by unavoidable doom, an intervention that takes thousands of Earth's wizards, young and old, into harm's way, and a Valentine's Day that absolutely doesn't go as planned... Views: 579
In A Ceiling Made of Eggshells, Newbery Honor-winning author Gail Carson Levine tells a moving and ambitious story set during the expulsion of Jews from Spain, about a young Jewish girl full of heart who must play her own role in her people's epic history—no matter the sacrifice. Surrounded by her large family, Loma is happy living in the judería of Alcalá de Henares, Spain, and wants nothing more than to someday have a family of her own. Still, when her intimidating grandfather, her Belo, decides to bring her along on his travels, she's excited to join him. Belo has the ear of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, and Loma relishes her adventures with him, adventures that are beyond the scope of most girls of the time. She soon learns just how dangerous the world is for the Jews of Spain, and how her grandfather's influence keeps their people safe. But the older Loma gets, the more she longs to realize her... Views: 579
Mystery fiction's legendary trio, Raymond Chandler,
Dashiell Hammett, and Erle Stanley Gardner, are back as amateur detectives,
following their dynamic, critically acclaimed debut in The Black Mask
Murders. Here they interact in a complex, colorful, and ultimately dangerous
adventure, a richly textured thriller that also celebrates the joys of love and
marriage between Chandler and his exceptional wife, Cissy.
As narrated by Chandler, the adventure begins in East Los
Angeles with the discovery of what is apparently the ritual suicide of Cissy's
former husband in a Chinese cemetery. Action moves swiftly from the coastal
splendors of the Hearst castle, to the abandoned canals of Venice by the Sea, to
an ornate hotel on Coronado Island, to the rococo Victorian mansions of Bunker
Hill.
The characters are equally diverse: a mysterious screen
star known to millions as the Vampire Queen, a concert pianist who discovers
surprising romance, an ex-stage actor with a penchant for using his fists, a
missing sister who prefers to stay missing, and a pair of muscle-bound punks who
don't balk at kidnapping and murder.
Along the way readers will encounter such fascinating
real-life personalities as newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, America's
cinema sweetheart Shirley Temple, comic genius Charlie Chaplin, Hollywood gossip
columnist Hedda Hopper, and a brash young Orson Welles.
Once again, William F. Nolan expertly evokes the surreal
world of Southern California in the 1930s, when Hollywood provided golden dreams
for a nation in economic crisis, as the all-time masters of crime fiction return
in a bold, inventive new novel that will stun, shock, and delight.
***
From Kirkus Reviews
A thousand dollars is a lot of 1936 dollars, and even
though Raymond Chandler's never walked the mean streets he writes about, he's
happy to take the money from self-styled "Countess" Carmilla Blastok (Ce Letty
Knibbs of Newark) to find her missing sister Elina-especially since he'd like to
quiz Elina about the death of her rumored lover, pianist/composer Julian Pascal.
The LAPD thinks Julian's death in a Chinese cemetery was a clear case of ritual
suicide, but Julian's ex-wife, Cissy, who left him for Chandler years ago, is
sure it was murder. With some help from Dashiell Hammett and Erle Stanley
Gardner, his buddies from Black Mask (The Black Mask Murders,
1994), Chandler goes after Elina's lowlife companion Merv Enright-and walks
right into a mulligan stew of fact and fiction, with many scenes he's evidently
planning to hoard for his own later novels. Despite clunky cameos by Orson
Welles, Hedda Hopper, Charlie Chaplin, William Randolph Hearst, and Shirley
Temple, the shaggy story moves along briskly, with detection-on-the-fly very
typical of Chandler's own work, and inaccurate social prophecies ("Maybe Los
Angeles will someday even lead the way in race relations," muses one character)
that mark a nice change from the usual 20/20 hindsight of most historical
mysteries. It's not just because of his subject that prolific Nolan may well
represent the last of the pulp tradition. Black Mask fans will be waiting
eagerly for his Erle Stanley Gardner installment.
***
From Booklist
The Black Mask boys are back, and that's a cause for
celebration. Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Erle Stanley Gardner,
introduced as detectives in Nolan's Black Mask Murders (1994), track down
the murderer of Chandler's wife's first husband, Julian, who has apparently
committed ritual suicide in a Chinese cemetery. Cissy Chandler, not buying the
suicide story, puts her husband on the case. Chandler follows Julian's trail to
horror-movie actress Carmilla Blastok, who leads the writerly sleuth to a thug
named Enright, who may have killed Carmilla's sister. When Chandler gets in over
his head, he calls his Black Mask cronies for help. Along the way,
Charlie Chaplin, William Randolph Hearst, and Orson Welles also make cameo
appearances. Nolan has obviously researched the Hollywood of the 1930s
thoroughly; his backgrounds are always convincing, even when you don't believe
the foreground for a minute. Entertaining for nostalgia buffs.
***
From Library Journal
Nolan's Black Mask Boys-Dashiell Hammett, Raymond
Chandler, and Erle Stanley Gardner-undertake their second amateur investigation.
The apparent suicide of Cissy Chandler's former husband entails visits to East
L.A., Hearst Castle, and Venice-by-the-Sea. Various famous people make
appearances. Especially good for fans of 1930s historical fiction.
***
"Masterfully penetrates the surreal Black Mask world of
Southern California in the 1930s. Nolan has captured the essence of both an era
and a literary form in one brilliant exercise."
-Robert R. Parker Views: 579
Contains:
"The Borders of Infinity"
Brothers in Arms
Mirror Dance
Miles Naismith--in the person of his two alter-egos Admiral Naismith and Lieutenant Lord Vorkosigan--embarks on a perilous series of adventures, from the liberation of Barrayaran allies from a Cetagandan POW camp to the rescue of clone children scheduled Views: 579
Avery believed starting her senior year in a new school was the worst thing she had to face. She’s proven wrong when Regan reappears and forces her and her friends into the dangerous maze he created. Books in this series: Nightmares (Book 1) The Maze (Book 2) Dream Walker (Book 3) Views: 579
The 14th and final volume in the classic epic fantasy sequence : The Eternal Champion Michael Moorcock's epic novels of the fantastic are classics of the genre that appeal to all ages and walks of life. From the earliest pulp novels of the 60's to the award winning MOTHER LONDON he has earned wide critical acclaim. COUNT BRASS, the concluding volume of the tale of the eternal champion, makes the fearsome journey to Tanelorn in search of resolution. The avatar of the champion - Elric, Corum, Hawkmoon and Erekose must pool their talents in order to bring about the conjunction of the million spheres. Views: 579
The Snail on the Slope takes place in two worlds. One is the Administration, an institution run by a surreal, Kafkaesque bureaucracy whose aim is to govern the forest below. The other is the Forest, a place of fear, weird creatures, primitive people and violence. Peretz, who works at the Administration, wants to visit the Forest. Candide crashed in the Forest years ago and wants to return to the Administration. Their journeys are surprising and strange, and readers are left to puzzle out the mysteries of these foreign environments. The Strugatskys themselves called The Snail on the Slope “the most perfect and the most valuable of our works.” Views: 579
Alternate cover edition can be found here
In the far, far future the bloodthirsty Solarians, in their rage to find the mysterious Ancient Site, are determined to wipe out the Bands, a strange and beautiful species whose society is an anarchy of peace. Only Rondi, the whirling green Band, can save his race, for he has a singular and awesome knowledge. But suddenly Rondi makes a shocking discovery about his identity - a discovery that may cost him his honor, his beautiful lover Cirl, even his very life...The Galactic annihilation is beginning! Views: 578
Outnumbered, outsmarted and desperate, the hunters are on the run, pursued by the vampaneze, the police, and an angry mob. With their enemies clamoring for blood, the vampires prepare for a deadly battle. Is this the end for Darren and his allies? Views: 578
There's no dancing around a demonic threat in the fantasy world of Xanth in the New York Times–bestselling series. Squid, the alien cuttlefish, is getting an upgrade: a boost to her shape-changing talent so she can lead a mission against a foreign Demon who's stirring up trouble in Xanth. At Squid's side are her rescued siblings and one very special child—Larry, a girl in a boy's body, who will act as a secret host for their adoptive mother, the Demoness Fornax. Aboard the Fire Boat, they form a plan to disguise themselves as a traveling dance troupe. Each child is paired up with a native Xanthian. But it's the friendship that blossoms between Squid and Larry that will power their quest, and they'll have to do some fancy footwork to avoid the trials and tribulations that await them. Views: 578
