No one likes to be alone during the holidays. For New York's most posh dating service, Personally Yours, it is the season to bring lonely hearts together. But Lieutenant Eve Dallas, on the trail of a ritualistic serial killer, has made a disturbing discovery: all of the victims have been traced to Personally Yours. As the murders continue, Eve enters into an elite world of people searching for their one true love--and a killer searching for his next victim. A world where the power of love leads men and women into the ultimate act of betrayal... Views: 1 232
Bloat, the boy governor of the Rox, had dreams as big as his monstrous body. He wanted to make Ellis Island a safe haven for his people, a Joker homeland. To survive Bloat needed the Jumpers, adolescent outcasts who could steal a man's body in the blink of an eye. He needed their money to feed the Rox. Even more, he needed their terrifying powers to stave off the vengeance of a frightened world.
But the Jumpers grew more vicious and uncontrollable every day, under the leadership of Dr. Tahcyon's psychopathic grandson.
The greatest threat the Wild Cards have ever faced continued in this series. Views: 1 229
Here, Kurt Vonnegut’s final short story collection--Bagombo Snuff Box (1999)--we have combined early and rather more obscure stories which had not appeared earlier. Drawn largely from the 1950s and the slick magazine markets which Vonnegut had from the beginning of his career in the postwar period demonstrated an uncanny ability to sell, these stories show clearly that Vonnegut found his central themes early on as a writer. More, he had been able to place stories in great consumer magazines like Colliers (that his good friend and college classmate Knox Burger was editing Colliers during this time was perhaps no small factor in Vonnegut’s success). There were only a handful of science fiction writers of Vonnegut’s generation who were able to sell in such a broad manner outside of the genre during the ‘50s, but it was this success that allowed Vonnegut the consistent denial that he was not a science fiction writer at all.
Vonnegut’s themes--folly, hypocrisy, misunderstanding--cycle through these stories although with perhaps somewhat less bitterness than what had come before. Even through the screen or scrim of magazine taboos, Vonnegut’s voice is singular, infused by disaffection and wit. Most of Vonnegut’s characters stagger through the plot full of misapprehension, cowardice, and self-delusion. In "Thanasphere," the achievement of space travel becomes a means of communicating with the dead (and for that reason the project is abandoned). In "Mnemonics," a forgetful protagonist is given a drug that prompts him to remember everything with the exception of an unrequited crush. This late collection of Vonnegut’s work clearly shows the unifying themes of his work, which were present from the very outset, among them, his very despair. Views: 1 229
From Slapstick's "Turkey Farm" to Slaughterhouse-Five's eternity in a Tralfamadorean zoo cage with Montana Wildhack, the question of the afterlife never left Kurt Vonnegut's mind. In God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian, Vonnegut skips back and forth between life and the Afterlife as if the difference between them were rather slight. In thirty odd "interviews," Vonnegut trips down "the blue tunnel to the pearly gates" in the guise of a roving reporter for public radio, conducting interviews: with Salvatore Biagini, a retired construction worker who died of a heart attack while rescuing his schnauzer from a pit bull, with John Brown, still smoldering 140 years after his death by hanging, with William Shakespeare, who rubs Vonnegut the wrong way, and with socialist and labor leader Eugene Victor Debs, one of Vonnegut's personal heroes.
What began as a series of ninety-second radio interludes for WNYC, New York City's public radio station, evolved into this provocative collection of musings about who and what we live for, and how much it all matters in the end. From the original portrait by his friend Jules Feiffer that graces the cover, to a final entry from Kilgore Trout, God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian remains a joy. Views: 1 226
The eighth book in the NYT bestselling Expanse series, Tiamat's Wrath finds the crew of the Rocinante fighting an underground war against a nearly invulnerable authoritarian empire, with James Holden a prisoner of the enemy. Now a Prime Original series.Thirteen hundred gates have opened to solar systems around the galaxy. But as humanity builds its interstellar empire in the alien ruins, the mysteries and threats grow deeper. In the dead systems where gates lead to stranger things than alien planets, Elvi Okoye begins a desperate search to discover the nature of a genocide that happened before the first human beings existed, and to find weapons to fight a war against forces at the edge of the imaginable. But the price of that knowledge may be higher than she can pay.At the heart of the empire, Teresa Duarte prepares to take on the burden of her father's godlike ambition. The sociopathic scientist Paolo Cortázar... Views: 1 225
Devi Morris isn't your average mercenary. She has plans. Big ones. And a ton of ambition. It's a combination that's going to get her killed one day - but not just yet. That is, until she just gets a job on a tiny trade ship with a nasty reputation for surprises. The Glorious Fool isn't misnamed: it likes to get into trouble, so much so that one year of security work under its captain is equal to five years everywhere else. With odds like that, Devi knows she's found the perfect way to get the jump on the next part of her Plan. But the Fool doesn't give up its secrets without a fight, and one year on this ship might be more than even Devi can handle. If Sigouney Weaver in Alien met Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica, you'd get Deviana Morris -- a hot new mercenary earning her stripes to join an elite fighting force. Until one alien bite throws her whole future into jeopardy. Views: 1 220
What if a seventh grader could have everything he wanted? He'd make ice-cram cones materialize out of nowhere and zap up every video game he'd ever wanted, right? But what if he was also tired of being bullied and all it took to change that was to put on a pair of sunglasses? Kevin Midas's new look is more than just for style -- he's out for revenge! Views: 1 216
*On September 15, 1946, a biological weapon created by an alien race was accidentally detonated above the streets of New York City, killing countless numbers of men, women, and children. But those who survived the initial explosion soon began to wish they had died also, once they discovered they had been forever mutated by the virus unleashed in the blast. . . . *
When the first volume in the Wild Cards series made its debut in 1986, it caused a sensation in the science fiction and fantasy communities. Here were stories of superpowered beings in a real world setting, detailing the lives of Aces those given superhuman powers by the Wild Cards virus and Jokers those whom the virus transformed into freaks and monsters. Over the course of fifteen volumes, the world created by editor George R.R. Martin and some of SF's most talented writers was explored through the eyes of both Aces and Jokers across the globe.
In this all-new collection of Wild Cards stories, the spotlight is on the most unusual Wild Cards of them all the Deuces. As you'll discover in this thrilling collection, their role in the Wild Cards Universe is just as important as that of the Aces and the Jokers. In fact, their actions have affected the course of Wild Cards history.
Set in an alternate, shared-world universe, Deuces Down is the one place you'll find such never-before-told tales as John J. Miller's exciting 1969 World Series between the Baltimore Orioles and the Brooklyn Dodgers; Michael Cassutt's first moon landing, when the whole world wasn't watching; Walton Simons' Great New York City Blackout of 1977; Melinda M. Snodgrass's account of Grace Kelly's mysterious disappearance during the filming of The French Lieutenant's Woman. It's a strange and terrifying world, where anything can happen. A world of Wild Cards. Views: 1 215
Ships are sinking for no apparent reason, carrying hundreds to a dark underwater grave. Strange fireballs race through the sky above the deepest trenches of the oceans. Something is about to show itself, something terrible and alien, a force capable of causing global catastrophe. Views: 1 212
From *New York Times bestselling author James Rollins comes an electrifying short story, in which the battle over a lost treasure leads to murder, betrayal, and the revelation of a shocking mystery hidden aboard the . . . Ghost Ship** *
The discovery of a burned body sprawled on a remote Australian beach shatters the vacation plans of Commander Gray Pierce. To thwart an ingenious enemy, he and Seichan are pulled into a centuries-old mystery surrounding a lost convict ship, the Trident. The vessel—with a history of mutiny and stolen treasure—vanished into the mists of time, but nothing stays lost forever. A freak storm reveals clues scattered across the Great Barrier Reef, but following those clues will lead to bloodshed and savagery, for where this ghost ship is hidden is as shocking as the mystery behind its disappearance. It will take all of Gray’s ingenuity and Seichan’s deadly skills not only to survive—but to stop an enemy from destroying everything in his path.
Included with this short story is a sneak peek at the upcoming Sigma Force novel, *The Demon Crown , where events here lead to Sigma’s most harrowing adventure to date.* Views: 1 211
His death was almost the end of me. He was still everywhere, surrounding me. In our children's eyes, in the smell lingering in our bed, in candy bar wrappers stuffed down the side of the minivan driver door. He was everywhere except where I needed him to be. In my arms, kissing my lips, on the name of the deed to our house. When his death didn't end me, the proposal from the man who owned every moment of my life, did. My husband carried on in the places he wanted to be but I was gone the moment I agreed. The moment I let him have me, was the end of me. Adult 19+ Views: 1 210
A classic "lost race" story, with all of the required elements: a seductive empress, a straight-arrow hero, battles, escapes, sorcery, and earth-shattering cataclysms! Eminently readable and very entertaining, without any profundity to distract a fan of Haggard, Aubrey, or Janvier-style fantasy literature. Views: 1 207
Braxx is a Beast Kindred with a painful past. A traumatic crash stole his brother and his bride from him and left half of his face horribly scarred. Desperate to avoid the pitying and disgusted looks he gets whenever he goes out, he takes a job as a scout, travelling across the universe to find new trade partners and power sources for the Kindred. He thinks he'll never love again until he comes back to Earth and meets Molly.
Dr. Molly Reynaud has a doctorate in Cultural Anthropology. She's also completely blind and has been since a car accident stole both her parents and her sight at the age of sixteen. Chosen to do a field study on the elusive Tal'ossi people from Tal'os Trenta, she doesn’t expect to have feelings for the Kindred warrior who is supposed to guard her there. But she can't seem to help the instant connection she feels to Braxx and she knows he feels the same for her.
But he's scarred on the inside too and he tells himself such a perfect female isn't for him.
Then the unthinkable happens--Molly is kidnapped by the Deep Dwellers of Tal'ossi and taken down to the subterranean depths as a bride for their leader. Braxx must go after her and suddenly the idea of claiming turns from a wish to a necessity.
Can Braxx overcome his tragic past and save the woman he loves? And can Molly convince him they belong together? Both of them will have to practice Seeing with the Heart or they will be parted forever… Views: 1 206
A youth and his father emigrate from the mechanical and organized world on overpopulated Earth to become colonists on Ganymede, the third moon of Jupiter. Views: 1 206
