Playgrounds of the Mind

*Also see: Alternate Cover Editions for this ISBN [ACE] * ACE #1 The sequel to *N-Space* Playgrounds of the Mind captures the startling range and variety of Larry Niven's spectacular career, from bestselling novels such as Lucifer's Hammer and The Ringworld Engineers, from his classic short stories of science fiction and fantasy, from his thought-provoking essays and non-fiction, from his innovative and seldom-seen work in comics (on such projects as The Green Lantern Bible), to an advance look at Larry Niven's upcoming projects. Like N-Space, Playgrounds of the Mind is a feast for Niven's millions of fans-and an impressive tribute to the man Arthur C. Clarke called his "favorite writer."
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Kali's Children

Crash landing on an uncharted world is bad enough. Losing most of the crew as the ship sinks to the bottom of an alien ocean is even worse. And that’s just the beginning. Ragged and terrified, the last few survivors—-a fireteam of battle-hardened marines and an inexperienced civilian advisor—-search for a way to contact the nearest inhabited system for rescue. But as they encounter the denizens of this world, they learn something remarkable. From the red reeds that cover the land to the ferocious predators that fear nothing, every living thing on this world is highly intelligent... and utterly hostile. Violence is a normal part of life. Murder and war are nothing more than a means to acquire food. Kindness is unimaginably alien. For the survivors, escape is not enough. They must also keep their technology out of the hands of the barbaric monsters around them. For the planet’s natives have learned that it is possible to leave their world, and out there among the stars is the most prolific source of food they have ever known: humans.
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The Skinjacker Trilogy

Not every child who dies goes on to the afterlife. Some are caught halfway between life and death, in a sort of limbo known as Everlost: a shadow of the living world, filled with all the things and places that no longer exist. It's a magical, yet dangerous place where bands of lost kids run wild and anyone who stands in the same place too long sinks to the center of the Earth. Allie and Nick don't survive the car crash, and end up in Everlost, where coins are more valuable than anyone knows, fortune cookies tell the truth, monsters are real, and the queen of lost souls lives in a once-beloved tower. Nick and Allie have to learn to survive in a world with different rules, and figure out who they can trust--and who they must oppose at all costs. At stake is nothing less than the fate of Everlost and the living world they have left behind. In this gripping trilogy, Neal Shusterman explores questions of life, death, and what just might lie in between.
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Brutal Precious

Life meets death. The end meets the beginning. Eighteen-year-old Isis Blake hasn’t fallen in love in three years, forty-three weeks, and two days. Or so she thinks. The boy she maybe-sort-of-definitely loved has dropped off the face of the planet after his girlfriend's death, leaving a Jack-shaped hole. Determined to be happy, Isis fills it in with lies and puts on a brave smile for her new life at Ohio State University. But how long can that smile last with all of her friends gone? How long can it last with the guilt of Sophia's death crushing her? And how long can it really last when Will Cavanaugh attends the same school, taunting her? Isis is good at pretending everything is okay. But not that good. The cracks begin to show. Isis Blake is good at putting herself back together. But Jack Hunter is better. **This book contains language and sexual scenes, some of which may be unsuitable for younger readers. **This is the third and final book in the LOVELY VICIOUS series.
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The Mountain that Slept Around and Other Stories

What happens when the citizens of a small Western town awaken to find a mountain next to them that wasn't there the night before - and what happens when it leaves again?In this collection of stories author Gregory Miles Thomas delves into our relationship with the unknown. "The Mountain that Slept Around" chronicles what happens when the citizens of a small Western town awaken to find a mountain next to them that wasn't there the night before before - and what happens when it leaves again. The remaining group of "Ghost Stories" captures the struggles of ghosts as they wean themselves from earthly attachments.
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Theater of Spies

The second novel in an alternate history series where Teddy Roosevelt is president once more right before WWI breaks out, and on his side is the Black Chamber, a secret spy network watching America's back. After foiling a German plot to devastate America's coastal cities from Boston to Galveston, crack Black Chamber agent Luz O'Malley and budding technical genius Ciara Whelan go to California to recuperate. But their well-deserved rest is cut short by the discovery of a diabolical new weapon that could give the German Imperial Navy command of the North Sea. Luz and Ciara must go deep undercover and travel across a world at war, and live under false identities in Berlin itself to ferret out the project's secrets. Close on their trail is the dangerous German agent codenamed Imperial Sword, who is determined to get his revenge, and a band of assault-rifle equipped stormtroopers, led by the murderously efficient killer Ernst Röhm. From knife-and-pistol...
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Polk Salad Annie

"Polk Salad Annie, the gators got your granny." And more. A tale of lust and cruelty in a backwater settlement along the Trinity River.A scandalous moment of surrender to Marcus Fairweather, Earl of Sheldon and May Thorne is riddled with guilt: all despite the fact her debauched husband’s passions are sated anywhere but in the marital bed. Worse, when Squire Thorne is brutally murdered, her legacy is determined by a clause in her late husband’s will. Thus wedlock to his lawyer, a man of zealous moral and religious bent is utterly abhorrent to her. Nonetheless, the lawyer is of mind to enact the clause in haste, and his ardent advances are somewhat intense and unsettling. But who shot Squire Thorne poses a mystery – the lawyer, the earl, or a strange intruder who steals nothing? In the aftermath of death a long-held family secret is finally revealed, and when a shadowy figure looms in her moonlit bedchamber, she fears the outcome...
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Silk Over Razor Blades

Lenina Miller, ditsy and pampered bride to be, wants nothing more than to walk down the aisle in her scandalous red dress to the gasps and awed stares of friends and family. Her wedding plans are shattered when a late night mugging scars not only her face and throat, but drops her in the centre of a frenzied police investigation to apprehend the attacker before he strikes again.When Vampires Take Over Leicester . . .Lenina Miller, ditsy and pampered bride to be, wants nothing more than to walk down the aisle in her scandalous red dress to the gasps and awed stares of friends and family. Her wedding plans are shattered when a late night mugging scars not only her face and throat, but drops her in the centre of a frenzied police investigation to apprehend the attacker before he strikes again.On the field of battle in 30 BC, Saar, son of Yafeu, sacrifices his life for his sovereign, Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt. Betrayed by the man he loves, forced to watch his country burn under Octavian's hostile takeover, Saar's agonising death appears to Lenina with all the lucid force of a true memory.Two lives, separated by thousands of years, brought together through one night of violence.Haunted by the memories of a man long dead, Lenina finds her body transforming, her appetites for food and flesh magnified to terrifying proportions as the vampire within her begins to take hold. As the attentions of the investigating detective force her to choose between lust and love, Lenina also finds herself a target. The vampire who attacked her knows she survived and will stop at nothing to finish the job he started.
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Chupacabra: A Novella

There are those who believe that a creature as small as a young child, but as deadly for its size as any on earth, has been depicted in the ancient art of the Mayans. There are others who say that it was spawned through genetic engineering, or eluded capture when its space ship crashed to earth. Whatever it is, or however it got here, the Goatsucker stalks the livestock of an East Texas town...Sometimes life can be a real witch. Meet Maxie Duncan. Your average 23-year-old blonde. If you can call being wealthy, gorgeous, and knowing what the future holds at times, average. After her fiancé blindsides her with a breakup at their favorite restaurant, she leaves Maine for a shot at being Hollywood’s new ‘it girl.’ There’s only one problem. She’s never acted a day in her life. When a big Hollywood director sends her packing, she realizes if she wants to stay in L.A., she may have to become a normal girl after all. But normal has never been in the cards for her. Strange things keep happening wherever she goes, a red-eyed shadow no one else sees is stalking her, and to top it off, she may be falling in love again, with either the bookish guy next door, or Hollywood’s hottest leading man. But everything isn’t what it seems. Someone’s keeping secrets from her. Is it her new friends at the apartment building she moved into? Or is it Ryan Everheart, the actor who wants to sweep her off her feet? And why are her feet suddenly floating off the ground? It’s enough to drive a girl insane. All Maxie wants to do is ride off into the sunset with her one true love and find a killer pair of Manolo Blahniks on the way. But how’s a girl supposed to focus on a love life and shopping when everywhere she turns someone or something is trying to kill her?
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The Witchwood Crown

New York Times-bestselling Tad Williams’ ground-breaking epic fantasy saga of Osten Ard begins an exciting new cycle! • Volume One of *The Last King of Osten Ard* The Dragonbone Chair, the first volume of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, was published in hardcover in October, 1988, launching the series that was to become one of the seminal works of modern epic fantasy. Many of today’s top-selling fantasy authors, from Patrick Rothfuss to George R. R. Martin to Christopher Paolini credit Tad with being the inspiration for their own series. Now, twenty-four years after the conclusion of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Tad returns to his beloved universe and characters with The Witchwood Crown, the first novel in the long-awaited sequel trilogy, The Last King of Osten Ard. Thirty years have passed since the events of the earlier novels, and the world has reached a critical turning point once again. The realm is threatened by divisive forces, even as old allies are lost, and others are lured down darker paths. Perhaps most terrifying of all, the Norns—the long-vanquished elvish foe—are stirring once again, preparing to reclaim the mortal-ruled lands that once were theirs....
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Journey of the Running Tree

Journey of the Running Tree is a fantasy for ages 7 and up! Follow the fun adventures of Emily and her magical Running Tree in this small Chapter Book series as they travel across a vast, mysterious world full of legends, myths and monsters.Forged by the famous alchemist Hermes Trismegistus, the sword Aeneas is sworn to work magic for the one who wields it. In the wrong hands, however, Aeneas could destroy all that is good in this world, creating a hell of nightmarish proportions. Spirian Connor seeks the sword because it once belonged to his Angel father Avel when he was a human; Connor believes the sword will allow him to forge a connection with his father. But the Shadows also seek the sword, and when Connor finds himself falling in love with one of their kind, he is faced with the most difficult choice of his life.
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