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A remarkable odyssey of survival and self-discovery in a perilous alien world in transition.
*The privileged heir of a Great House ten thousand miles away, fifteen-year-old Joseph Master Keilloran awakens to the din of his world imploding. Frightened and alone, surrounded by enemies who would kill him without question, Joseph must now make his way across a strange, dangerous, and wondrous continent—a desperate journey toward a home that may no longer exist. Views: 1 026
In a world where Security is all-important, nothing can ever be secure. A mountain-climbing vacation may wind up in deep Space. Or loyalty may prove to be high treason. But it has its rewards. Please visit www.PhoenixPick.com for more great sci-fi. Views: 1 025
Chloe's identical twin sister Zoe wants a favor. She needs Chloe to dress up in her work clothes and meet an important client, pretending to be her. There's just one problem. Zoe isn't an investment banker as she's led everyone to believe - she's a dominatrix and her work clothes include a leather bustier, thigh-high boots and a feathered mask. There are three rules, according to Zoe - don't lose control of the situation, don't have sex with the client, and never take off the mask.
Shy, retiring Chloe has no idea how to go about dominating anyone. But that won't be a problem for long because the "client," Mark Jacobs, is a hot alpha male in a black leather mask of his own who prefers to take the lead when it comes to sex.
Soon Chloe is breaking all the rules for one night of forbidden passion but when she decides to take off her mask and asks Mark to do the same, she has no idea that the black leather he wears conceals a dark secret that may change her life forever. Views: 1 025
The Shadow Club doesn't exist anymore. The group of second-best kids used to play anonymous practical jokes on their rivals, until things spiraled out of control. Now Jared and the ex-Shadow Club members are having a hard time shaking their reputation. And when the new golden boy at school is the victim of a series of nasty pranks, everyone's convinced Jared is to blame. Determined to prove his innocence, Jared soon becomes wrapped up in a nightmare worse than anything the Shadow Club ever caused. Views: 1 025
Timothy was not a good man in life and being undead did little to improve his disposition. Find out what a man trapped in his own mind will do to survive when he wakes up to find himself a zombie controlled by a self-aware virus. Views: 1 025
In rural Wisconsin, wonder clashes dangerously with corporate greed when an alien visitor opens up a gateway through time into a breathtaking prehistoric lost world
On sabbatical from teaching at a small university, paleontologist Asa Steele is content to relax amidst the pastoral splendor of his Wisconsin farm. That is, until his dog starts bringing home unrecognizable artifacts and, strangest of all, fresh dinosaur bones. Since boyhood, Asa has heard the rumors of a UFO crash site nearby, and his encounter with a cat-faced alien life form proves the old story to be shockingly true. A gregarious immortal stranded on Earth for fifty thousand years, Catface has the power to create portals in time, and now he has opened a gateway into a prehistoric world of wonder and beauty, a place Asa calls “Mastodonia.” But keeping this idyllic realm a secret from a prying government and the greedy corporate entities it serves could prove impossible—and perilous—when there are resources to drain, land to despoil, and gargantuan vanished beasts from a distant age to hunt down and destroy in the name of profit.
Clifford D. Simak’s glorious vision of a gateway to the past and of the tantalizing commercial potential of all things prehistoric predates Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park by many years, yet it remains as provocative, enthralling, and fun for twenty-first-century science fiction lovers as it was for its original readers. Breathtaking, thrilling, imaginative, and awe-inspiring, Mastodonia is a world that, once entered, can never be forgotten, such is the unique creative genius of legendary science fiction Grand Master Simak, one of the most revered writers ever to dream the future . . . and the past. Views: 1 025
There is a world that hangs suspended between triumph and catastrophe, between the dismantling of the Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers, frozen in the shadow of suicide terrorism and global financial collapse. Such a world requires a firm hand and a guiding light. But does it need the Concern: an all-powerful organization with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers?
Among those operatives are Temudjin Oh, of mysterious Mongolian origins, an un-killable assassin who journeys between the peaks of Nepal, a version of Victorian London and the dark palaces of Venice under snow; Adrian Cubbish, a restlessly greedy City trader; and a nameless, faceless state-sponsored torturer known only as the Philosopher, who moves between time zones with sinister ease. Then there are those who question the Concern: the bandit queen Mrs. Mulverhill, roaming the worlds recruiting rebels to her side; and Patient 8262, under sedation and feigning madness in a forgotten hospital ward, in hiding from a dirty past.
There is a world that needs help; but whether it needs the Concern is a different matter. Views: 1 025
A thousand years have passed since a dragon has been seen in the world. Science and technology have replaced magic, which has dwindled until it has become little more than an element of myth and legend.
There are those who still have dragon blood flowing through their veins, distant descendants of the mighty creatures of old. These rare humans have the power to cast magic, the power to heal, and the power to craft alchemical weapons capable of starting wars… or ending them. But they are feared for those powers, and in recent centuries, they have been hunted nearly to extinction.
The few remaining survivors must find a way to change how humanity perceives them or be lost to the world forever.
The Dragon Blood Collection includes three full-length novels of action, magic, and romance:
Balanced on the Blade’s Edge
Deathmaker
Blood Charged Views: 1 024
No one knew where they came from - a parallel world, another dimension - maybe the Abyss. They'd preyed on the inhabitants of the backwoods settlement for years, wiping out entire families, their numbers seeming augmented each time they returned which was always in the winter. But when they came this time - they picked the wrong cabin...Once upon a time… on a cold and dreary winter’s night…For many the frightful remembrances of an awful event suffered during youth fade with time. For others, however, the dreadful scene swells with passing years, driving sanity from its path.Decades after a night of terror an old man, his mind teetering on the ragged edge of madness by his childhood recollections, determines to face his fears by awakening the world to the monstrous visions that haunt his dreams.Now he sits down to pen a strange narrative describing an event his family suffered while living in an isolated cabin during a blizzard on a night of soul-wrenching horror.Inspired by a desire to write a story that was a melding of pulp icons H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, this short story was conceived with the intent to capture the building of horror of which the Man Who Was Providence was so capable, while simultaneously mating a Lovecraftian plot to a hero that might have been penned by the same hand that hammered out stories such as Red Nails and Almuric.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~This quick read is a short-story. Views: 1 024
In a world transformed, their greatest power is each other
When the sun goes dark, magic comes back to the world … and so do ancient dangers. Nerdy librarian Lucia Amador wasn’t expecting the world as she knew to end while she was out getting coffee. Now she’s trapped in her apartment with her cat … until a dark-haired man with silver blue eyes appears with shocking news.
Alpha dragon Orion Silverdrake has lived without his magic for thousands of years. When his powers return, he detects the tantalizing scent of his late wife’s magic. He follows the trail to Lucia’s apartment, where he must convince the startled young woman that she’s the reincarnation of a powerful witch.
The reunited couple have much more to deal with than getting reacquainted. An evil alliance of vampires and dragons called The Surge is determined to rule the planet and everyone on it. Can Orion and Lucia rekindle their relationship and use their powers to defeat their enemies and protect all the newly-awakened witches flocking to Orion’s fortress? Views: 1 024
Dark family secrets, a long-lost love affair and a multi-million pound gaming business lie at the heart of Iain Banks's fabulous new novel. The Wopuld family built its fortune on a board game called Empire! ? now a hugely successful computer game. So successful, the American Spraint Corp wants to buy the firm out. Young renegade Alban, who has been evading the family clutches for years, is run to ground and persuaded to attend the forthcoming family gathering ? part birthday party, part Extraordinary General Meeting ? convened by Win, Wopuld matriarch and most powerful member of the board, at Garbadale, the family's highland castle. Being drawn back into the bosom of the clan brings an inevitable and disconcerting confrontation with Alban's past. What drove his mother to take her own life? And is he yet ready to see Sophie, his beautiful, enchanting cousin and teenage love, at the EGM? Grandmother Win's revelations will radically alter Alban's perspective for ever. Views: 1 024
It's been said that there are many and strange shadows, memories surviving from dim pasts, in this fantastic universe of ours. Here the great Poul Anderson turned to a legend from the Northern countries, countries where even today the pagan past seems only like yesterday, to tell the story of Cappen Varra, who came to Norren an age ago, in a time and place we really can't remember anymore. Views: 1 023
In the mid-21st century, time travel is used to send political prisoners to Hawksbill Station, a prison camp in the late Cambrian Era. When the latest arrival suspiciously deflects questions about his crimes and knowledge of 'Up Front', the inmates decide to find out his secret. NOTE: a novella length version of this story is also available. Views: 1 023
Eve Dallas has a grisly double homicide to solve when two young lovers—both employees of the same prestigious accounting firm—are brutally killed on the same night. It doesn't leave Eve a lot of leftover time to put together a baby shower for her buddy Mavis, but that's supposedly what friends are for.
Now Mavis needs another favor. Tandy Willowby, one of the moms-to-be in Mavis's birthing class, didn't show up for the shower. A recent emigrant from London, Tandy has few friends in New York, and no family—and she was really looking forward to the party. And when Eve enters Tandy's apartment and finds a gift for Mavis's shower wrapped and ready on the table—and a packed bag for the hospital still on the floor next to it—tingling runs up and down her spine.
Normally, such a case would be turned over to Missing Persons. But Mavis wants no one else on the job but Eve—and Eve can't say no. She'll have to track Tandy down while simultaneously unearthing the deals and double-crosses hidden in the files of some of the city's richest and most secretive citizens, in a race against this particularly vicious killer. Luckily, her multimillionaire husband Roarke's expertise comes in handy with the number crunching. But as he mines the crucial data that will break the case wide open, Eve faces an all too real danger in the world of flesh and blood. Views: 1 022
Taming the Beast Evangeline Anderson Sold into a life of prostitution by her greedy uncle, innocent Gisella Trelain finds herself a prisoner in a dark and ominous dungeon. Chained to the wall is a muscular, naked man named Tristan who tells her he is under a curse. Every month he is doomed to lose his humanity and take on the characteristics of a ravening beast-a beast with needs too savage to be satisfied by any ordinary woman. In order to break the curse, Gisella must submit completely to the beast and offer herself freely to slake his fierce sexual desires. But the stakes are high in this fairytale come true and if Gisella isn't able to open herself completely to Tristan's lusts, she may lose her life as she attempts to tame the beast. Views: 1 021
