Break You

Somehow, Luther Kite has found them. At long last, the third installment in the Andrew Z. Thomas series. Following the events of DESERT PLACES and LOCKED DOORS, Andy Thomas and Violet King are hiding out in the wilds of northern Canada, where Violet has a four-month-old son and a burgeoning romance with Andy. On a cold, rainy night at their cabin in the woods, the promise of an idyllic life that seems just around the corner is shattered when a man from their past, a monster of pure malevolence, returns. What he has in store for them will challenge their understanding of evil and stretch the fibers of their love to the breaking point. This ebook, a 20,000-word novella, is both the sequel to Desert Places and Locked Doors and the bridge between Locked Doors and Stirred, coming this year from Crouch and J.A. Konrath. It isn't necessary for you to read either Desert Places or Locked Doors to fully understand and be terrified by Break You. Additional material includes a foreword, afterword, bonus interview with Blake and J.A. Konrath, excerpts from DESERT PLACES and LOCKED DOORS by Crouch, and SHAKEN by Konrath.
Views: 877

Suck it Up

This compilation of five short stories can be read at any point in the “Series That Just Plain Sucks.”*This is a finished series*A peasant in a 16th century Russian market.A lawyer with a scheming wife.A maiden forced into an arranged marriage.A noble trapped in a life of duty.A cowboy with a knack for train heists.What do these people have in common? Each on is about to die, only to rise again. As vampires they will eventually unit against a common enemy, but for now they must first learn to survive their own transition.This compilation of five short stories can be read at any point in the “Series That Just Plain Sucks.”
Views: 876

Skinner's Room

Skinner's Room is a short story by William Gibson originally composed for Visionary San Francisco, a 1990 museum exhibition exploring the future of San Francisco. It features the first appearance in Gibson's fiction of "the Bridge", which Gibson revisited as the setting of his acclaimed Bridge trilogy of novels. In the story, the Bridge is overrun by squatters, among them Skinner, who occupies a shack atop a bridgetower. An altered version of the story was published in Omni magazine and subsequently anthologized. "Skinner's Room" was nominated for the 1992 Locus Award for Best Short Story.
Views: 876

Chocolate - Children’s Poems 2014 edition

Chocolate was the topic for Term 3 and 4 and the children (aged 7-9) from a primary school in Swindon who wrote poems using their five senses. Some were very literal, some were not. I used a wonderful book called Cloud Busting as inspiration for how you can describe the mundane in interesting ways.Callan is a stubborn girl, whose discipline knows no bounds. Unfortunately, most of this feeds her eating disorder, and as a dancer it is a deadly combination. This script follows Callan through an audition, and into the bathroom stall as she hides something that cannot be hidden easily in the dance world.
Views: 875

The Difference Engine

1855: The Industrial Revolution is in full and inexorable swing, powered by steam-driven cybernetic Engines.  Charles Babbage perfects his Analytical Engine and the computer age arrives a century ahead of its time.  And three extraordinary characters race toward a rendezvous with history—and the future: Sybil Gerard—a fallen woman, politician’s tart, daughter of a Luddite agitator Edward “Leviathan” Mallory—explorer and paleontologist Laurence Oliphant—diplomat, mystic, and spy. Their adventure begins with the discovery of a box of punched Engine cards of unknown origin and purpose.  Cards someone wants badly enough to kill for…. Part detective story, part historical thriller, The Difference Engine is the collaborative masterpiece by two of the most acclaimed science fiction authors writing today.  Provocative, compelling, intensely imagined, it is a startling extension of Gibson’s and Sterling’s unique visions—and the beginning of movement we know today as “steampunk!” From the Paperback edition.
Views: 875

The Haunted Mansion Series: Books 1, 2, & 3

It's Halloween night, the night Megan can finally see what's going on inside of that old mansion at the end of her street. But things don't turn out the way she thought they would. She returns the next morning, only to meet her fate, and - a change of weather? No. A change of her.All three of the first books in the Haunted Mansion Series are here - with an announcement at the end! Watch the old stories play out one more time before the new announcement from K. Weikel changes everything. In with the old - And in with the newIt's Halloween night, the night Megan can finally see what's going on inside of that old mansion at the end of her street. But things don't turn out the way she thought they would. She returns the next morning, only to meet her fate, and - a change of weather? No. A change of her.. . .
Views: 873

The Marbury Lens

Sixteen-year-old Jack gets drunk and is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is kidnapped. He escapes, narrowly. The only person he tells is his best friend, Conner. When they arrive in London as planned for summer break, a stranger hands Jack a pair of glasses. Through the lenses, he sees another world called Marbury. There is war in Marbury. It is a desolate and murderous place where Jack is responsible for the survival of two younger boys. Conner is there, too. But he’s trying to kill them. Meanwhile, Jack is falling in love with an English girl, and afraid he’s losing his mind. Conner tells Jack it’s going to be okay. But it’s not. Andrew Smith has written his most beautiful and personal novel yet, as he explores the nightmarish outer limits of what trauma can do to our bodies and our minds.
Views: 873

Dinosaur Wars: Earthfall

Star Wars meets Jurassic Park as dinosaurs return to earth from space. Now humans are the endangered species!Wildlife biologist Chase Armstrong and Montana rancher's daughter Kit Daniels find themselves in the center of a battle between US military forces and intelligent dinosaurs returning to earth after 65 million years in space. Fighting for their lives and the future of humanity, Kit and Chase may find romance--if they live long enough! Great adventure reading for all ages and both genders.
Views: 873

Star Mages: The Dark Initiation

In a future where the human race barely survived extinction, 21-year-old Anerius Novengard is a member of an arcane military order of mages. When a comet hazardously flies towards a peaceful space colony, he is given a special initiatory mission to protect a government official who had been the victim of several assassination attempts. What Anerius discovers will forever change his world.An epic scifi short story telling the tale of betrayal and war.In a future where the human race barely survived extinction, 21-year-old Anerius Novengard is a member of an arcane military order of mages. He struggles to avoid falling prey to the dark elements which seek to ensnare him at every turn, being able to overcome their pull by the aid of his love interest and mentor. At the same time that a comet hazardously flies towards a peaceful space colony, he is given a special initiatory mission to protect a government official who had been the victim of several assassination attempts. What Anerius discovers during his mission will forever change his world, and that of those around him. This short read is for fans of space sagas and magic.
Views: 873

Muse of Fire

Since the publication of Song of Kali in 1985, Dan Simmons has produced a substantial body of fiction notable for its vigor, variety, and sheer imaginative reach. His latest, a novella-length tale of startling originality, beautifully embodies these qualities, reaffirming Simmons's position as one of the finest storytellers of our time. Muse of Fire takes place in a remote future age in which the human enterprise has all but ground to a halt. Earth, drained of its oceans and populated largely by the dead, is little more than a distant memory. The scattered human remnants occupy the lowest rung of a Gnostic hierarchy that dominates both their secular and spiritual lives. Against this backdrop, Simmons introduces the Earth's Men, a wandering troupe of players dedicated to presenting the works of Shakespeare to every accessible corner of the settled universe. The story begins on the planet known as 25-25-261B, a regular stop on the players' interstellar tour. A routine performance of Much Ado About Nothing is in progress when an unprecedented event occurs. A band of Archons—members of the usually invisible ruling caste—enter the makeshift theater and join the audience. In doing so, they change the course of human—and non-human—history. What follows is an intellectual adventure story of astonishing richness and depth in which disparate species face each other across an insurmountable divide, their only point of contact the indelible language of William Shakespeare, the story's true muse. Skillfully deploying the elements of traditional science fiction—advanced technologies, alien encounters, strange new worlds—Muse of Fire entertains and illuminates while celebrating the best, most durable elements of our cultural legacy. It is a work of wit, erudition, and tightly compressed grandeur that only Dan Simmons could have written.
Views: 872

The Door of Flesh

Trapped in his apartment, invisible flames burn at his flesh and a curse, put upon him by a witch, festers and grows larger on his cheek. Raging around him in a violent storm of hatred and cruelty are the forces of an ancient darkness wanting to be reborn. He must make one final fight for his humanity or be forever consumed by evil.Sipe’s job: drive the crime throne heir from California back home to Seattle. The double cross: Sipe’s unaware Connie is willing to sacrifice anyone to get out of the family business for good. Sipe’s reality: betrayed, wounded, looking down the barrel of a little blackmail courtesy of the teenager that just discovered him unconscious in the tiniest of tiny Oregon towns. Tiffany’s deal: Sipe helps her locate a missing friend or the faked boob-grab pics make the rounds. The local less than honorable law enforcement...her slightly crazy uncle...Little Creek’s the kind of place the wrong kind of stranger can disappear – forever.The Lipless Gods. A noir-tinged portrait of broken families, teen prostitution, green energy, and of course, anger management challenged Olympic athletes and the mobsters who love them.
Views: 872

Amped

Technology makes them superhuman. But mere mortals want them kept in their place. The New York Times bestselling author of Robopocalypse creates a stunning, near-future world where technology and humanity clash in surprising ways. The result? The perfect summer blockbuster. As he did in Robopocalypse, Daniel Wilson masterfully envisions a frightening near-future world. In Amped, people are implanted with a device that makes them capable of superhuman feats. The powerful technology has profound consequences for society, and soon a set of laws is passed that restricts the abilities—and rights—of "amplified" humans. On the day that the Supreme Court passes the first of these laws, twenty-nine-year-old Owen Gray joins the ranks of a new persecuted underclass known as "amps." Owen is forced to go on the run, desperate to reach an outpost in Oklahoma where, it is rumored, a group of the most enhanced amps may be about to change the world—or destroy it. Once again, Daniel H. Wilson's background as a scientist serves him well in this technologically savvy thriller that delivers first-rate entertainment, as Wilson takes the "what if" question in entirely unexpected directions. Fans of Robopocalypse are sure to be delighted, and legions of new fans will want to get "amped" this summer.
Views: 872

Tales of Three Hemispheres

Tales of Three Hemispheres is a collection of fantasy short stories by Lord Dunsany. The first edition was published in Boston by John W. Luce & Co. in November, 1919; the first British edition was published in London by T. Fisher Unwin in June, 1920. The collection's significance in the history of fantasy literature was recognized by its republication in a new edition by Owlswick Press in 1976, with illustrations by Tim Kirk and a foreword by H. P. Lovecraft, actually a general article on Dunsany's work originally written by Lovecraft in 1922, but unpublished until it appeared in his posthumous Marginalia (Arkham House, 1944). The book collects 14 short pieces by Dunsany; the last three, under the general heading "Beyond the Fields We Know," are related tales, as explained in the publisher's note preceding the first, "Idle Days on the Yann," which was previously published in the author's earlier collection A Dreamer's Tales, but reprinted in the current one owing to the relationship.
Views: 871

Man-Kzin Wars 25th Anniversary Edition

A special commemoration of this long-running themed science fiction anthology edited by multiple #1 best seller, Larry Niven. Here is the 25th anniversary edition of the original volume that started it all. Includes an all-new introduction by Larry Niven for this re-issue of the first volume in a series that now numbers fourteen volumes and is still going strong. Larry Niven’s bestselling Man-Kzin series begins! The kzin, formerly invincible conquerors of all they encountered, had a hard time dealing with their ignominious defeat by the leaf-eating humans. Some secretly hatched schemes for a rematch, others concentrated on gathering power within the kzin hierarchy, and some shamefully cooperated with the contemptible humans, though often for hidden motives. In war and in uneasy peace, here is the first masterful volume in the Man-Kzin Wars shared universe anthology created by multiple New York Times best-seller, incomparable tale-spinner, and Nebula- and five-time Hugo-Award-winner, Larry Niven.
Views: 871