Not all Polesotechnic League members played fair when trading, nor did some of the non-human races of the galaxy object to dirty tricks. Van Rijn could not be everywhere, and relied on his representatives, foremost among them his young protege, David Falkayn, and the members of David's trader team: Adzel, a large dragon-like being who practiced Buddhism, and Chee-Lan, a brilliant but hot-tempered felinesque extraterrestrial.

Helping an old colleague on a dig in Antarctica, Annja discovers her former associate has found a necklace that he claims is over 40,000 years old - and that it may not have earthly origins. As they conduct their research, Annja realizes that someone is out to kill her. With everyone, including her friend, hiding something, and no one to trust, Annja has nowhere to turn.

This collection of four tales charts the werewolf Clayton's growth within the American Pack as he progresses from a wild child to a clever teen. As he tests his beloved mentor at every turn, he must learn not only to control his animal instincts but to navigate Pack politics - including showing his brutal archnemesis, Malcolm, who the real Alpha is.

The kingdom of Francia has purged its magi. But when a young Guerrier rescues an orphaned street waif, little does he know that she is the daughter of a magus who met his end on their pyres - or that she is guarded by an aethyric spirit and driven by the name of the traitor who condemned her father to flames. With the gift of song infused within her, the child's voice will bring her before the most powerful heads of state. And she will craft herself into a weapon...aimed at the heart of the man she despises.

Two millenia have passed since the No-God last walked the earth. Now Anasurimbor Kellhus has seized absolute power with the promise of preventing his dread return. Will Kellhus save the world or has the end already begun?

After the battle at Masada, the Neteru team returns to San Diego believing forty-thousand demons had been eradicated and that Lilith's spawn has been killed. But somehow the treacherous little creature got away. Lilith, moreover, now has the daylight bite, and Fallon Nuit and Sebastian are adding new master vampires at record-breaking levels. And the newly created anti-Christ, worst of all, is nearly ready to burst forth.

Lucifer's War, which damned legions of angels to Hell, is an ancient and bitter memory shrouded in the smoke and ash of the inferno. Lucifer has not been seen since the Fall and the Demon Majors, Heaven's former warriors, have become the ruling class, each owing allegiance to the de facto ruler of Hell, Beelzebub, the Lord of the Flies. One Demon Major has not forgotten his former life in Heaven: The powerful Sargatanas has built his city, Adamantinarx, into the model of an Infernal metropolis. Now a confrontation with one of the damned souls leads Sargatanas to rebel, to endeavor to go Home and bring with him "anyone" who chooses to follow - be they demon or soul. He will stake everything on this chance for redemption.

Just as Gloriana St. Clair is settling in to spend a quiet New Year's Eve alone she receives a phone call from the body guard of a drunk, newly-undead rock star.

Matthew Magician, after ending an age old war, is still the protector of New York. So when he finds a young woman brutally murdered by a Fae creature, he must bring her killer to justice before his mentor, Jane Andraste, uses the crime to justify more war - and before he confronts an even larger threat in the greatest Adversary of all.

Parallel universes are supposed to remain parallel -- which means they shouldn't intersect. Nor should people shift back and forth among them. It is the duty of the Marchers to keep everyone in his rightful place.

As the land of Navronne sinks deeper into civil war and perilous winter, everyone wants to get their hands on the rebellious sorcerer Valen-a murderous priestess, a prince who steals dead men's eyes, and even the Danae guardians, whose magic nurtures the earth and whose attention could prove the most costly of all. Addicted to an enchantment that turns pain into pleasure-and bound by oaths he refuses to abandon-Valen risks body and soul to rescue one child, seek justice for another, and bring the dying land its rightful king. Yet no one is who they seem, and Valen's search for healing grace leads him from Harrower dungeons to alien shores. Only at the heart of the world does he discover the glorious, terrible price of the land's redemption-and his own. Recommended.

Driven by insane jealousy, Duke William is determined to found his own flying school, where the valuable flying horses of Oc will learn to bond with well-born young men - instead of arrogant women. Now, Larkyn Hamley and her beloved Black Seraph must gather all of their allies from the air to the ground. For if they do not soar now, none will ever see the skies again.

A collection of Bradbury stories, none previously published.

Fawn, a young farm girl, and Dag, a seasoned Lakewalker soldier-sorcerer, travel downstream on a flatboat to a sea and encounter a new world of hazards both human and uncanny - and a new understanding of the bonds between themselves and their kinfolk.

Tombstone, Arizona, 1881. Jesse Fox left his Eastern college education to travel West. Here he meets the physician Chow Lung, who insists that Jesse has a talent for magic. In Tombstone, Jesse meets the tubercular Doc Holliday, whose inner magic is as suppressed as his own, but whose power is enough to attract the sorcerous attention of Wyatt Earp. Mildred Benjamin is a young widow making her living as a newspaper typesetter, and selling tales of Western derring-do to the magazines back East. Like Jesse, Mildred has episodes of seeing things that can't possibly be there. When a failed stage holdup results in two dead, Tombstone explodes with speculation about who attempted the robbery. The truth could destroy Earp's plans for wealth and glory, and he'll do anything to bury it. Meanwhile, outlaw leader John Ringo vies with Earp for magical dominance. Recommended.

Reiffen, true heir to the kingdoms of Banking and Wayland, had lived his entire life quietly with his mother and best friends, Ferris and Avender. All that changed when the three Wizards snatched him away to their fortress in the north. There they offered Reiffen the twin gifts of power and immortality - if he helped them wrest control of Banking and Wayland away from his uncle, the usurper. Although Reiffen's friends rescue him at great peril, Reiffen now decides to return to the Wizards. He intends to fool the Wizards - gain their knowledge, find their weaknesses, defeat them with their own weapons, and regain the throne that is rightfully his. But Reiffen is forced to do terrible things to gain the Wizards' trust. Has he become as greedy, ambitious, and avaricious as the three Wizard brothers?

Violent black cyclone clouds hover, promising a storm of devastating proportions as student Claire Danvers and her friends prepare to defend Morganville against elments both natural and unnatural.

With the end of the Wintertime, Elspeth sets out again for the Lowlands. But there is a traitor among the rebels, one whose hatred of Misfits puts Elspeth in jeopardy.

Elspeth must rescue a former ally whose mind and body have been manipulated to unleash a plague that will destroy all it touches.

Continues CYTEEN. Who did kill the original Ariane Emory? And can her personal replicate avoid the same fate?

Peace has been shattered by the loosing of a deadly plague upon the magical Qirsi people. While some seek to prevent the spread of the plague, others see in this disaster a unique opportunity. With the magical folk weakened by the decimation of the plague, their unmagical enemies might be able to defeat them and take back lands lost in an ancient war. Haunted by the specter of what would be a tragic and devastating new war, the Southlands are aflame with rumors of violence, pestilence, and treachery.

In a 1989 Alaska still possessed by Russia, a cashiered Major charters out to a cossack and discovers his past has not only caught up with him but is about to violently change his future, and the future of all nine of the nations of North America as well.

Fourth in the sequence that spans three centuries and weaves together the stories of Renaissance magician John Dee, philosopher Giordano Bruno, and present-day itinerant historian and writer Pierce Moffitt.

Fifteen original stories about our fear of and fascination with artificial intelligence. Now some of the most innovative thinkers in science fiction, including Baxter, Ballantyne and Watson, offer an intriguing variety of tales featuring the many forms of AI, from frightening to funny.

Poe-inspired stories by some of the finest talents in the field, including Kim Newman, Pat Cadigan, Sharyn McCrumb, Lucius Shepard, Laird Barron, Suzy McKee Charnas and others.

Suppose, like Trafford Sewell, you inhabit a world where everyone knows everything about everybody, where what you "feel" and "truly believe" is protected under the law, while what is rational, even provable, is condemned as heresy. You would not be surprised, then, struggling to work through the crowds of near-naked commuters, to be confronted by your Parish Confessor and asked why you have not been streaming your every moment of sexual intimacy onto the community website.

As bodies pile up, a violent cross-country game is blamed on the GhostWalkers. To clear their name, they infiltrate the dangerous sport. And to survive it they must ignore the rules.

Cat Crawfield's cover is blown among the brazen bloodsuckers. Caught in the crosshairs of a vengeful vampire, yet determined to help her undead lover stop a lethal magic from being unleashed, Cat is about to learn the true meaning of bad blood.

Delilah, a werecat who's one of the Autumn Lord's Death Maidens, has to fight off the demon general who stole the third Spirit Seal and who is now out for blood.

Sequel to THUNDERER. Arjun has returned from a dangerous, hallucinogenic journey to seek out his teacher and his enemy, Shay -- and finds himself not in Ararat but in a strange and strangely familiar city, a city his heart remembers even as he struggles to recall his own identity.

A war rages in the lands beyond the Veil. And in this realm where myths and legends live, a powerful faction wants to seal the lands beyond the Veil off from the human world. Standing in its way are Oliver Bascombe and his sister - born of a union between a legendary woman and a mortal man. In their blood lies the ability to tear down the Veil forever, enabling the Lost Ones, including Oliver's own fiancee, to return home. But is humanity ready to face all its legends head-on?

Welcome to the Nightside, that secret square mile located in the dark heart of London where the sun never rises and people can fraternize with every myth and monster imaginable. John Taylor is a P.I. with the special ability to locate anyone or anything. "The Unnatural Inquirer," the Nightside's most notorious gossip rag, has offered him a million pounds to find a DVD purported to contain an actual recording of the afterlife. John doesn't know if it's true, but someone-or something-thinks so, and will stop at nothing to possess the disc.

There's a new sheriff in town, and he's got the Nightside's rich and powerful quaking in their boots. He's The Walking Man, and it's his mission to exorcise sinners - with extreme prejudice. Problem is, the Nightside was built on sin and corruption, and The Walking Man makes no distinction between evildoers and those simply indulging themselves. He'll leave the place a wasteland unless someone stops him, and P.I. John Taylor has been handed the job. No known magic or science can affect The Walking Man, and if John can't discover his weakness, he'll be facing the very Wrath of God.

Eccentric billionaire Walter Grobius attempts to unleash a devastating magical apocalypse. Quincey Morris and his partner, white witch Libby Chastain, are drawn into their deadliest case yet, one that ranges from Baghdad to Los Angeles. ____Hendee, Barb & Hendee, J C. CHILD OF A DEAD GOD: A NOVEL OF THE NOBLE DEAD. Roc, 8.99 pb. For years, Magiere and Leesil have sought a long-forgotten artifact, even though its purpose has been shrouded in mystery. All Magiere knows is that she must keep the orb from falling into the hands of a murdering Noble Dead, her half-brother Welstiel. And now, dreams of a castle locked in ice lead her south, on a journey that has become nothing less than an obsession. Accompanying Magiere and Leesil are the sage Wynn, their canine protector Chap, and two elven assassins-turned-guardians who must fight their distrust of this sister of the dead. For forces more powerful than they are rallying around Magiere, arming her for the conflict to come. Because finding the orb may be just the beginning of the challenges that await her...

After her adventures with Magiere and Leesil, Wynn Hygeorht has returned to the Guild of Sagecraft, bearing texts supposedly penned by vampires from the time of the Forgotten History and the Great War. Seized by the Guild's scholars and sent out for copying without Wynn's consent, several pages disappear - and the two sages charged with conveying these pages are murdered. Suspicious of the Guild, separated from the only friends she fully trusts, and convinced the Noble Dead are responsible for the killings, Wynn embarks on a quest to uncover the secrets of the texts.

What would happen if an author went back to the darker themes of the original fairy tales for his plots, and then crossed the Disney princesses with Charlie's Angels? What's delivered is "The Stepsister Scheme"-a whole new take on what happened to Cinderella and her prince after the wedding. You can bet it won't be - and they lived happily ever after.

GOD STALK and DARK OF THE MOON in a single volume.

In a post-apocalyptic ice age, neomage Thorn St. Croix was nearly driven insane by her powers. She lived as a fugitive, disguised as a human and married to a human man, channeling her gifts for war into stone-magery. When she was discovered, her friends and neighbours accepted her, but warily. Not so the mage who arrives from the Council of Seraphs, who could be her greatest ally-or her most dangerous foe. And when it's revealed that her long-gone sister, Rose, is still alive, Thorn must make a choice-and risk her own life in the process.

Too weak as yet to face the Numinator, the legendary mancer and bringer of nightmares, Nish and the group journey to a remote, rain-soaked plateau so that Nish may fulfill a promise to a friend. But when they get there they find the artefacts they sought have been looted by an unknown power.

Nish and his few remaining allies are trapped on the Range of Ruin, surrounded by the relentless army of his father, the God-Emperor. His only choices are a humiliating surrender or a suicidal fight to the death. But even if Nish could win the battle with his father, there may be no way to stop the fire before all is consumed.

The long-awaited third part! As Ash pursues her destiny with the Sull and Raif seeks a place where he belongs, the clan chiefs urge their followers to frenzied battles. But there is a darker threat coming from the city with a black heart of evil, whose rulers have long sought to control the Clanholds.

The Entire is a five-armed radial universe that exists in a dimension without stars and planets and is parallel to our own universe. Stretched over the Entire is a lid of plasma, called the Bright, which ebbs and flows bringing day and twilight. Under that vast canopy live many galactic species, copied over from our own universe.

When Salafi madmen bent on a new jihad kill FSC Captain Patrick Hennessey's family in a cowardly attack, a legendary warrior is born: Carrera, the scourge of Salafism. Forging an army from the decrepit remains of a military in a failing state, he will revenge himself on those who killed his family. And when he is finished there will be peace: the peace of an empty wind as it blows across a desert strewn with the bones of Carrera's enemies.

Kelson Haldane is King of Gwynedd, the first liege of magical Deryni heritage in centuries. But the priesthood of the Eleven Kingdoms have no intention of ceding their power- even if it means inciting civil war.

Sir Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth's Secretary of State, was the greatest spymaster the world had ever seen. But when he asked Dr. Dee to summon a demon the result was unexpected, especially for his orphaned niece Lucy. Sir Francis' duty as her guardian was to find Lucy a suitably aristocratic husband, not to let her fight demons and witchcraft for the Queen's Secret Service. But his - and Lucy's - duty to protect Queen and country from enemies both natural and supernatural kept getting in the way. And so did all those demons.

A young witch, a Dark One who works as a counselor at a girls' summer camp, bolsters her power by leeching fear from children's nightmares. But she falls in love with a handsome young Light One, and threatens the balance. Recommended.

Locke Lamora is back in an adventure that takes the conman from an attempt to rob a casino and into the midst of a desperate bid to bring a pirate fleet to justice. Recommended.

Tris must address the trials and executions of those responsible for the atrocities against Margolan's people while his ally, the new Lord of Dark Haven, contends with the Blood Council, unhappy with the prospect of a mortal lord. And beneath Dark Haven, the Flow, the vast river of power damaged when Arontala wrested the Soulcatcher from Dark Haven's foundation, is becoming unstable.

Short works from the acclaimed author of COUNTING HEADS.

2135: the international program to seed the galaxy with human colonies has stalled as greedy, immoral powerbrokers park their starships in Earth's orbit and begin to convert them into space condos. Ellen Starke's head, rescued from the fiery crash that killed her mother, struggles to regrow a new body in time to restore her dead mother's financial empire. And Pre-Singularity AIs conspire to join the human race just as human clones, such as Mary Skarland and her sisters, want nothing more than to leave it.

A collection of his stories, including a number that were adapted for television and featuring "Button, Button," soon to be a major motion picture.

The Roman Empire now stretches across the Atlantic and far into Asia - yet it is an unstable time. A massacre brings the world to the brink of global war. Both within the Empire and far beyond its borders, simmering tensions are reaching boiling point.

From out of the East they came riding like a merciless plague - destroying kingdom after kingdom and the sovereigns who had previously mocked the warlord Loethar and his barbarian horde. Now only one land remains unconquered - the largest, richest, and most powerful realm of the Denova Set . . . Penraven. The Valisar royals of Penraven face certain death, for the savage tyrant Loethar covets what they alone possess: the fabled Valisar Enchantment, an irresistible power to "coerce," which will belong to Loethar once every Valisar has been slain. But the last hope of the besieged kingdom is being sent in secret from his doomed home, in the company of a single warrior. The future of Penraven now rests on the shoulders of the young Crown Prince Leonel who, though untried and untested in the ways of war, must survive brutality and treachery in order to claim the Valisar throne.

In Ethrea, Rhian sits upon a precarious throne. Defiant dukes who won't accept her rule threaten the stability of her kingdom. Dexterity has been banished from her court in disgrace. The blue-haired slave Zandakar, the man she thought was her friend, has been revealed as the son of a woman sworn to destroy her world. And Rhian's husband, King Alasdair, is unsure of her love. The trading nations refuse to believe Mijak is a threat, and promise reprisals if she dares protect her realm. Only Emperor Han of mysterious Tzhung-tzhungchai knows that the danger from Mijak is real. But is he an ally, or an enemy in disguise? As she struggles to learn the truth, and keep her embattled crown, the murderous warhost of Mijak advances.

For a Third Grade wizard born outside the Wizarding class, good jobs are tough to find. So when the opportunity of a lifetime presents itself, Gerald Dunwoody takes on a position he's quite unqualified for: royal court wizard to Lional, the spoiled young king of New Ottosland. It's a shame that King Lional isn't the vain, self-centered young man he appeared to be. With a Princess in danger, a talking bird who can't stay out of trouble, and a kingdom to save, Gerald soon suspects that he might be out of his depth. And if he can't keep this job, how will he ever become the wizard he was destined to be?

Earth has finally achieved political stability and the new colony on Mars is growing. But the strife of the 21st century has left an uneasy legacy of genetically enhanced alpha males designed for war - and who now have no wars to fight.

A new threat has surfaced in Eutracia. An ancient Vagaries spell has borne its poisonous fruit: half-human, half-serpent monstrosities who live only to slay and are commanded by a hideously transformed sorcerer-demon known as the Viper Lord. Now, as Tristan departs on a risky mission to cross into Rustannica and meet his destiny in an apocalyptic confrontation with Vespasian, Shailiha will remain behind to battle the Viper Lord and his murderous horde. Failure is unthinkable. But the cost of victory may be impossibly high.

A disillusioned young singer, unaware of her extraordinary magical talent, Jikata will be the sixth and final outsider-Exotique-to step through a dangerous portal of prophecy and magic, forming bonds of friendship that will threaten the very fate of Lladrana: a world where music holds the key to an ancient mystery.

Ruled by the Mistress of the Skewed Throne, the city of Amenkor has just survived a devastating invasion by the mysterious Chorl, paying a terrible price both in the loss of lives and destruction in the city itself. Yet perhaps the most crucial loss is the throne of Amenkor - the true seat of power in every sense - now totally drained of the magic, knowledge, life force, and memories of previous rulers. The city's only hope lies with its sometime ally, the city of Venitte, home to the only throne that is twin in power to Amenkor's.

Favourite quotations from the Discworld canon.

Torus is the world's biggest supercollider, locked in an Arizona mountain and built to unlock the secrets of the Big Bang itself. Will the Torus divulge the mysteries of the creation of the universe? Or will it, as some predict, suck the earth into a mini black hole? Or is the Torus a Satanic attempt, as a powerful televangelist decries, to challenge God Almighty on the very throne of heaven? Twelve scientists, sent to the Torus to turn it on, know the truth but won't tell. Wyman Ford, ex-monk and CIA operative, is tapped to wrest from the team their secret, a secret that will either destroy the world - or save it. The countdown begins...

When an agent planted among the Weres discovers a plot to assassinate the Coven's leader, CIA assassin Jaz Parks is brought in to take out the woman hired to do the deed, a killer who might be as wily and Gifted as herself. She and her vampire boss are off to the Scottish Highlands for some twisted fun among murderers, demons and half-crazed relatives.

For Cally O'Neal and the O'Neal Bane Sidhe (underground fighters against the tyranny of Earth's Darhel "allies") duty lies in the overthrow of the established order. For Major General Michael O'Neal, her father, duty lies in maintaining that order to prevent a reinvasion by the dreaded Posleen. When diamond meets diamond, when O'Neal battles O'Neal, the only sure outcome is fireworks.

Three interleaved quests through London, in three different eras --past, present and future -- for the Holy Grail.

Three Unbroken is the next epic novel in the Celestial Empire sequence and details the explosive war between the Chinese and Aztec empires as they battle for control of the red planet, Fire Star.

Genetically altered subjects of a Defense Department experiment gone wrong have escaped. Among them is the beautiful and powerful Rachel Ackart, now under the dangerous influence of an incomparably evil and powerful vampire. Boulder and Maguire are sent into the streets of New Orleans, with Predator drones and Black Hawk helicopters overhead, to retrieve their quarry from among the haunted and damned.

[Canadian author]. Venera, though armed with the Key of Candesce that can control the fate of the artificial worlds of Virga, falls through the void. She finds herself plunging through the air among the artificial worlds of Virga, far from home and her husband, who may or may not be alive. Landing in the ancient nation of Spyre, Venera forges new alliances and meets new enemies, all the while pursuing her revenge.

A mysterious disease begins to turn ordinary people into raving, paranoid murderers. The CDC determines they have been contaminated by a bioengineered parasite, shaped by a complexity far beyond the limits of known science. What are the parasites after?

The men on board HMS Terror have every expectation of finding the Northwest Passage. When the expedition's leader, Sir John Franklin, meets a terrible death, Captain Francis Crozier takes command and leads his surviving crewmen on a last, desperate attempt to flee south across the ice. But as another winter approaches, as scurvy and starvation set in, and as the terror on the ice stalks them southward, Crozier and his men begin to fear there is no excape. Based on actual historical events. Recommended.

The corrupt TV evangelist who promised eternal life rises from the dead and hunts down all of those who at sometime (in his opinion) transgressed against him. His goal is to introduce each to the afterlife -- in a crude and violent fashion.

First there is a series of terrible plagues, killing Egypt's crops and crippling its people. And then the Nile fails. The desperate Pharaoh sends the warlock Taita. Though wise in the lore of the gods and a master of magic and the supernatural, not even he can imagine what terrible enemy waits in ambush in those dark lands at the end of their world.

Saving the world is his job: there are a surprising number of meetings involved. Bob Howard is a computer-hacker desk jockey who has more than enough trouble keeping up with the endless paperwork he has to do on a daily basis. He should never be called on to do anything remotely heroic. But for some reason he is. Recommended.

Bob Howard, geekish demonology hacker extraordinaire for The Laundry, must stop ruthless billionaire Ellis Billington from unleashing an eldritch horror, codenamed Jennifer Morgue, from the ocean's depths for the purpose of ruling the world!

Archer Lightning asks the Emperor's winged messenger Jant to find his missing teenage daughter. Jant plunges into Hacilith's sprawling underworld and across the bizarre worlds of the Shift. She's seventeen, and Lightning will kill him if he touches her.

4 paranormal PIs, in stories from Jim Butcher (Harry Dresden), Simon Green (Nightside's John Taylor), Kat Richardson (Greywalker) and Thomas Sniegoski (Remy Chandler).

A would-be sorceror is forced to admit that he has no power and becomes an apprentice to a dragon hunter named Kenshar. Kenshar's business is supplying wizards with the magical blood of dragons.

Detective Inspector Chen and Zhu Irzh are given a major assignment to escort an emissary from Heaven on a diplomatic mission to Hell. Zhu tries to dodge his demonic family's overtures, but ends up embroiled in Hell's political intrigues. Chen and Zhu find themselves in the middle of a struggle much bigger than they can fully comprehend, and when the dust finally settles, neither heaven nor hell will be the same!

The mere mention of the pirate known as Space Vulture strikes fear into every heart. A hardworking colonist's only hope is that the dauntless lawman, Marshal Victor Corsaire, will rocket to the rescue.

The year is 1817. In Switzerland, the Count Saint-Germain leads a comfortable life with his paramour Hero whose husband died fighting Napoleon. Saint-Germain's loving kindness cannot keep Hero from missing her children who are being raised by their hard-hearted grandfather. The Count has become intrigued by the work of an Austrian noble investigating the properties of blood, a subject always of key interest to a vampire. But when the noble's beautiful ward fixates sexually on the Count, the vampire fears for himself and his gentle lover.

Talos is a magic wielder, born into the mage guild of firecrafters. As an agent of the Overworld Police, he has come from a secret land to protect Earth from magicians intent on enslaving humanity. Mila, a modern woman who has always had the gift of healing, never realized that her skill was born of an ancient magic that only firecraft can unlock. Together, the love between Tal and Mila might burn them alive as they seek to protect the world, but if the Tree of Life dies and all the magic in the world is extinguished will it matter?

Thea barely has time to discover she's an elemental mage before the Federal Bureau of Magic enlists her help to unlock a mysterious white cube. To stay ahead of the dangerous Alphiri and the wiles of the FBM, Thea needs all her friends - including a new one: the cube's late maker, the New Wizard of the West, Nikola Tesla.

The USS Walker, an old World I vintage destroyer pressed into service in World War II, is fleeing pursuit by Japanese battleships by heading into a squall. When the weather clears Lt. Commander Reddy and his crew find themselves in an alternate world where humans failed to evolve. Two other species, however, have achieved sapience -- and they are at war. Reddy must choose whom to side with, because that species will win - and the other will be exterminated. Recommended.

Having sided with the peaceful Lemurians against the savage, reptilian Grik, Lt. Commander Matthew Reddy and his crew now find themselves scrambling to prepare for the attack that is sure to come, searching for resources to support their forces-even as they look for allies to join their struggle. Meanwhile, the Japanese juggernaut "Amagi," also trapped in this strange world, is under Grik control-with her fanatical commander approaching madness. And soon they will have amassed a force that no amount of firepower and technology will be able to stop.

Christopher Anvil explores the two faces of technological innovation: sometimes the result is a literal life-saver; but at other times a breakthrough may not break quite the way it was supposed to.

Celestine's desire for revenge against the people who consigned her magician father to the flames is leading her farther down a dangerous path as she learns to use the powers he deeded her at his death. Powers that are bringing her to the attention of an Inquisition determined to stamp out every last trace of magic from the world.

Skeeve the Magnificent, magician to kings and King of Magicians, Businessman and Problem-Solver Extraordinaire, has come out of retirement. And he's set up shop in the Bazaar, right on the home turf of his old company, M.Y.T.H. Inc. Too bad his former co-worker, Aahz the Pervect, is not exactly thrilled with the competition. Looks like a little wager is in order.

The half-human half-reptilian Najah vow revenge after their near extinction and launch a cleansing fire. Kane places his hopes on one renegade female Najah, whose alliance presents a mixed blessing.

Djan Seriy Anaplian has become an agent of the Culture's Special Circumstances section, charged with high-level interference in civilisations throughout the greater galaxy. This world, however, is one she knows - and she knows that here nothing is quite as it seems; and determining the appropriate level of interference in someone else's war is never a simple matter. And then there are her brothers - and the matter of that old crime that has wracked their lives.

The Anti-Christ is positioned for emergence, the powers of darkness have released the pale horse of the apocalypse, and half the Neteru team is pregnant. The series draws to a close.

A mile high energy wave wipes out 99 percent of the American populace. A handful of survivors attempt to cope with the aftermath.

By day, Mercy Thompson is a car mechanic in Eastern Washington. By night, she explores her preternatural side. As a shape-shifter with some unusual talents, Mercyas found herself maintaining a tenuous harmony between the human and the not-so- human on more than one occasion. This time she may get more than she bargained for.

When Noah and Priscilla escape into the Accord to flee Priscilla's murderous husband, he plots to destroy the whole Accord and them with it. In revenge they arrange to have him assassinated but their success comes at the price of giving him the keys to the virtual kingdom. How can they hope to escape their stalker when he can become anything or anyone he desires?

As Dag's frustration with the Lakewalker camp's rigid mores with respect to farmers grows, he and Fawn decide to travel a very different road - and find that along it, their disparate but hopeful company increases. Fawn and Dag see that their world is changing, and the traditional Lakewalker practices cannot hold every malice at bay forever. Now the pair must answer in earnest the question they've grappled with since they killed their first malice together: When the old traditions fail disastrously, can their untried new ways stand against their world's deadliest foe? Series conclusion.

Once she was Cassiel, a Djinn of limitless power. Now, she has been reshaped in human flesh as punishment for defying her master - and living among the Weather Wardens, whose power she must tap into regularly or she will die. And as she copes with the emotions and frailties of her human condition, a malevolent entity threatens her new existence.

Most of the chains that suspend the city of Deepgate have given way and its temple dangles upside down over the abyss. Held captive there by the victorious Spine are the young angel Dill and traitor assassin Rachel Hael. They await their fate as ghosts rise through the abyss from the open gate of Hell.

Years after their exile, legendary hero Darak and his wife Griane have founded their own tribe and raised four children. A rebel force, led by Darak's own daughter, seeks to recruit him to their cause. But the greatest danger comes from their youngest son, Rigat - actually sired by the Trickster God.

600 years before the events in the BLACK MAGICIAN trilogy. When Tessia demonstrates her unknown reserves of magic, she becomes apprentice to the local magician Lord Dakon. She is delighted by the study, the self-discipline, the riches and the frequent trips to the great city of Imardin. But along with the excitement and privilege, Tessia is about to discover that her magical gifts bring with them a great deal of responsibility. For great danger looms on the horizon for Tessia and her world.

Grinsa, banished because he is a Weaver, a Qirsi who can wield many magics, comes with his family to a war-ravaged land awash in racial tension and clan conflicts. Worse yet, his own people try to harness his great power and destroy his family. Amid the high tension of clan rivalry comes a plague that preys on Qirsi power across the Southlands with deadly results. When the disease is linked to an itinerant woman peddling baskets, one old man takes it upon himself to find answers in the secrets of her veiled past.

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, kzin and humans continue their adventures, as told by Hal Colebatch, Paul Chafe, and Michael Joseph Harrington, expanding on the concepts created by Larry Niven.

The Chalice of Fire, symbol of peace for Ulster, is stolen from the Red Branch by Bricriu Poisontongue. A band of Seekers sets out to recover the Chalice. Opposing them, and seeking the Chalice himself, is the evil wizard Maliman.

Just as they are about to reach the Chalice it is snatched away. Grimly the Seekers once again set off after the wily thief Bricriu as he makes his way to the Valley of the Shadows, a region ruled by the dead who lost their honour while alive and now try to draw the living into their evil kingdom.

The prodigal son leaves the big city to return to his dearly departed parent's house in North Carolina only to find, now that he's home, that something is trying to make damn sure he stays there - even if it means burying him out back. In a small town with dark secrets, one man struggles to find a way out before the spirit of the town can find a way in.

Half weredragon. Half beaststalker. All heart. Slowly coming into her own, Jennifer Scales just may be the bridge to bring the two warring sides of her family together-provided she can survive learning the most ancient skills of dragonkind.

For a century since the Convergence of Faerie and modern reality, the Ways between this world and the next have been closed. But now signs point to the chance that the veil may lift again. Connor Grey has enough problems with a vengeful Queen of Faerie and the return of his old Guild partner. Add an occult string of murders, and it's another case that just may kill him.

Over the decades and slow centuries, the city of Nessantico spread its influence in all directions, subsuming and converting the majority of other religions and lesser gods within the Holdings. Nessantico gathered to itself all that was intellectual, all that was rich, all that was powerful. There was no city in the known world that could rival it. But there were many who envied it...

This selection includes: several stories and short novels set in Flint's celebrated Ring of Fire alternate history series; two stories from Flint's Joe's World humorous fantasy series; a story with Dave Freer, set in their popular rats, bats and vats series; a short novel set in Flint and David Drake's Belisarius series; and several shared-universe stories set in David Drake's Foreign Legions universe, and a story set in David Weber's best-selling Honor Harrington universe.

The saga begun in 1632 continues with all-new stories by best-selling authors Eric Flint and Andrew Dennis, plus Dave Freer, K.D. Wentworth, and other writers, as the time-lost Americans from West Virginia, stranded in 17th century Europe, attempt an underwater salvage operation to raise the sunken Swedish flagship, The Ram rebellion uprising continues, Cardinal Richelieu plots to destroy Grantville and its allies, an American prisoner of war carries on a dangerous romance with the Danish King's daughter, and much more.

Deposed by an usurper, the rightful emperor of China -- a young boy named Chen -- is forced to flee to the remote island of Taishu. In the remote mountains of this island a huge, supernatural stone of jade is found. Meanwhile a vicious pirate has slain a community of monks and his boy slave has taken on the duty of keeping a great dragon imprisoned beneath the strait separating Taishu from the mainland.

Against a backdrop of knife-edged politics and fearsome prophecies, those who are sworn to protect the human lands must discover the truth that lies at the heart of ancient legends, and find a way to defeat an enemy that once brought mankind to the very brink of destruction.

The Xandim are little more than simple beasts. Enslaved by the fey and powerful Phaerie, they have been trapped in their horse forms for so long they have forgotten their former human shape. Only one of the tribe remembers: the Windeye, shaman of the Xandim.

Complete in one volume for the first time: Three novels making up a saga of the distant future, when the Earth and its inhabitants have transformed almost beyond recognition, science has all but become sorcery, and humanity is threatened by creatures out of the past's darkest legends: LORDS OF THE STARSHIP, OUT OF THE MOUTH OF THE DRAGON and THE SIEGE OF WONDER.

Barely six months after leaving New Orleans, history professor Max Corbett is returning to a place he hardly recognizes. The girl he'd loved - and lost - is dead, and the once-enchanted city has been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Then an old man offers him what looks like an ordinary tourist map, but with it Max begins to uncover dark secrets about both his dead love and the city he never really got to know. How is Gabrielle linked to an evil group from the city's past? And can Max evade them long enough to turn back the clock and give Gabrielle one last chance at life?

Stuntwoman Dawn Madison hasn't been on the best of terms with her father since her movie star mother died. Still, he is her dad, and when he vanishes while investigating the bizarre sighting-caught on film-of a supposedly long-dead child star, she comes home to Tinseltown to join the search for him. Working with his odd colleagues, she discovers an erotic and bloody underground society made up of creatures she thought existed only on the screen.

Sixteen original stories about magic-fueled crimes and those who investigate them.

A reluctant conscript has been propelled through space and time to fight in the distant thousand-year conflict. But returning home will be a problem: time dilation has him aging months while the Earth he left behind is aging centuries...

13 all-new stories that combine vampires with birthdays. Vampires, in case you haven't noticed, will easily combine with almost any concept. Vampires and barnacles. Vampires and cloud formations. Vampires and differential topology. Charlaine Harris, Jim Butcher, and Kelley Armstrong are among the contributors.

As tourists head for Savannah for St. Patrick's Day, Jack McShane - lover, killer, seducer, family man, and vampire - is racing through underground tunnels to the edge of Hell itself to hold off a supernatural plot posed by the double dead and demented.

A variation on the game of Monte Cristo: Bilbi is the survivor of a massacre by the Young Emperor's forces. The little girl becomes passionately devoted to her new mistress, Lady Nef, but when alliances change Nef and Bilbi are incarcerated in a notorious high-security prison. Lady Nef dies, but bequeaths Bilbi a perfect, uninhabited planet. Then, the mysterious and fantastically wealthy Princess of Bois Dormant makes her high society debut.

Contestants on a Survivor-like reality TV show are disappearing off the island -- but not because the game has eliminated them. Monstrous half-human creatures live in the jungle and slaughter the men and keep the women.

Set in the future on a distant world, Lear's Daughters tackles the issues of global warming, pollution, exploitation of resources, and disastrous climate change. THE WAVE AND THE FLAME and REIGN OF FIRE in one volume.

After the nanotech surge weapon is thrown into the space-folding waters of the Nigh, the way is cleared for the people of the Rose. Quinn tracks Helice Maki to the Entire-encircling Rim City, where he finds his daughter, now called Sen Ni and grown to adulthood. He needs her help against Helice, but Sen Ni has her own agenda.

Final volume. With her empire engulfed in war and the Briar King dead, Anne Dare struggles against both physical and magical opposition to exert her control.

The aliens appeared one day, built a base on the moon, and put an ad on the internet: "We are an alien race you may call the Atoners. Ten thousand years ago we wronged humanity profoundly. We cannot undo what has been done, but we wish humanity to understand it. Therefore we request twenty-one volunteers to visit seven planets to Witness for us. We will convey each volunteer there and back in complete safety. Volunteers must speak English. Send requests for electronic applications to witness@Atoners.com." At first, everyone thought it was a joke. But it wasn't.This is the story of three of those volunteers, and what they found on Kular A and Kular B.

Aleksia is the Ice Fairy, the godmother, the Queen of the Northern Lights. When a sorceress captures Aleksia's son Veikko and begins impersonating the Ice Fairy, she faces the fight of life as she battles snow and ice to rescue Veikko and reclaim her good name.

Scree has been destroyed, wiped from the face of the Land. While those responsible scatter to work on the next step in their plan, the stakes are raised as the Gods themselves enter the fray. Isak's land is divided, a savage religious fervour is sweeping the nation, and the time for ruthless action has arrived.

Third in the Solaris series of all-original short stories from some of the world's finest authors.

A man awakes in the dark - and gradually the memories return. He is Ramon Espejo, a poor, exploited prospector who was a nobody on Earth and is still a nobody on the planet of Sao Paulo, where he ekes out a living searching for minerals in uncharted mountains. Then: a dead man, a bloodstained knife, and a desperate run into the wild - away from the law and the Enye, the planet's mysterious alien overseers. Ramon Espejo knows he is being hunted. Even more terrifying, he is about to discover that he is both a hunter and a pawn in a battle between powerful and ruthless species.

Even in Empire City, where weird science is the hope for tomorrow, it's hard for a robot to make his way. It's even harder for Mack Megatron, a hulking machine designed to bring mankind to its knees. But Mack's just a bot trying to get by, and earn his citizenship in the process. When Mack's neighbours are kidnapped, Mack sets off on a journey through the dark alleys and gleaming skyscrapers of Empire City. Along the way he runs afoul of a talking gorilla, a brainy dame, a mutant lowlife, a little green mob boss, and the secret conspiracy at the heart of Empire's founders. What started out as one missing family becomes a battle for the future of Empire and every citizen that calls her home.

In a world where infants with magical powers are torn from their parents to be raised by the Danisoba, who have a monopoly on magic, Kestrel has managed to keep her abilities concealed. As the quartermaster of a pirate ship Kestrel loves the freedom of living on the seas. But her way of life could end if anyone on board learns her closely guarded secret - that she has magical control over the wind. One day a black ship appears, and her life changes. Its captain is a handsome rogue of whom Kestrel is strangely, constantly aware. When Kestrel's captain is led into a trap and is arrested, she gathers her crew and sets sail in relentless pursuit.

A 200,000 word gathering of the best short fiction by Jack McDevitt.

This collection of 8 stories and a 25,000 word novella contains a Hugo nominee and a Hugo winner.

After his adventures in New Ottosland, Gerald Dunwoody decides to go into secret training for the government. Unbeknownst to him, Princess Melissande is now living in Ottosland as well, and working undercover at Witches Incorporated. Their paths collide when they are both hired by opposing clients to investigate a case of insider theft at a magical research and development firm. But when they join forces to expose the thief, Gerald and Melissande must face a growing threat: an old enemy's promise to claim retribution...with Gerald's untimely death.

The final installment. Can Kylara Vatta assemble enough force to vanquish her nemesis forever? And will she finally restore honour to her family name?

Suffice it to say.

Allan Carpenter escaped from hell once but remained haunted by what he saw and endured. He has now returned, on a mission to liberate those souls unfairly tortured and confined. Partnering with the legendary poet and suicide, Sylvia Plath, Carpenter is a modern-day Christ who intends to harrow hell and free the damned. But now that he's returned to this Dantesque Inferno, can he ever again leave?

SEA SIEGE and STAR GATE in one volume.

Nothing interesting ever happens to fifteen-year-old orphans Eliot and Fiona while they're living in the strict, oppressive household of their grandmother -- until they learn they are the offspring of a goddess and Lucifer, Prince of Darkness -- and that there is an epic custody battle going on. And how that dispute ends will depend on how they do on three tests, diabolical temptations fashioned by the fallen angels.

Fourteen year old Maximum Ride and the other members of the "Flock", Fang, Iggy, Gasman, and Angel, must flee again, and this time it seems like the whole world is on their tail. In their attempts to escape government agents, the Uber Director (an evil brain on a stick), mechanical soldiers who have been programmed specifically to wipe out the Flock, and a few scientists who might just be trustworthy, Max and the kids end up circling the globe, and even spending some time in Antarctica, where they see the effects of global warming up close. After nearly losing three members of the Flock, Max and Fang must stick together and put their bickering behind them, not letting anything, or anyone, stand in their way.

Cole Wickerson is violently initiated into the hidden world of vampires and werewolves and is trained to become a Skinner, one of the humans who hunt shape-shifting monsters and bloodsuckers.

All other priorities take second place as word arrives on earth of a gate colony which has fallen to an unidentified alien assault. As the only space ship currently available to the Human-Adar Alliance, the "Vorpal Blade" is dispatched to find out what happened to the colony, rescue any survivors and learn the identity of the attackers.

Some people have the Sight. Genevieve Scelan has the Scent. They call her "Hound," and with her unique supernatural sense Evie can track nearly anything - lost keys, vanished family heirlooms - even missing people. And though she knows to stay out of the magical undercurrent that runs beneath Boston's historic streets, a midnight phone call from a long-vanished lover will destroy the careful boundaries she has drawn. Now, to pay a years-old debt, Evie must venture into the shadowy world that lies between myth and reality, where she will find betrayal, conspiracies, and revelations that will shatter all she believes about herself and the city she claims as home. When the Hunt is on, the Hound must run .

A radical transformation of the world through sentient nanotechnology has taken place. Things all look the same, but now people are able to read each others' minds. Travel to and from other nearby worlds in the quantum universe has become possible. Giant humanoids from another continuum take this opportunity to visit - and then to settle in and take over.

Retrieval Artist Miles Flint is on a personal mission - to bring down the corrupt law firm of Wagner, Stuart, and Xender. Then a journalist working with him is murdered, and Miles may be next. But before he can begin to investigate, he has a more personal crisis to deal with - his daughter Talia is missing. Talia - one of six clones of Miles' long-dead child - has gone off to find the other five. As Miles pursues her, he begins to fear that her search for her 'sisters' and his for the killer are on a collision course.

From many miles away, Rudolfo, Lord of the Nine Forest Houses, sees the horrifying column of smoke rising from destroyed Windwir, the sign that war comes to the Named Lands. Nearer to the Devastation, a young apprentice is the only survivor of the city - he sat waiting for his father outside the walls, and was transformed as he watched everyone he knew die in an instant. Soon all the Kingdoms of the Named Lands will be at each others' throats, as alliances are challenged and hidden plots are uncovered.

Stella Cody has discovered a crystal skull of exquisite beauty that has been hidden for four centuries. She also gains its legacy of dark secrets, intrigue, and murder. Stella and her lover, Kit, struggle to crack the code in which the skull's intended hiding place is locked. Their search takes them from Cambridge University to England's prehistoric stone circles. But time is against them, and they have only hours left to uncover the secret that may save the world.

Myra, Jake believes, is a bad influence on his brother. He doesn't realize how bad. Myra is a Lamia whose program of seduction, enslavement and recruitment has most of Rockville TN under her thumb. Only one man stands between her and complete victory.

The benevolent Arisians and the malevolent Eddoreans have chosen the tiny, remote, backward planet Earth for their titanic battle for control of the Universe.

Set in the same parallel world as THE SKY PEOPLE. Jeremy Wainman is an archaeologist who has achieved a lifelong dream; to travel to Mars and explore the dead cities of the Deep Beyond, searching for the secrets of the Kings Beneath the Mountain and the fallen empire they ruled. He does not realize that the Martian mercenary hired as guide is linked to the intrigues of Dvor il-Adazar, the City That Is A Mountain, where the last aging descendant of the Tollamune Emperors clings to the remnants of his power...and secrets that may trace their origin to the enigmatic Ancients, the Lords of Creation who reshaped the Solar System in the time of the dinosaurs.

Already the alpha pair of Denver's werewolf pack, Kitty and Ben plan to tie the knot human-style by eloping in Vegas. Kitty is looking forward to sipping drinks by the pool and doing her popular radio show on live TV, but her hotel is stocked with werewolf-hating bounty hunters. Elsewhere on the Strip, an old-school magician might be wielding the real thing; the vampire community is harboring a dark secret; and the irresistible star of a suspicious animal act is determined to seduce Kitty. Sin City has never been so wild, and this werewolf has never had to fight harder to save not only her wedding, but her life.

Werecat Faythe Sanders must defend herself against the accusation that she infected her ex-boyfriend and murdered him to cover up the crime. As her trial for her life unfolds, she finds herself mired in the political infighting and backstabbing among the Alphas empanelled to judge her.

Skylan Ivorson, a sea-raider of the Vindras rises to become Chief of Chiefs of all Vindras clans. But his people's ancient gods are under siege from a new generation of gods who are challenging them for the powers of creation. It will be up to the Vindras to find the mysterious and hidden Five Bones of the Vektan Dragons that will stop these brash interlopers.

The mysterious insurgent group Autumn Rain claims responsiblity when the Phoenix Space Elevator is destroyed. Armies and espionage teams mobilize across the globe and beyond, and superpowers move to the brink of war. Two US counterintelligence agents and former lovers (although these memories may just be constructs implanted by their spymaster) are among those moving among the intrigues and shifting loyalties, converging on an explosive revelation. Recommended.

Dagmar is a game designer trapped in Jakarta in the middle of a revolution. The city is tearing itself apart around her and she needs to get out. Caught between the dangerous worlds of the Russian Mafia and international finance, Dagmar must draw on all her resources - not least millions of online gamers - to track down a killer.

A subterranean world of vast caverns, underground seas, crystalline forests. A civilization born of darkness, in darkness, protected by shadows. A city of merchants, whose eyes have turned upward to the surface, where the lethal light of day beats down on their world. A conspiracy so vast that it will swallow them all...

To stop a ravenous army of zombies, vampire detective Felix Gomez must team up with a precocious teen with clairvoyant powers, but her cooperation comes at a price: she won't help unless Felix makes her a vampire -- if the zombies don't get her first.

A month of shooting an episode of Chasing History's Monsters in Australia is nothing but tedium for Annja -- until she sees the drop of blood that is all that is left of her cameraman. What had he photographed that was so sensitive?

Tempted by rumours of a more prosperous land than the Deathlands somewhere down in Mexico, Cawdor and his band sail into the surreal world of Veracruz, where though electric lights blaze Ryan is marked for ritual slaughter and his friends are at the mercy of biowarfare scientists.

Calliope Reaper-Jones so just wanted a normal life: buying designer shoes on sale, dating guys from Craig's List, web-surfing for organic dim-sum for her boss... But when her father - who happens to be Death himself - is kidnapped, and the Devil's Protege embarks on a hostile takeover of the family business, Death, Inc., Callie returns home to assume the CEO mantle - only to discover she must complete three nearly impossible tasks in the realm of the afterlife first.

The invitation is signed "Jaenelle Angeline," and it summons her family to a special soiree. But when her guests enter the house, they find themselves trapped in a living nightmare created by the Black Widow witches - and if they try to use Craft as protection they risk being sealed in the house forever. But Jaenelle did not send the invitaion. and now she and the rest of her family must rescue the others inside, and then find out who has created such a place, and why.

Dena Nehele is a land decimated by its past. Once it was ruled by corrupt Queens who were wiped out when the land was cleansed of tainted Blood. Now, only one hundred Warlord Princes stand - without a leader and without hope. Theran Grayhaven is the last of his line, desperate to find the key that reveals a treasure great enough to restore Dena Nehele. But first he needs to find a Queen who remembers the Blood's code of honor and lives by the Old Ways. The woman chosen to rule Dena Nehele, Lady Cassidy, is not beautiful and he believes she is not strong. But she may be the only one able to convince bitter men to serve once again.

As darkness falls each night, the corelings rise - demons who well up from the ground like hellish steam. They possess supernatural strength and powers and burn with a consuming hatred of humanity, slowly culling the human herd that shelters behind magical wards-symbols of power whose origins are lost in myth and mystery. Now, with hope for the future fading, three young survivors of vicious demon attacks will dare the impossible, stepping beyond the crumbling safety of the wards to risk everything in a desperate quest to regain the secrets of the past.

Beautiful Averil is now the Duchess of Quitaine, but to keep her people safe, she made a vow to the traitor King of Lys. Averil must produce an heir - not only to Quitaine, but also to all of Lys; for she is the only daughter of the King's sister, and he has no wife or child of his own. But Averil's heart is in the keeping of a powerful young Knight of the Rose, Gereint, a man she can never marry. When Averil learns that the King is building a fleet to attack the Ladies of the Isle, she rebels against her sworn duty, and flees to Gereint's side.

Averil, once hunted across the land and sea by her uncle the king, is now the Queen of Lys. But if she cannot defy and defeat her late uncle's sorcerous masters, she will never live to be crowned.

Harry Dresden's life finally seems to be calming down, until a shadow from the past returns. Mab, monarch of the Sidhe Winter Court, calls in an old favour from Harry. One small favour that will trap him between a nightmarish foe, and an equally deadly ally, that will strain his skills and loyalties to their very limits.

Diplomatic Corps Prosecutor, Andrea Cort is summoned to the home world of the death merchant Bettelhines. But she finds herself trapped at the orbital entry port, surrounded by suspicious Bettelhines, their slavishly loyal retainers - and a corpse liquefied by a 15,000 year old weapon.

An alien race known as the Kethani come to Earth bearing a dubious but amazing gift: immortality. Each chapter is an episode that deals with human emotions in the face of the vast consequences of the alien arrival, and how the lives of a group of friends are changed.

Young Brigid Rourke, an Irish nun, comes to post-Civil War Savannah. Her resolve to put aside her people's pagan ways is tested when a prominent Savannah citizen is cruelly murdered behind a locked and bolted door in an insane asylum. The last words of the man chilled the blood of all who heard him, and the fact that he was murdered while he was alone in the cell defies all logical reason. What follows is nothing less than an amazing clash between the forces of good and evil - dedicated white magicians versus the entrenched devil worshippers - for the soul of a city.

Here are nineteen original stories of myth, magic, and the creatures of fantasy, as seen through different historical eras - from the Age of Antiquity to the Age of Sails, the Colonial Age, the Age of Pioneers, the Pre-Modern Age, and the Age to come.

In 1636 the last blood sorceress was burned at the stake. Now, more than two centuries later, her servant Jax has found her successor. Amanusa uses the art she is taught to take vengeance on those who've harmed her and then must flee with Jax across a devastated Europe, through zones where everything has died, zones populated by strange creatures cobbled together of things left behind by the dead.

On the Day of the Dead, the Solona Music Hall is jumping. That's where Altagracia Quintero - her friends call her Grace - meets John Burns, just two weeks too late. Grace works at Sanchez Motorworks, customizing hot rods. A few blocks around the Alverson Arms is her whole world. Grace loves John, and John loves her, but both have unfinished business. And before their relationship can find its resolution, the two of them will have to teach each other about life and love, about hot rods and Elvis Presley, and about why it's necessary to let some things go.

Sequel to THE ALCHEMIST'S APPRENTICE. The alchemist Maestro Nostradamus is hired by Venice's ruling Council of Ten to find a foreign spy. All they can offer as clues are the spy's intercepted, encrypted messages. Soon Nostradamus realizes that occult forces are at work, and he turns to his apprentice, the young swordsman Alfeo Zeno, for assistance. Recommended.

Hampered by arthritis, Nostradamus is in no mood for granting favours or running about looking for trouble. But when his apprentice Alfeo's mistress asks him to investigate the murder of her beloved courtesan mentor-and promises a fortune in payment-he comes around. It appears that someone is murdering the courtesans of Venice. All were well-known, admired for their skills-and somehow connected by a sinister event involving one of the great families of the city. While Nostradamus attempts to use the dark arts to solve riddles which confound explanation, Alfeo finds himself led by a possibly demonic force through a maze of deceit and death. And when the master and apprentice come to the end of their intertwined paths, there may be hell to pay.

The second novel in the "Nessantico Cycle" continues the epic tale of an empire at its height, yet poised on the brink of what could be a devastating descent into ruin. It is a story of murder and magic, of deception and betrayal, of Machiavellian politics, star-crossed lovers, and a realm facing war on every front.

Pug and the Conclave of Shadows, traveling undercover among the bloodthirsty and ruthless Dasati, have encountered Bek, a disturbing young stranger whose secrets may prove more important than Pug knows. Back in Midkemia, as the young warriors Tad, Zane, and their friends protect the Kingdom from raiders, Miranda finds herself a prisoner of the Dasati, and, even more ominously, of Pug's nemesis, the evil sorcerer Leso Varen.

All the world's technology comes to a stop overnight. Looting, food riots and insurrection engulfs the globe as the End Time descends. A small mountain village in the American South is humanity's last hope.

Wren Valere and Sergei team up again in a new mission that sends them to Italy in search of a possessed parchment.

The non-human population of Manhattan is getting fed up with being ignored and abused. The Council has an agenda of its own, and it's not one the lonejacks are going to like. And Sergei is far too involved with the Silence, his former employers, for Wren's liking.

Charmian is the daughter of Pharoah Ptomlemy Auletes and a slave girl and half sister to Queen Cleopatra. But she is also an eternal oracle, gifted with ancient memories that may hold the key to preserving Egypt.

Having been drawn into a fantasy world of his own creation, Rod Everlar continues his quest to defeat the corruption he has discovered within. Arch Wizard displays all the hallmarks of Ed's reputation for creating a richly realized fantasy setting, and characters that shine.

One mystery remains hidden to the technology that has transformed the future. What is it that hides within the Void - the area of space from which amazing dreams are being projected, allowing people to experience a reality never before imagined? In the world of JUDAS UNCHAINED.

Rachel Morgan, kick-ass witch and bounty hunter, has taken her fair share of hits, and has broken lines she swore she would never cross. But when her lover was murdered, it left a deeper wound than Rachel ever imagined, and now she won't rest until his death is solved - and avenged. Whatever the cost. Yet the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and when a new predator moves to the apex of the Inderlander food chain, Rachel's past comes back to haunt her. Literally.

Madeline Keye's gift - to touch someone and see flashes of the past - has set her apart from family and friends. She finds sanctuary in the wilderness, until a backcountry hike in Glacier National Park turns into a hunt - with her as the prey. Because something that's not human is out there. And it's hungry.

Nocturne City police officer Luna Wilder becomes involved with the leader of a band of shapeshifters made of smoke and shadow who drink the blood of their victims for strength. Since Dmitri is suffering from a demon bite and doing poorly she'll have to rely on this new guy to defeat an invisible, serial were-killer.

Revenge won't bring your wife and kids back, but it might help with the nightmares. Patricio Carrera has been waging a private war to bring to justice the murderers of his family. He's raised an army and airforce and a naval fleet. He's tracked his enemies across half a world. Now his legions deploy to Pashtia, hideout of the Salafi Ikhwan, who made him what he has become. Revenge is a dish best served cold. Yet the trail itself grows cold in the snow-capped alien mountains of Pashtia. Only Carrera's hate still burns hot, and that's a fire slowly consuming him.

Paolina Barthes is a young woman of remarkable intellectual ability - a genius on the level of Isaac Newton. But she has grown up in isolation, in a small village of shipwreck survivors, on the Wall in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. She knows little of the world, but she knows that England rules it, and must be the home of people who possess the learning that she so desperately wants. And so she sets off to make her way, not knowing that she will bring her astounding, unschooled talent for sorcery to the attention of those deadly factions who would use or kill her for it.

Two families go for a weekend camping trip in the California mountains. But they encounter a violent psychopath and his mother, a powerful witch. This has become such a problem in California state parks that they now have special witch-and-psychopath-proof garbage receptacles installed.

Lord Altimere is the Queen's most trusted advisor - and, if his plans succeed, her consort as well. He has abducted a human, Rebecca Beauvelley, middle child of the Earl of Barimuir. He uses his powers to force her into affairs with Fey Lords in order to rob them of their power - until the Lady Sian discovers her and frees her of Altimere's compulsion. Unfortunately, even now that both the Queen and Lady Sian know of Lord Altimere's plot, he has grown too powerful for any one of the Fey to bring to justice.

Void City strip club owner Eric Courtney has become a ghost vampire after an explosion destroyed his place of business. His wife Marilyn is about to explain how he was betrayed but the demon J'iliol'lth takes her soul off before she can. Worse, his beloved Mustang has also been turned into a vampire. Not the tires, though.

Two traverse oriental realms of splendour, magic and conflict -- one a beautiful woman warrior, the other a grim demigod. They seek to confront the force that holds a supernatural blade which is key to enlightenment and immortality.

Baltimore detective Joe Ledger has just been secretly recruited by the government -- there's a problem that Homeland Security can't handle. Zombies. Terrorists now have a bioweapon that turns ordinary Americans into zombies. Joe, apparently, can tell the difference.

Tristopolitan police lieutenant Donal Riordan lost the woman he loved even as her ultimate sacrifice saved his life. Now a zombie he lives to avenge her murder. And it is the leader of a secret cabal with a stranglehold on the city's elite to whom he wishes to bring his vengeance.

Rhennthyl is the son of a leading wool merchant in L'Excelsis who has spent years becoming a journeyman artist. He is two years away from becoming a master artisan when his master patron is killed in a flash fire, and Rhenn discovers he is an imager - one of the very few who can visualize things and make them real. He must leave his family and join the Collegium of Imagisle where every day will bring a new threat to his life. He makes a powerful enemy while righting a wrong, and begins to learn to do magic in secret.

Rahl was a young apprentice on the island of Recluce sent to the mage training school for testing, then banished to Hamor. His education now continues under dangerous circumstances. In Hamor, his powers have increased, but so has the amount of trouble he attracts. Rahl is a mage now, powerful and still just as dangerous to himself and to others. The whole society of Hamor is a new culture for him to explore, one in which magic is a monopoly of the state. This is the story of how he gains both more knowledge and power, and more self-control.

After finding out that she is the lost princess of Roumania and the mythical White Tyger, Miranda's fate is still uncertain. The ghosts of her enemies cluster about her, the insane spirit of the Baroness takes possession of her body for a time, and demons released by her mother are abroad. And through it all her heart calls out to Peter, away with the army, whom she has come to love, and her best friend Andromeda, sworn to help her and protect her. There are no easy answers; it all looks impossible. Any hope may lie in the hidden world of spirits, where death is but an inconvenience.

Millions of fish are dying off the coast of Hawaii. And something is destroying hundreds of ships. The government enlists the flock to help get to the bottom of the disaster.

FBI Special Agent Heather Wallace has been tracking a sadistic serial murderer known as the Cross Country Killer, and the trail has led her to New Orleans, Club Hell, and rock musician Dante. Digging into his past for answers reveals little. A juvenile record a mile long. No social security number. No known birth date. In and out of foster homes for most of his life before being taken in by a man named Lucien DeNoir, who appears to guard mysteries of his own. What is his link to the killer? And why does he claim to be a vampire?

As Marla, Felport's chief sorcerer, attempts to train an apprentice oracle whose magical wires have gotten crossed, her brother Jason is setting up an elaborate sting. His patsy is a filthy-rich wannabe mage and his bait is something so valuable, so dangerous, so sought after, it probably doesn't exist. The scheme goes awry when it turns that it does exist -- and has drawn a devotee of the mushroom god to bring a fungal apocalypse upon the city.

In 1946 Stalin gathers the top SF authors in the country. Since he believes the defeat of the US is imminent, he needs a new, external threat. The writers write the threat - and then the project is dropped. Forgotten. Until it starts to come true.

Four kids liberate an evil force from the well in which it was trapped. The force then proceeds to terrorize their small farming community.

Things get hairy for a Manhattan veterinarian when she discovers her estranged husband has become a werewolf.

Silverberg's first novel, printed in 1957 and never re-printed since.

An admiral with a secret past leads a gang of rebels - including the one woman who can rattle his cool - against an oppressive imperial force. SF romance.

Recovering con artist Ciara Griffin uses her talents to preserve a nest of vampire disk jockeys endangered by a corporate takeover. However her con enrages a posse of ancient and powerful vampires who aren't so eager to be brought into the light. Soon the stakes are higher - and the perils graver - than any con game Ciara's ever played.

Drawn to the ancient city of Merafi, yet barred from entering by an ancient pact sealed in blood, ghosts and other malevolent spirits await their opportunity to break through the magical border. As a priestess and prince weave a sorcerous plot to shatter the pact, only a failed assassin-priest who is now a courtesan, a noble lord married into the ruling family of Merafi, an officer of the city guard, a woman warrior who was the former lover of a now-dead lord, and the ghost of that lord himself stand between Merafi and the tidal wave of magic that may soon bring ruin down on the ciy.

Since being expelled from the Union Astronautica space fleet, Jules Truffant isn't having the best of luck. His first attempt at starting a new life lands him in prison on the colony world of Coyote. But now, instead of being deported back to Earth, he's offered another chance to get his act together - on a diplomatic mission that puts him squarely in the path of a black hole.

The planet of Coyote has become the last, best hope of humankind, but it has also become the principal point of contact with the "hjadd," the alien race encountered by a European starship many years earlier. Although the "hjadd" have built an embassy near the original colony, they remain a mystery. And as the colonists make preparations to explore the rest of the new world, ex-convict Hawk Thompson discovers more about the "hjadd" than anyone has learned before - and his knowledge will change human history.

Three identical clone sisters have, together, the talents desperately needed to save a world suffering from climate change, runaway pollution and uncontrolled political maneuvering. Too bad their explosive family history has them hating one another.

It's been 737 days since the Department of Extraordinary Affairs' last vampire incursion, but that streak appears to have ended when a boat full of dead lawyers is found in the Hudson River. Using the power of psychometry - the ability to divine the history of an object by touching it - agent Simon Canderous discovers that the booze cruise was crashed by something that sucked all the blood out of the litigators. Now, his workday may never end - until his life does.

Time is running out. Mauritaine and his companions are forced to cross the Contested Lands, a wasteland infected with the dire magical fallout from ancient wars, and will need to succeed against the mounted patrols, brigands, and the traitor hidden among them.

It has been nearly 200 years since the collapse of the Confederacy, the last government to claim humanity's colonies. So when signals come in revealing lost human colonies that could shift the power balance, the race is on between the Caliphate ships and a small team of scientists and mercenaries. But what awaits them is a threat far beyond the scope of any human government.

It was one day that changed the course of history for the Solar System. The critical events which were the breaking point for the underclass of Martian citizens and precipitated a revolution to break the Martian colonists free from the formidable Sol System government. From hand-to-hand combat to piloted armored mecha suits clashing to an enormous space battle, with dedicated heroes on both sides of the conflict wondering if they were doing the right thing-and if they would live to see another day.

Half-human Cal Leandros and his brother Niko are hired by the vampire Seamus to find out who has been following him - until Seamus turns up dead (or un-undead). Worse still is the return of Cal's nightmarish family, the Auphe. The last time Cal and Niko faced them, they were almost wiped out. Now, the Auphe want revenge. But first, they'll destroy everything Cal holds dear.

To Palimpsest, a kingdom of ghost trains, lion-priests, living kanji, and cream-filled canals come four travelers: Oleg, a New York locksmith; the beekeeper November; Ludovico, a binder of rare books; and a young Japanese woman named Sei. They've each lost something important - a wife, a lover, a sister, a direction in life - and what they will find in Palimpsest is more than they could ever imagine.

A sadistic cult of lycanthropes and their vampire priestess have laid a curse on Kitty in revenge for her disrupting their rituals. She enlists the help of a group of TV paranormal investigators - one of whom has real psychic abilities - to help her get to the bottom of the curse that's been laid on her.

She was born with a blessing and a curse: that she would grow into a woman of extraordinary beauty - and bring ruin to the kingdom of Ulster and its ruler, the wily Conor. Ignoring the pleadings of his druid to expel the infant, King Conor secrets the girl child with a poor couple in his province, where no man can covet her. There, under the tutelage of a shamaness, Deirdre comes of age in nature and magic.... And in the season of her awakening, the king is inexorably drawn to her impossible beauty. But for Deirdre, her fate as a man's possession is worse than death. And soon the green-eyed girl, at home in waterfall and woods, finds herself at the side of three rebellious young warriors. Among them is the handsome Naisi. His heart charged with bitterness toward the aging king, and growing in love for the defiant girl, Naisi will lead Deirdre far from Ulster - and into a war of wits, swords, and spirit that will take a lifetime to wage.

Rear Admiral Michelle Henke is given a command far away from the war's battle lines. What she didn't realize was that she would find herself on a collision course, not with a hostile government, but with the interstellar syndicate of criminals known as Manpower. And Manpower had its own plans for eliminating Manticore as a possible threat to its lucrative slave trade, deadly plans which remain hidden in the shadows.

Orphaned and left to fend for herself in the slums of Averalaan, Jewel Markess - Jay to her friends - meets an unlikely savior in Rath, a man who prowls the ruins of the undercity in search of artifacts and treasure. Nursing Jay back to health is an unusual act for a man who renounced his own family long ago, and the situation becomes stranger still when Jay begins to form a den of other rescued children in Rath's home. But worse perils lurk beneath the slums: the demons that once nearly destroyed the Essalieyan Empire are stirring again, and soon Rath and Jay will find themselves targets of these deadly and ruthless beings.

The UN needs to pacify Celadon, a poor nation on a poor planet and a haven for every type of villainy in space. They appoint a local as leader. President Bishwanath is astute, ambitious, ethical and capable, which the politicians and megacorps find inconvenient. When word comes down that he's dead, the politicians move in, reallocating resources, and finding a more pliable president to put in place. There are three problems. Bishwanath is not dead. His mercenary body guards are more loyal than the politicians. And if they're not under contract, there are no rules.

A new collection of stories, including the Stoker-winning title novelette.

Val knows that he alone must protect the Lightstone, but he is not sure he is strong enough to follow the path of righteousness. He wonders who he can trust to help him as he encounters treasonous plots and betrayal by those closest to him, evidence of Morjin's power to destroy him and take back the sacred vessel.

The third all-new collection of stories that span over 200 years of alternate STAR TREK history.

After the cataclysmic events of STAR TREK DESTINY the survivors of the holocaust continue to be tested to the limits of their endurance. But strange and mysterious occurrences are destabilizing the galaxy's battle-weary Allies even further. One man begins to understand what is truly unfolding. Sonek Pran - teacher, diplomat, and sometime adviser to the Federation President - perceives a pattern in the seeming randomness. And as each new piece of evidence falls into place, a disturbing picture encompassing half the galaxy begins to take shape.

Luke Skywalker is convinced that Darth Caedus, the Sith Lord who began life as Luke's peace-loving nephew, Jacen Solo, must be destroyed - yet he worries that his vision is tainted by his own anger, pain, and desire for revenge. Jaina Solo, Jacen's twin sister, has completed her training and now it falls to her to fulfill her destiny as "Sword of the Jedi". And so Jaina - along with her parents, Han and Leia, fellow Jedi Knight Zekk, and old friend Jag - heads right into the lion's den to confront the horrific tyrant who was once her twin brother.

A tiny trading vessel and its decrepit captain are the only hope of rescue for a group from Tethyr, vanished from the remote island of Chult they'd come to colonize.

After an order to withdraw Imperial troops from the ice world of Cressida, a band of Valhallan Ice Warriors are sent on a rescue mission to find a stranded Imperial dignitary and bring him off-planet to safety. But the occupying Chaos forces are everywhere and, the longer the soldiers spend on Cressida, the greater chance of them being afflicted by the dark powers at work there.

60 thousand light years from Earth the corrupt Terran Confedaracy holds the Koprulu sector in its tyrannic grip, opposed by one man only -- Arcturus Mengsk.

Born of the fallout from mythic wars fought among the Grecian gods and their mortal worshippers, Diana, warrior princess of the Amazon island nation of Themyscira, now battles injustice as Wonder Woman. She will now face her supreme test as her will and powers are pitted against those of the malicious War God Ares.

Klingon Defense Forces occupy Organia, a planet of avowed pacifists. Kirk and Spock, disguised as traders, sabotage Klingon materials. The Klingons, in retaliation, execute many Organians. However, instead, of rising up in rage and exterminating their oppressors, the savages persist in their folly.

Passed over to succeed as king, elf general Malekith is wracked by jealousy and bitterness. Under the pretence of rooting out the pernicious cult of pleasure that is corrupting elf society from within, Malekith plots his revenge. When he betrays Phoenix King Bel-Shanaar and attempts to seize power for himself, Malekith triggers a tragic sequence of events that plunges the realm of the elves into a civil war from which they will never recover.

CYLON'S SECRET (Craig Shaw Gardner, SAGITTARIUS IS BLEEDING (Peter David) and UNITY (Steven Harper) in one volume.

The leader of the Silvanesti dies, leaving his twin sons to promote very different course for the elves they lead equally. Other nations see only weakness in the elves, and the brothers cannot lay aside their own differences to lead their people when a bitter territory war begins. It becomes a war of elf against elf, of isolation versus connection, until Kith-Kanan and his followers found the homeland of Qualinost. But their troubles do not stop there.

Following the loss of the Stargazer Picard turns to archaeology and embarks on a quest to rediscover a buried age of ancient galactic history - and awakens a living survivor of that era. He unthaws a striking, mysterious woman frozen in time since before the rise of Earth's dinosaurs. But this powerful immortal has a secret of cataclysmic proportions.

A powerful undead sorcerer reigns in Thay over a frightened people and hordes of undead. The mageocracy in exile, masters of no more than their beaten army, watch from distant shores as the new King of Thay prepares a great magical ritual - a ritual they cannot allow him to bring to completion.

Voracious extraterrestrial invaders, known as the Chimera, take out Russia and then, in 1949, pour into Europe. The luckiest humans died. The less fortunate succumbed to an alien virus-and changed. After Europe falls they attack America. Their lightning strikes on American borders are devastating. Cities are lost. Small towns overrun. Citizens transformed into monstrosities. Enter Lieutenant Nathan Hale, U.S. Ranger.

Omnibus edition of the three Florin and Lorenzo novels: The Burning Shore, Wild Kingdoms and Savage City plus two short stories set in the old world of Warhammer Fantasy battle.

Stephen King revisits five of his favorite short stories that have been turned into films: "The Shawshank Redemption" (based on the novella "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption"); "1408"; the short story "Children of the Corn" was adapted into "Children of the Corn"; "The Mangler" was inspired by King's loathing for laundry machines from his own experience working in a laundromat; "Hearts in Atlantis" was based on "Low Men in Yellow Coats," the first part of the novel "Hearts in Atlantis". This collection features new commentary and introductions to all of these stories.

The sequel to SCOURGE THE HERETIC follows an Inquisitor and his retinue as they search out heretics in the name of the emperor.

After years of waiting in the shadows, Darth Sidious is taking the first step in his master plan to bring the Republic to its knees. Key to his scheme are the Neimoidians of the Trade Federation. Then one of his Neimoidian contacts disappears, and Sidious does not need his Force-honed instincts to suspect betrayal. He orders his apprentice, Darth Maul, to hunt the traitor down. But he is too late. The secret has already passed into the hands of information broker Lorn Pavan, which places him right on the top of Darth Maul's hit list.

When strange anomalies in time start to appear Professor Cutter and his team have to help track down and capture a multitude of dangerous prehistoric creatures from Earth's distant past - and distant future.

Captain James T. Kirk is dead, lost during the launch of the U.S.S. Enterprise-B. This came just as Mestiko had risen from near-destruction to comtemplating membership in the Federation. The surviving crew of the Starship Enterprise gather together on this strife-born world world one last time as its future hangs in the balance.

In the grim Warhammer 40,000 universe, an armoured company is sent to recover a long-lost battle tank from a planet overrrun with orks. By Rebel Winter author, Steve Parker.

The Blood Ravens Space Marines begin a new series in this tie-in to THQ's Dawn of War 2 computer game.

Three wizards are sent on an easy quest to find the leader of the renegade wizards, a man named Berthal. But what started out easy turns into betrayal -- magic against sorcery, the wizards against each other, and Tythonnia of the Red Robes against herself.

Human and elf adventurers join forces with the armies of the Empire to turn back an invasion by the forces of Chaos.

Judgment Day has come to pass and Skynet has destroyed much of the world's population. In this post-apocalyptic world, the resistance, led by John Connor, continues its brutal fight for survival.