A mix of technology and magic. Mercenary Kate Daniels cleans up urban problems of a paranormal kind. But her latest prey, a pack of undead warriors, presents her greatest challenge. Recommended.

Riley, a rare hybrid of vampire and werewolf, pursues an unknown killer who has been using a steamy Melbourne nightspot as his hunting grounds. Her ticket into the heavily guarded club is a deliciously hot-bodied bartender who might just provide the key to unmasking a killer unlike any other in the Directorate's experience.

Dark family secrets swirl as the Woprud family ponders an offer from a US corporation for their wildly successful board and computer game known as Empire. Young renegade Alban, who has been evading the family tentacles for the last few years, has other things on his mind. What drove his mother to take her own life? And is he over Sophie, his bewitching cousin and teenage love?

The Empress of Estorea, young and idealistic, has inherited a large and powerful realm. She hopes to introduce a golden age. But her plans meet with resistance, dissent and betrayal - both in the outer provinces and in her own court. And it is just now that centuries of selective breeding bear fruit and four children with magical powers are born. And an Empire is about to fall.

A detective-cum-stage magician and his silent sidekick attempt to foil a religious cult's attempt to bring down the British Empire.

Giraut Leones, a special agent for the human Thousand Cultures Office of Special Plans, has been made a target. His return to his native Nou Occitan will bring him up against violence and treachery from both human and artificial consciousnesses.

In the city of Maras-Sund, magic has been outlawed. Yet there are children being born with raw magical talent - and there are those who would rally behind them to rebel against their hated overlords. Issel, a young water-seller from the poorest part of town, may have the talent that holds the key to his people's salvation.

Issel has an ability to manipulate water - which he will use to free his people. He finds an ally in Jendre, the daughter of a general in Maras's army, and a woman with her own vendetta against the regime. Her sister is held captive, along with others whose life essences power the magical bridge between her land and Sund. Her plan: to help Issel enter the palace and break the spell.

A final confrontation between old and new, between tryannical magic and freedom, and between an empire and a growing nation-state that will determine the fate of millions - and not least the brave band of colonists who set out from Hamilay to settle Kydan with courage and hope in their hearts.

Professional wizard Harry Dresden is investigating a series of deaths in Chicago. Someone is killing practitioners of magic, those incapable of becoming full-fledged wizards. Shockingly, all the evidence points to Harry's half-brother, Thomas, as the murderer. Determined to clear his sibling's name, Harry uncovers a conspiracy within the White Council of Wizards that threatens not only him, but his nearest and dearest, too...

Claire has her share of challenges. Like being a genius in a school that favors beauty over brains; homicidal girls in her dorm, and finding out that her college town is overrun with the living dead. On the up side, she has a new boyfriend with a vampire-hunting dad. But when a local fraternity throws the Dead Girls' Dance, hell is really going to break loose.

Clairvoyant Cassie Plamer has inherited new magical powers - including the ability to travel through time. But it's a whole lot of responsibility she'd rather not have. Now she's the most popular girl in town, as an assortment of vamps, fey, and mages try to convince, force, or seduce her - and her magic - over to their side. But one particular master vampire didn't ask what Cassie wanted before putting a claim on her. He had a spell cast that binds her to him, and now she doesn't know if what she feels for him is real - or imagined...

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.

[Vancouver author]. Zarq's difficulties - undergoing the rigorous training of an apprentice dragonmaster in defiance of Dragon Temple scripture - pale in comparison to her craving for the hallucinogenic dragon venom and her desire to understand the dragons themselves. The Temple also wants the secrets that Zarq possesses - and will starve and torture her to get them.

Zarq journeys deep into the jungle in search of an ancient dragon secret that would give her the power to overthrow both Kratt and the corrupt Dragon Temple. She has taken with her some of the female dragons from her own estate, and in the jungle she will once again risk the dragons' highly addictive, hallucinogenic venom.

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.

Science fiction's most expert dreamers envision the computerized, high-risk games of the future in this winning collection. Features Robert Sheckley, Cory Doctorow, Kate Wilhelm, Alastair Reynolds, Vernor Vinge, Jonathan Letham, Gwyneth Jones, William Browning Spencer, Allen Steele, Terry Dowling, and Jason Stoddard.

At the beginning of the Cold War the Citadel was constructed beneath the Antarctic Ice to house a doomsday weapon. Now, six decades later, Captain Jim Vaughn must now lead his Section 8 misfits into the unknown to diffuse a nightmare of astronomical proportions.

The CROWN OF ISLES trilogy will conclude the LORD OF THE ISLES series. To bring the new kingdom of the Isles into existence, our group of heroes and heroines must fight their way back to the same time and place to combat the mysterious Green Woman of the Fortress of Glass.

Mauled and now cut adrift by the Malazan Empire, Tavore and her 14th army have landed on the coast of a strange, unknown continent. They find themselves facing the Tiste Edur, a nightmarish empire pledged to serve the Crippled God.

Aidan Savage, an ancient and myserious Carpathian, appears from the darkness when Alexandria Houton encounters evil in San Francisco. Is he a saviour or a monster? Either way, Alex falls under his unearthly and seductive spell.

Pug, disturbed by a nightmare that portends destruction for all of Midkemia calls for the Conclave of Shadows to be convened. Unknown to Pug his son Magnus has already discovered the cause of the dream: a beacon has been unleashed, directing a vast army of alien invaders to Midkemia. Meanwhile the mysterious Conclave sends two young Stardock boys deep into the heart of the Empire of Great Kesh, to confront a plot hatched by the clan of assassins known as the Nighthawks. And Pug will find himself once again facing the evil wizard formerly known as Sidi, now Leso Varen.

Pug and the Conclave of Shadows must journey to the Dasati home world to prevent an invasion of both Kelewan and Midkemia by hordes of the vicious assassins.

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.

The sequel to the classic LIVE GIRLS. Davey Owen destroyed a circle of vampires nearly 20 years ago. Some survived and have been hunting him ever since, intent on payback. They are not - apparently - inclined to forgive.

After victories at Gettysburg and Union Mills, Lee's attempt to end the war by attacking Washington, D.C., fails. However, the Union Army of the Potomac has been destroyed. Pursuing the remnants up to the banks of the Susquehanna, Lee is caught off balance when news arrives that General Ulysses S. Grant, in command of more than seventy thousand men, has crossed that same river, a hundred miles to the northwest at Harrisburg.

Stakes are raised when the fiancee of New England lawyer Oliver Bascombe goes missing across the Veil, where she has now become one of the Lost and can never return.

Garlic cloves and wooden stakes are no match for centuries of the undead's mischief and seduction. Here are thirteen original and imaginative stories that reveal the vampiric truths behind certain historical happenings.

The lure of vampire politics begins to pale for federal marshal/vampire hunter Anita Blake as she gets caught up in that ancient, ordinary dread shared by women down the ages: she may be pregnant.

Sequel to PANDORA'S STAR. The Prime, a predatory alien species unleashed by the Intersolar Commonwealth while it was investigating a disappearing star, is not the only threat to be met. A shadowy cult, the Guardians of Selfhood, has warned that an alien with mind-control abilities impossible to detect or resist - the Starflyer - has secretly infiltrated the Commonwealth. Recommended.

Supernaturally gifted cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse goes to New Orleans to deal with the legacy of one of her own family and a host of potentially dangerous characters.

Sequel to THE VAMPIRE'S SEDUCTION. European vampires and American vampires are about to go to war.

Nathan's quest to collect three Grail relics before his world and all others are destroyed by witchcraft learns the truth behind the mysteries with which he's struggled.

Colin Hollinghead needs to help his father's widget-making business get back into the black. But turning to J. W. Wells & Co. (Practical and Effective Magicians, sorcerers, and Supernatural Consultants) for supernatural assistance may turn out to have been the wrong strategy.

For Caesar, the campaign against Pompey will test his military genius and his appetite for glory to their limits, as the greatest fighting machine the world has ever seen divides against itself in a bloody conflict that will set brother against brother until victory or death. But for Caesar, another kingdom beckons-a world of ancient mysteries and languid sensuality, where a beautiful, bewitching woman waits to snare his heart.

The otters of Green Isle, enslaved by wildcats, await the prophesized High Rhulain, who will lead them in battle to freedom and glory. When an injured osprey arrives at Redwall Abbey with word of these otters, young ottermaid Tiria Wildlough knows what she must do.

An accident turns interstellar travel into a trip to a parallel universe for pilot Titus Quinn and his family. Titus makes it back, without his memory or his family. His employer sends him back and he must reacquaint himself with the oppressive alien Tariq and their humanoid subordinates as he searches for his missing wife and daughter.

A young woman's claim to hold some magic of her own is the hope that feeds the unwavering resolve of an unlikely band of heroes in their stuggle against the evil that grips their land.

Kosar the thief senses that Rafe Baburn is no ordinary boy. After witnessing a madman plunder Rafe's village and murder his parents, Kosar knows the boy needs his help. And now, for a reason he cannot fathom, others are seeking the boy's destruction. Uncertain where to begin, Kosar turns to A'Meer, an ex-lover and Shantasi warrior whose people, unbeknownst to him, have been chosen to safeguard magic's return. A'Meer knows instantly that it is Rafe who bears this miracle of magic. Now Kosar and a band of unexpected allies embark on a battle to protect one special boy. For dark forces are closing in - including the Mages, who have been plotting their own triumphant return.

Artist Emma Beck returns to her southern hometown to discover the truth about her secret family history. With the help of Mike Ruhl, the contractor she's falling in love with, Emma finds that her legacy is more chilling and unexpected than she ever dreamed. Especially when she starts hearing the whispers late at night.

The thief Locke Lamora is neither a brilliant swordsman nor a true friend to the poor. He'd prefer to rely on his wits and the poor can steal their own money. Recommended.

On a trip to England, physicist Portia Harding is stalked by a heart-stoppingly handsome maniac. Theondre North is a nephilim - the son of a fallen angel - who needs Portia's help to change his fate. Problem is, Portia's down-to-earth attitude frustrates beings from both heavenly and hellish realms-and gets Theo turned into a vampire. But at least he has Portia to satisfy his newfound hungers-and possibly save his soul.

For someone who is immortal, Never Dead Ned manages to die with alarming frequency - he just has the annoying habit of rising from the grave. But this soldier might be better dead than face his latest assignment. Ogre Company is the legion's dumping ground - a motley, undisciplined group of monsters whose leaders tend to die under somewhat questionable circumstances. Ned has only six months to whip them into shape or face an even more hideous assignment, but that's not the worst of his problems. Because now that Ned has found out why he keeps returning from dead, he has to do everything he can to stay alive.

Kiera David is haunted by dark memories and terrible headaches. Both her friends and enemies are dying. At each murder scene, witnesses report seeing a woman resembling her. She can't possibly be responsible. But if she isn't - who is?

Sequel and conclusion to ILLUMINATION and THE BINDER'S ROAD. The last ragged defenders battle horrors out of nightmare, their blades no match for the monstrous onslaught. It will take more than the golden light of mages, the copper shine of touches, the silver glow of visants to stave off annihilation. It will take a harrowing passage into realms beyond death - a quest for the source of light itself.

Wayfarer Inspector Danolarian thought the huge oval thing that had fallen from the sky was a dragon's egg. When it opened, he discovered that his world was being invaded by the sorcerers from Lupan. Danolarian, an extraordinary wayfarer, organizes a resistance attack against the invincible magic of the Lupanians.

Sequel to PARADOX. Logosopher Tom Corcorigan seeks an antidote to the femtocyte toxins with which he has been poisoned. Aided by a vision from a mysterious Seer, he attempts to find his future inamorata Captain Elva Strelsthorm. She's somehow ended up downloaded into a twin sister. Tom's attempts in this direction are impeded by an invasion of the alien Dark Fire.

Charlie Asher sees a strange man in mint-green golf wear at his wife Rachel's hospital bedside, a man who claims that no one should be able to see him. But see him Charlie does, and from here on out, things get really weird. People start dropping dead around him, giant ravens perch on his building, and it seems that everywhere he goes, a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Strange names start appearing on his nightstand notepad, and before he knows it, those people end up dead, too. Yup, it seems that Charlie Asher has been recruited for a new job, an unpleasant but utterly necessary one: Death. It's a dirty job. But hey, somebody's gotta do it. Recommended.

Disillusioned Kip Dawson has won a passenger seat on one of American Space Adventure's commercial spaceflights. But a successful launch quickly morphs into chaos - a micrometeor punches through the wall of the spacecraft, leaving the radios as dead as the pilot. With nothing to do but wait for death, Kip composes his epitaph on the ship's laptop computer.

DARK PIPER and DREAD COMPANION in a single volume.

Now Eragon must travel to Ellesmera, land of the elves, for further training in the skills of the Dragon Rider: magic and swordsmanship. But chaos and betrayal plague him at every turn, and nothing is what it seems. Before long, Eragon doesn't know whom he can trust. Meanwhile, his cousin Roran must fight a new battle-one that might put Eragon in even graver danger. Recommended.

A deadly virus is descending on Las Vegas - a terrifying plague unleashed by the powerful overlord of Zodiac's dark side: Joanna Archer's father. Death reigns supreme - and Joanna stands at dead center of an epic and terrible war long foretold, the last hope of a damned world. But first she must somehow conquer the malevolence that grows all around her - and within.

2031: Denver is a police state - and a revolution waiting to happen. Jake Strait's job runs more to knocking off killers, not toppling cities. But things get hot enough in his particular corner of hell that hurtling across a toxic wasteland against an impregnable fortress looks good.

A 60-kiloton explosion destroys the University of Florida and opens an interdimensional gateway, the result of an experiment in subatomic physics. Other gateways start opening up, one of which begins to disgorge the Dreen, demonic alien invaders intent on annihilating all life on earth. Other aliens also appear, only marginally more benign, since - unless the gateways can be plugged - they will have to destroy Earth to save their own worlds from the Dreen.

Without the Panama Canal the US will be doomed to starvation and defeat after the Posleen attack. Even so, all they can spare is a handful of advanced Armored Combat Suits, rejuvenated veterans from the many decades that Panama was a virtual colony and three antiquated warships. Other than that, the Panamanians are on their own.

The land of Sancorra has been conquered by the brutal Hecari, leaving thousands homeless and in fear for their lives. Audrun and her husband Davyd have four children with another due when their farm is burned. Consulting diviners, they learn that their new child must be born in Atalanda province--a peaceful land where Audrun has family. But to get there, they will have to travel close to the sinister woodlands of Alisanos, where darkness awaits to claim those unlucky enough to be chosen. Joining a karavan for safety, the family moves ever closer to the dangerous, mystical forest. And, as they are all about to discover, Alisanos is moving ever closer to them.

Betrayal and revenge spans three generations of independent spacefarers. After the big government space agencies disappear, individuals must find their own way up, riding lines of electromagnetic force that flower into space from earth like the mighty Yggradisil of Norse myth, taking with them their baggage of enmities and hatreds.

Kvothe is a magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen. From a childhood in a troupe of traveling players he goes on to become a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city. After launching a brazen but successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic he will end as a fugitive, on the run after a king is murdered. Recommended.

As more survivors of the Black Ep are awoken from frozen sleep, disputes arise on how the new, depopulated world is to be organized.

Dr. Sarah Halifax decoded the first-ever radio transmission received from aliens. Thirty-eight years later, a second message is received and Sarah, now 87, may hold the key to deciphering this one, too . . . if she lives long enough. A wealthy industrialist offers to pay for Sarah to have a rollback - a hugely expensive experimental rejuvenation procedure. She accepts on condition that Don, her husband of sixty years, gets a rollback, too. The process works for Don, making him physically twenty-five again. But in a tragic twist, the rollback fails for Sarah, leaving her in her eighties. While Don tries to deal with his newfound youth and the suddenly vast age gap between him and his wife, Sarah struggles to do again what she'd done once before: figure out what a signal from the stars contains.

Retired from his fighting days, John Perry is now village ombudsman for a human colony on distant Huckleberry. With his wife, former Special Forces warrior Jane Sagan, he farms several acres, adjudicates local disputes, and enjoys watching his adopted daughter grow up.That is, until his and Jane's past reaches out to bring them back into the game - as leaders of a new human colony, to be peopled by settlers from all the major human worlds, for a deep political purpose that will put Perry and Sagan back in the thick of interstellar politics, betrayal, and war.

Colchester is burning and London is without hope. Amidst fire and bloody revolution Boudica must do more than lead her army in the greatest rebellion Britain has ever known - she must find healing for herself, for the land, and for Graine, her 8 year old daughter who has taken refuge on the druidic stronghold of Mona.

The hunter-killer android Cassandra finds herself involved with two young secret service troubleshooters. Soon she will learn more than she ever wanted to know about the Tanushan underground and those on the fringes.

When rebellion breaks out at the edge of the frontier, Charlie Bass and the rest of the 34th FIST are the only available backup. But what can 1000 Marines hope to accomplish when 30000 groundpounders have already failed?

The town of Merendon relies on the Innkeeper's twin daughters. Adele is a Safe-keeper - one who always keeps secrets - and Eleda is a Truth-teller - one who must always speak truth. When a the girls are 17 a handsome dancing-master and his apprentice come to stay at the inn and thus begins a chain of romance, mistaken identity and some surprising truths and falsehood.

If it was still beating. Angus MacKay has been undead for almost five hundred years and it's not often something, or someone, surprises him. Until Emma Wallace. The sight of this luscious agent from the CIA's elite Stake-Out team was enough to stop Angus in his tracks. But then he discovers that she's a vampire slayer, intent on killing the "monsters" who killed her parents. And it's Angus's job to stop her. The only good vampire is a dead vampire. It's been Emma's motto since she committed her life to the destruction of "these" things. Now Angus MacKay wants to convince her differently.

2288: Galileo, Europe's first starship, is launched to investigate an unidentified object, code-named Spindrift, which is traveling outside our solar system. The Galileo disappears soon after. 2344: The Galileo's shuttle returns to Earth carrying three survivors who haven't aged. Director General John Shillinglaw must try to find the truth in the survivors' stories of the apocalyptic alien conflict in which they had become enmeshed.

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.

Punktown: established by Earth colonists on a faraway world, a crime-ridden megalopolis peopled by countless races. There is Stake, the private detective with chameleon-like abilities he cannot control. There is his wealthy client, Fukuda, whose company mass produces life forms for labour and as playthings. There is Fukuda's beautiful teenage daughter, whose priceless one-of-a-kind living doll has been stolen. And there is the doll itself, growing in size and resentment. Meanwhile, at an abandoned apartment complex with a dark history, a tough street gang and a band of mutant squatters have been trapped inside by bioengineered life forms mindlessly bent on destroying them like an infestation of vermin. The destinies of all these individuals will converge and collide. Recommended.

Christopher Tolkien assembles from his father's manuscripts, without editorial intervention, the tale of Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, the war he waged against the lands and secret cities of the Elves, and how he, through the dragon Glaurung, laid his curse on Turin and his sister Nienor.

Civil war on Umeh - ignited by outsiders - threatens to annihilate the teeming masses of a grossly overpopulated planet. On Bezer'ej, the handful of native aquatic creatures who survived extermination must take extraordinary and terrible steps to ensure the future of their kind. Shan Frankland - once a police officer, once human, now something much more - must decide where her loyalties truly lie: among the "gethes," on a planet she once called home, or here, where a dying species presents her with a new and unexpected crisis.

After getting caught turning wolf on national television, Kitty retreats to a mountain cabin to recover and write her memoirs. But when werewolf hunter Cormac shows up with an injured Ben O'Farrell, Kitty's lawyer, slung over his shoulder, and a wolf-like creature with glowing red eyes starts sniffing around the cabin, Kitty wonders if any of them will get out of these woods alive...

Robert Gu, once a world-famous poet, is now recovering from Alzheimer's. The world that he remembers was much as we know it today, but he now encounters a much-changed world, a new information age in which the virtual and the real are a seamless continuum, layers of reality built on digital views seen by a single person or millions, depending on your choice. His attempts to cope with this new reality unwittingly involve him in a wide-ranging conspiracy. Recommended.

The Wizard Lord keeps all the world in balance. It was his duty to protect the domain from all power-hungry interlopers. It was up to the Chosen to intervene should the Wizard Lord deviate from his duty. The day has come for the Chosen to remove the Wizard Lord.

Kenneth Chinran was a youth recruited for an elite deep cover unit sent by his star nation to infiltrate Earth. He lived in deep cover for years and had a daughter. When Earth forces attack his home system, Kenneth sabotages Earth's infrastructure and billions die. The secret police on Earth discover his identity and he and his daughter are on the run.

Amelia is apparently a fourth-dimensional being; Victor is a synthetic man who can control the molecular arrangement of matter; Vanity can find secret passageways through solid walls; Colin is a psychic; Quentin is a warlock. Each power comes from a different paradigm or view of the universe. They have learned to control their strange abilities and have escaped into our world: now their true battle for survival begins.

The Hastinapura Empire has ruled the world of Isavalta for 500 years and is now threatened by the capricious ruler Emperor Chandra. Chandra's actions distress Samudra, his young brother who is entrusted with one last order of taking Princess Natharie to neighbouring Sindhu as a political trophy. Natharie is appalled by the power and brazeness of Samudra and realizes that war is ever nearer.

Bitter and merciless war is coming from the frozen north. It's bloody and dangerous and the Union army, split by politics and hamstrung by incompetence, is utterly unprepared for the slaughter that's coming. In the heat-ravaged south, the Gurkish are massing to assault the city of Dagoska, defended by Inquisitor Glokta, braced for the inevitable defeat and massacre to come, and prepared to make the Gurkish pay for every inch of land. And to the east, a small band of malefactors travel to the edge, and the end, of the world...

When Gabrielle witnesses a murder outside a club she is thrust into a realm where vampires stalk the shadows and a blood war is set to ignite. Lucan Thorne is a Breed warrior, a vampire sworn to protect his kind - and the unwitting humans existing alongside them - from the mounting threat of the Rogues. Lucan cannot risk binding himself to a mortal woman, but when Gabrielle is targeted by his enemies, he has no choice but to bring her into the dark underworld he commands.

Ancient scrolls recovered among the charred ruins of the Library of Alexandria reveal astonishing knowledge that could shatter the blueprint of world energy - and archaeologist Annja Creed finds herself an unwilling conspirator in a bid for the control of power.

Necromancer Jaime Vegas is on a television shoot in Los Angeles when weird things start to happen. Invisible hands brush her skin, unintelligible fragments of words are whispered into her ears, and beings move just at the corner of her eye - she knows what humans mean when they talk about being haunted. As she digs into the dark underside of Los Angeles, she'll need as much Otherworld help as she can get in order to survive, calling on her personal angel, Eve, and Hope, the well-meaning chaos demon. Jeremy, the alpha werewolf, is also by her side offering protection. And, Jaime hopes, maybe a little more than that.

Buried deep in the Mayan jungle amidst a civilization of lost survivors and emissaries of the dead is an artifact that hides secrets to the prize - planet Earth. Kane and the rebels have just one chance to stop a rogue Overlord from seizing glory - but to stop him must face an old enemy.

2252. Disaster in deep space strikes the passenger ship that Judy is on. Almost too conveniently, strange machines appear onboard just in time to help. The machines, owned by the corporation DIANA, take the humans to safety - except Judy. A scan of her genetic code has told the machines that not only is she not human, she's DIANA's property. She is returned to Earth where she will learn what DIANA expects of her - how she was grown - and why she was destined to destroy the Watcher, the AI that provides the planet with surveillance. But is this Judy even the same person?

Valen, struggling with the addiction known as doulon sickness, has been hiding from his sorcerous family for a dozen years. He possesses his grandfather's book, Maps of the Known World. The monks of Gillarine Abbey, hoping he can gain access to its magic, give him sanctuary. Valen must somehow solve its mysteries - his whole world is at stake.

One of a more benign type of Philadelphia vampire has nevertheless gone rogue and plans to attack a vampire in Baltimore. Hannah, a human PI sent to find and stop the rogue, find him but falls in love. Well, before you know it, she's a vampire too.

Young Fawn Bluefield, fleeing her family's farm, encounters a patrol of Lakewalkers, enigmatic soldier-sorcerers from the woodland culture to the north led by Dag, an older one-handed patroller. When Fawn is kidnapped by the malice Dag's patrol is tracking, Dag races to rescue her. But in the ensuing struggle it is Fawn who kills the creature using Dag's uncanny knife - at dire cost - and their two fates are bound together. And so now the misenchanted knife must be returned to the Lakewalkers.

Imriel, a prince of Terre d'Ange, has inherited the gift to inflict exquisite pain and cruelty and the power to discern the fault lines in the souls of others. Surrounded by enemies who would gladly see him dead, he strives to obey blessed Elua's precept of love. Begins a new Kushiel trilogy.

With their last near-death investigation behind them, Detective David Rodriguez and reporter Mari Kinsella must take on another bizarre case - this time a NYC killer who seems to be from another time and place.

One minute beauty salon owner Caitlyn James is out with her sorority sisters; the next, there's a terrible accident and suddenly Caitlyn's waking up in some weird clinic as a human cyborg and told to use her superhuman bionic powers to uncover the identity of a serial killer.

Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor has a birthday coming up and so is just not in the right frame of mind to face the powerful European vampires who have come to pay their respects.

Arnold Hawley, a gay African American poet, has lived in New York's Lower East Side for most of his adult life. Hawley's life is traced in reverse order, moving back and forth in time.

THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE, THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH, DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SLEEP and UBIK.

Graham Smith and Annalise Mercado see and hear things other people can't. Their lives are fragmented across alternate realities and they hold the key to the future of a billion planets.

When Henry was young he was kidnapped by the changelings - and another was left in his place. Renamed Aniday and trapped forever in childhood he struggles to regain the key to his identity. Meanwhile his replacement is facing a similar problem.

Rescued from unspeakable horror as a young girl, Ishbel Lagarde has devoted her life to the Coil, the Serpent cult that reads the future in the entrails of its human sacrifices. But the Serpent has larger plans for Ishbel than becoming Arch priestess: in her fate lies marriage to the king of Escator to prevent the return of a deadly enemy. As dangerous alliances and insidious plots begin to engulf the land, the Serpent Bride will face a dark god rising from his prison exile deep in the Darkglass Mountain

World War II London: Brutus, the Greek Kingman who brought the bands of power to the isle of Alba millennia ago, once again walks the streets of London, this time as an American major. The men and women who are his eternal companions (and sometimes lovers and enemies) have been reborn in this time and place and all have come together for one last battle to complete the magical Labyrinth buried at the heart of the city. But there is a new power that walks the land. It is a power that none anticipated and it has its own agenda.

Violence racks Cinnabar. Lt. Leary serves under an officer whose paranoia has already led him to execute crewmen. Elements within the Republic want to draw the most accomplished intelligence agent Adele Mundy into a conspiracy. Leary and Mundy fight their way through to a space battle against an overwhelming Alliance force.

As the four heirs slowly make their way over the Edge and back to Celebre, their Florengian home suffers under the rule of Saltaja, Stralg's sister. But despite the odds against them, a liberation movement is arising in the city.

Canadian author. One last rebel army has been pursued to the ancient city of Y'Ghatan by the the 14th Army, where Adjunct Tavore must seek to outwit Leoman of the Flails, the deadliest foe she has ever faced.

An evil necromancer has kidnapped the princess Olywynne and her twin brother, plotting to spill their blood - for revenge, and to restore his own family to life. Chaos reigns in the capital, and no one can stop the necromancer but Rhiannon and her winged mare. But can she bring herself to rescue the woman she hates more than anyone - Olywynne, her rival for the apprentice-witch Lewen's love - especially when she stands to lose everything she holds dear in the effort?

After wraith Melke steals a necklace, its owner tracks her down. He wants it back - and will heal her brother in exchange. But Melke gave the necklace to fire-breathing salamanders.

World War II. Young enlisted soldier Sam Dance shows an aptititude for science and so his superiors begin training him in code breaking, electronics and physics. While studying he is seduced by one of his female teachers. She gives him plans for a device that will end the war. But it doesn't work as advertised. After his training he is sent through Europe and begins to learn that the device did work - but in a way he could never have imagined.

Sven Tveskoeg is drafted into the elite Death's Head and sent to a distant planet. There he will need to employ all of his courage, firepower and many talents to neutralize the effects of a military disaster.

Louisiana cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse must contend with a long-planned vampire summit, a tense situation. The vampire queen of Louisiana is in a precarious position, after the hurricane damage to New Orleans. And there are some vamps who'd like to finish what nature started. Sookie must decide which side she'll stand with.

After barely surviving an adventure he never wanted, the scrawny little nearsighted goblin called Jig is now known as Jig Dragonslayer, and has the power of healing, thanks to the forgotten god he worships. But being a hero isn't all it's cracked up to be. Not when the goblin leader wants him dead, and everyone else actually expects him to keep doing heroic - and incredibly dangerous - things.

An unknown force is affecting Alba. An enormous gathering of the Shades, of the dead and the unborn, are being drawn to the gateways between worlds. Meanwhile, Kymon and Munda, Urtha's son and daughter, are coming of age. Kymon is ready to fight the Shades of Heroes, but Munda, possessed of the Sight, welcomes the new, strange force in the land.

Sequel to BLOODRING. Neomage Thorn St. Croix must rescue a fallen seraph imprisoned deep under the mountains. And there too the armies of Darkness assemble.

After 10 years, Nish is about to be released from the blackest prison of his corrupt father, the maimed God-Emperor, Jal-Nish Hlar. The oppressed see Nish as the long-promised Deliverer. Nish will need the help of little Maelys, a shy and bookish dreamer. But she is the last woman he wants, and she carries a secret more likely to destroy than save him.

Terran diplomats overlook the fact that the Peace Movement is a subterfuge by the warlike and imperialistic Krill to force the Terrans off the planet. Only Retief is willing to risk his career in the CDT and do something.

Neb is left an orphan by the cholera epidemic that ravaged the city of TrevHael. Sent to a desolate farm of his last living relative he soon learns about the savage Horsekin tribes that are raiding the villages and taking slaves. Spurred on by their new goddess Alshandra, they plan to destroy the nomadic Westfold and the Deverrian farmers both.

Prince Dar of the Westlands calls the new fortress of Zakh Gral "a dagger laid against our throat." It was built by the Horsekin, ancient enemies of his people. To destroy the threat, the elven prince has called upon his dwarven and human allies. Their leaders know that if the Westlands fall, their own throats will feel the dagger next. Joining them are two powerful dragons, who have their own bitter reasons to hate the Horsekin. But the fanatical Horsekin have a powerful ally as well, a new goddess. Alshandra's priestesses have announced that She has given Prince Dar's lands to the Horsekin - and that his people must be utterly destroyed.

Anne Dare's father, the king of Crotheny, has been murdered, her mother taken captive and her kingdom ruled by a madman. Now, aided by her staunch allies, she will form an army and confront the usurper. Recommended.

Michael McDowell, who died in 1999, left this unfinished manuscript. Tabitha King completed it. Just seven when her father is inexplicably tortured, murdered and dismembered by two women, Calley hears things - and knows things - that maybe a little girl shouldn't. She and her mother are exiled to Pensacola Beach, to a house where another woman awaits them, a woman who knows what Calley is, but doesn't understand the power of her bond with her dead father.

21 stories by today's most inventive writers, each inspired by a winning word from the National Spelling Bee.

Landscaper Mitchell Rafferty receives a call from a kidnapper. He can have his wife back for two million bucks. The caller doesn't care that Mitch runs a small two-man landscaping operation and has no way of raising such a vast sum. If he loves his wife enough... Mitch has 72 hours.

Vestakia, the half-human, half-Demon healer, finds that she can read the mind of her Demon father, Crown Prince Zyperis. The Demon Queen, Savilla, is preparing a great sacrifice that will summon He Who Is back to the world and make her the ultimate ruler forever. When Wild Mage Idalia learns of Savilla's plans, she knows there is only one way to prevent the coming of He Who Is. A very different sort of sacrifice must be made.

Sir Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth's spymaster, asked Dr. Dee to summon a demon, not expecting that his niece Lucy would end up fighting demons and witchcraft for the Queen's Secret Service.

30 years ago Scott's grandfather slaughtered his best friend and then committed suicide. Now the spirit of the murdered man thinks Scott can lead him to an ancient book that will return him to life forever. It starts constantly bugging him about it.

With thousands dead after the Triskelian massacre, Eli and Sabine flee with the survivors. Days later Seth is rescued from the rubble and discovers that people think the ambush was his fault - and he goes into exile. As the devastated Triskelian survivors recuperate at a safe mountain retreat, Seth finds his way to the wretched city of Triban and begins amassing an army of orphan and street children. When the time is right, and difficult decisions made, he and his child soldiers will fight the war to topple the Keys once and for all.

How might the course of World War II have changed if civilized dragons ran bombing missions for the Germans? Here are 13 tales of war in alternate worlds where magical creatures are real and often prove victorious. Human troops fight alongside gryphons, unicorns, and a sea serpent, who can give submarine warfare a whole new slant. These are just a few of the stories gathered together in this all-original volume that opens the way to magical places in our own world where the armies of the fantastic are on the march, waging wars both vast and personal.

King Bridei is a man with a mission. His wish to unite his kingdom seems almost within his grasp but there are forces working to undo his dream. He sends Faolan, his most trusted advisor (who is also a master assassin and spymaster) out into the world to ferret out the truth of who is friend and who is foe. Along the way Faolan will uncover many truths. Some may hold the key to Bridei's future. But more important, they may unlock the secrets that Faolan has held deep within his soul for decades. And offer him the chance of redemption.

The witch hiding behind the guise of a grimy old crone living outside Fort Stalwart leads a simple life filled with spells, potions, and the occasional curse. That ends when a White Knight arrives at Fort Stalwart. He is just days in front of a horde of ravenous goblins that is only the first wave in an attack sent by a mad sorcerer. Witch and Knight must make a perilous quest.

Lily Blake wants her children back. George Iron Walker claims he can summon the Wendigo. She makes a deal and the man who took Lily's children is found ripped to pieces. Now she wants to back out of her deal - and now the Wendigo is after her.

Three different strands of an immense quantum multiverse are each threatened by the Order, a powerful force that seeks to keep things as they are until the end of time. In each of the strands there is one who must choose against isolation, choose to make change possible.

Once upon an autumn eve, a wounded knight named Sieur Luc rides into the Autumnwood - and into the heart of Princess Liaze. But even as love blooms between them, dark forces snatch him away. Guided by the enigmatic Fates, Liaze sets out on a desperate quest to follow the trial of her true love no matter what perils she may encounter.

Imagine a world where necromancy is a science, where wraiths are a fact of life, where the dead walk, where people are killed for their bones, where love needs no heart and death is only the beginning.

In the kingdom of Lur, to use magic unlawfully means death. The Doranen have ruled Lur with magic since arriving as refugees centuries ago. To keep Lur safe, the native Olken inhabitants agreed to abandon their own magic. Magic is now forbidden, and any who break this law are executed. But the Olken have a secret - a prophecy. The Innocent Mage will save Lur from destruction, and members of The Circle have dedicated themselves to preserving Olken magic until this day arrives.

In an attempt to win the hand of Princess Gloria in marriage, Sir Terry slays a dragon - only to discover he's killed the dragon in a neighboring kingdom and inadvertently earned the devotion of the wrong princess. And everyone knows that getting stuck with the wrong girl is truly a fate worse than dragons.

Reluctant shaman Joanne Walker must stop the sleeping sickness that plagues Seattle (and her boss) and rescue Coyote, her spiritual mentor, from a black void that's draining away his life force.

Illegal aliens are drawn to the revolutionary cause of a charismatic figure that has arisen on the Mexican border. It seems the brazen general has planned for every eventuality. Except one - Remo Williams is back.

SEA SIEGE and STAR GATE in one volume.

4 year old Walter banishes what he thinks is a monster from his closet. It was actually a protector, and now he is left open to an attack from an 1840s Boston medical student.

Becca Gibbs is vice president of Vic's Pretzels by day and Satan's right hand woman by night. She'd like to tell the Evil One where he can go, but if she quits, she dies. Now a handsome gun-for-hire has shown up, come to kill Satan and rescue his kidnapped sister. He and Becca discover they have a common enemy. And a certain chemistry.

5 year old Cale Alexandros survived an attack on his family's starship while it was enroute to Morningstar. Cale endured life as a slave until freed by a sympathetic trader, but Cale never forgot what happened in the desert wastes, in a strange ancient temple where he found a book with metal pages and cryptic writing.

Chance hopes to clear his head of vivid nightmares by joining a forest expedition that seeks physical proof of Ardneh's existence. They hope to discover the great vault prophesized to hold the secrets of the savior of humanity. But the dangers are high in the uncharted forests, rife with bandits and demons that no magic can stop.

Ghost Brigades are the Special Forces of the Colonial Defense Forces (CDF). These elite troops are created from the DNA of the dead and turned into perfect soldiers. The turncoat military scientist Charles Boutin has sided with the enemy and it is up to Jared Dirac, the superhuman hybrid created from Boutin's DNA, to provide answers for the betrayal. As Jared hunts for his "Father", he begins to understand the reasons for Boutin's betrayal. Recommended.

An assassin's bullet knocks Chris Csejthe out of his body and into the afterlife as he journeys through the realm of the truly dead before a final showdown with an evil spawned in Nazi Germany - an evil kept alive through genetic manipulation and nanotechnology and waiting only for Csejthe's blood to overcome the last hurdle to immortality!

Ravar, last of Refuge's heretic Shapers, kidnaps the seer Axane, claims the title of Next Messenger, and marches on the holy city with an army of fanatical followers. And the Shaper Gyalo is forced to leave his peaceful life to save Axane and to confront his own destiny.

Set on the Mars of RED THUNDER, a generation later. Teenager Ray finds his world turned upside down when a mysterious object hits the earth and causes a tsunami that wipes out the East Coast of the US. Ray's parents return home after wading through the wreckage to fetch Ray's grandmother out of harm's way only to find that Ray's uncle Ralph has developed a time-warping device that allowed him to email himself to Mars. There are powerful interests who want Ralph - and his technology - back.

Abandoned by his fellow Darkyn, Gabriel Seran is in continual torment as a prisoner of the religious zealots known as the Brethren. His only hope for rescue lies in Nicola Jefferson, a thief seeking a holy relic - and connected to Gabriel in more ways than she can possibly imagine...

Admiral Simpson of Grantville frantically races against time to finish the USE Navy's ironclad ships-desperately needed to break the Ostender blockade of the Baltic ports. A commando unit sent to England by Mike Stearns prepares the rescue the Americans being held in the Tower of London. In Amsterdam, Rebecca Stearns continues three-way negotiations with the Prince of Orange and the Spanish Cardinal-Infante who has conquered most of the Netherlands. And, in Copenhagen, the captured young USE naval officer Eddie Cantrell tries to persuade the King of Denmark to break with the Ostender alliance, all while pursuing a romantic involvement with one of the Danish princesses.

Vampire hunter Jameson Arkeley has exterminated all of the bloodsuckers except one, kept alive but institutionalized in Pennsylvania. Deprived of blood, she's no threat. But now there are signs that the plague is about to return. With the help of Laura Caxton, a state trooper, he must find the lair before they can get their vampire queen the blood she needs.

When Detective Inspector Chen goes on holiday, his demonic partner Zhu Irzh finds himself alone in Singapore Three. The missing body of a brutally murdered socialite and the strange experiments of a well-connected, beautiful, young heiress leads Zhu into a maze of death and corruption. Chen returns to the city just as Zhu's baser instincts seem to be getting the better of him.

In the forty-third millennium of human history, Imre Bergamasc awakens after two hundred years to the realization that he has been the victim of an elaborate murder plot - a plot that also destroyed the intergalactic transport milieu known as the Continuum. But now that Imre has been reborn, he will stop at nothing to help bring forth the rebirth of the galaxy.

Valashu Elahad, the youngest prince of the royal house of Mesh, will journey to the farthest reaches of Ea to try and reclaim a mystical object that will free the world of Morjin's evil and save his people from sure destruction. Along the way he will discover truths about friendship, courage...and love. And the terrible truth about the being who threatens to sunder his world. Recommended.

Val and his stalwart companions have braved many dangers and fought many battles in their search for the elusive Lightstone. It looks as if their quest may be at an end and a great victory shimmers on the horizon. But not all images are real. Is the Lightstone within Val's grasp or has he embarked upon a road too horrible to conceive?

Rifkind, a chieftain's daughter, learned to wield a sword while all other women were bound by tribal custom to children and the cooking fire. But when her clan was massacred, she set forth on a quest for her destiny in savage lands ruled by magic and the sword. For a while she had thought that she had found a home. She practiced the healing arts and raised her son. But now she has once again heard a personal call to arms, a call to leave behind the safety of her home. She will once again take up the way of the sword, the way of sorcery. And this time she is not alone.

Kate Reilly, considered Non-Prey by the Thrall, participates in a hospital study. The doctor conducting the hospital study becomes infested with one of the vampiric parasites, goes rogue, and starts killing Non-Prey. Meanwhile her relationship with Tom , a werewolf, receives a setback when Tom's pack tries to tear them apart.

A young science fiction writer of Muslim Heritage is arrested for no apparent reason and held as a prisoner in isolation. As an escape he writes a novel set on a planet nothing like his own. But gradually the two worlds begin to resemble one another more and more.

The message was garbled, but it appeared to be a simple enough request: escort a human prisoner convicted of murder back to Earth for punishment. But when BSI agents Jamie Mendez and Hannah Wolfson arrive on a planet settled by the enigmatic Pavlat, it seems that everyone is determined to kill them before they can complete their mission-or even find out what it is. And on a planet where murder is a time-honored tradition, Death is a cause everyone believes in.

Few among the most tyrannical barons can rival the ruthlessness of Sandra Tregart. With her restored biplane she delivers death from the skies to all who defy her supremacy.

After a mysterious object the size of a small moon appears in Earth orbit, bizarre changes begin to occur, with many people manifesting strange, powerful mutations. When the infrastructure collapses completely it is left to a small, rag-tag group of strangers, gathered together by an alien entity that may or may not be an ancient Indian god, to escape from a crumbling Earth and set off for the stars on a mission to save the future of the human race.

Set in Druidic Britain this is a prequel to THE MISTS OF AVALON. Eilan must choose between the cloistered Forest House, where priestesses of the Great Goddess guard the ancient lore against the Roman Empire, and her love for one of the young soldiers who occupy her land. Recommended.

Darkover's ruling class, the comyn, struggle to reclaim their realm from the devastating effects of the Terran Federation.

With his soul magically transplanted into the body of a condemned prince, Josan becomes the heir to the murdered royal family - and the accused killer.

Four humans crashland on what they think is a desolate, ice-bound planet, only to learn it is one of thousands arranged in a vast spiral wound about a central sun. They set off to find a more habitable world and come across more aliens and more perils than they can imagine.

Long ago the old-fathers came to Nanagada thorugh a wormhole in the sky. Now, many generations later, steamships, blimps, and silver cities fill the sky. Although John deBrun has no memory of his past, Nanagada's only hope is to find some way of recovering that memory. Only he knows the secret of the mythical artifact hidden in the frozen north, even if he can't remember why or how to use it.

Felix Castor ignored calls for help from his now-dead colleague, John Gittings. To salve his conscience, he agrees to help Gittings' widow with a disagreement over the burial arrangements. After some digging (excuse the expression) he learns that the final disposition of Gittings' body, and the sporadic reappearances of the long-dead serial killer may be connected.

CHANUR'S HOMECOMING and CHANUR'S LEGACY in one volume.

Deep in the English countryside, Kenneth Storey and his older brother have discovered the land of Arboria - a kingdom of adventure waiting for them through a gate in the garden wall. As the world outside plunges deeper into global conflict, the Arborians wage their own war against the Barbarians.

Coyote. Anansi. Brer Rabbit. Trickster characters have long been a staple of folk literature. 'The Coyote Road' features a range of authors, each wiht his or her fictional look at a trickster character. Authors include Holly Black, Charles de Lint, Ellen Klages, Kelly Link, Patricia A. McKillip and Jane Yolen. The entire book is highlighted by the decorations of Charles Vess.

Arthur Penn, finally forced to reveal his true identity as King Arthur, can't deal with all the sick and dying who want to be healed by the power of the Holy Grail. Okay. So we'll siphon water through it, bottle it, and sell it as a curative. And Grail Water takes off, an overnight bestseller, the hottest-selling commodity in human history.

On the eve of the marriage, Betsy Taylor's fiance, Vampire King Eric Sinclair, goes missing - along with most of her friends and loved ones.

Jennifer Scales falls asleep at the movies and wakes to find her hometown overrun by weachnids - dangerous half-werewolves, half-spiders. Can she and the ominous Xavier Longtail, lone survivors, trust one another enough to return the universe to normal.

Plunged into the rancorous and sometimes violent conflict between the magical North American "animal people" and the more newly-arrived fairy folk, Jilly is held captive in a sinister world based on her own worst memories. Geordie, attempting to help, is sent someplace even worse.

Anthology of never-before published stories by the generation of writers who spawned and embody the "new space opera", as well as other talents destined to join their ranks.

Having only just survived a disastrous encounter with their sworn enemy, the Tsurani, Dennis Hartraft's Marauders are headed for a frontier garrison, where they hope to rest and recover. But they arrive at the same time as a Tsurani patrol, and both sides discover the stronghold overrun by a migrating horde of dark elves called moredhel, a foe so deadly and vicious the bitter enemies must band together and fight as one. But can their hatred for their mutual enemy overcome their distrust of each other?

The half-human half-Faerie D'Artigo sisters are enlisted to find the fiends responsible for slaughtering the weres of Ranier Puma Pride.

As the kings of the Great Green gather for the war in Troy, three travellers arrive: the runaway priestess Piria who nurses a secret, the warrior Kalliades who wields a legendary sword, and Banokles. In the battles to come Banokles will carve out his own legend.

In one dimension Dr. Jason Crux attempts to prove ESP is possible and battles his superiors, in the other he battles mythical dragons. In one dimension Scott Anderson is exposed in a cult reality show to the threats of the Far Right. In another he fights Nazis in World War II.

Wren Valere finds herself tied to the fortunes of the entire Cosa Nostradamus as part of the Truce Board overseeing the Lonejack, Council and Fatae. But someone outside the Cosa is trying to break the Truce - and the Cosa itself.

In Italy a powerful vampire is amassing the power to control the souls of the dead. Lady Victoria Gardella de Lacy - a vampire slayer for just over a year - races across Europe to stop what could be the most deadly army the Gardellas have ever faced. She is accompanied by Sebastian Vioget, a man as tempting as he is untrustworthy.

If Kahlan is to survive she must find out why she is such a central figure in the war-torn world swirling around her. Yet she has learned that if she ever were to unlock the truth of her lost identity, then evil itself would finally possess her.

Eddie Drood's family has kept mankind safe from monsters for ages. But now he's on the run - his family now falsely believes that humanity needs to be protected from Eddie. He will need all his resources, magic and otherwise, to survive long enough to prove his innocence.

Anthology of 12 fantasy stories about assassins - from Huff, Swann, Hoyt, Rusch, Garmon, Marco and more.

Paramortal psychologist Gilian Key can treat the mental distress of nonhumans - but she's also a Marine Special Forces operative who can get physical with them when the situation calls for it. Her two worlds collide when she travels to Romania's Carpathian Mountains to counsel a dangerously attractive local master vampire. She becomes embroiled in a brewing turf war with the legendary Dracula.

Short stories, including a new Anita Blake story.

Confirmed contributors include Baxter, Benford, Swanwick, Haldeman, Emshwiller, Reynolds and Reed.

Otori Takeo has ruled the Three Countries for 15 years but is troubled by the prophecy of a seeress that he will die only at his son's hand. Kikuta Akio, his sworn enemy and head of a ninja Tribe family, is raising his only son, an unacknowledged bastard. The last of the series, except for a planned prequel.

After a terrible year the Caleigh family take up residence in a peaceful Devon seaside village and try to come to terms with what has happened to them. But Crickley Hall, the unusually large though cold and drafty house that they move into, turns out to have been a poor choice.

The best stories of the year: here is a collection of the best science fiction prose written in 2006.

Fledgling wizard Tony is now an assistant director on "Darkest Night", a syndicated TV show about a vampire detective. His work on the latest episode is interrupted when a Demonic Convergence allows lesser demons to enter our world.

Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr goes to Crucible, the Marine Corps training planet, as aide to Major Svensson as he field tests his new body. It's supposed to be an easy assignment--after all, Crucible was set up to simulate battle situations so recruits could be trained safely. But Torin's barely on-planet when someone starts blasting the training scenarios to smithereens...

Horrible creatures are killing the citizens of Lincoln, New York, and the chief of police will do anything to keep the beasts under wraps - and under his control.

It's the final curtain call for Fiorinda, the flame-haired rock princess, Guinevere to Ax Preston's King Arthur and Sage Pender's Sir Lancelot. Together they've saved the world from environmental mental meltdown, fused mind and world in ultimate consciousness and discovered a love that goes back centuries. But is this enough to save a world that has given itself over to the dark side?

The local sheriff of Dead River, Maine, thought he had killed off the primitive, cave-dwelling tribe of cannibalistic savages ten years ago. But somehow the clan survived. To breed. To hunt. To kill and eat. And now the peaceful residents of this isolated town are fighting for their lives.

Jordy, Alex and Chloe go through the trap-door of the attic in their family home. From hat- stand forests, to towering hills of old musical instruments, deserts of old books and a great water-tank lake, the vast continent they stumble upon is one of limitless surprises - and that's before they meet the inhabitants: strange clans of small and lumpen people who live in homes constructed from all manner of found things and drive vehicles powered by old sewing-machine parts.

[CANADIAN AUTHOR]. After negotiations with the alien Tarsalans go wrong a mysterious green sphere forms around Earth, cutting off sunlight. Only two scientists - one isolated on the Moon's colony, the other trapped on the dying Earth - possess the minds and means to discover the nature of the alien phytosphere.

In a world just down the road from our own, on-line bloggers vie with old-line political operatives and new-style police to determine just where reality lies. James Travis is a British patriot and a French spy. On the day the Big One hits, Travis and his daughter must strive to make sense of the nuclear bombing of Scotland and the political repercussions of a series of terrorist attacks. With the information war in full swing, the only truth they have is what they're able to see with their own eyes. They know that everything else is - or may be - a lie.

When a girl is kidnapped and her family murdered, Sherfiff's Lieutenant Buck Shelton is drawn into a bloody supernatural showdown between good and evil - with an innocent girl caught in the crossfire.

Short (96 pages in the previous edition). As a young prince comes of age, his faithful feline friend accompanies him on a spectacular journey filled with danger, wonder and magical intrigue.

An uneasy collaboration takes places between the alector Dainyl and Mykel, a military officer who harbours a secret psychic talent, after Mykel discovers renegade alectors. More ominously, the ancients that the alectors were supposed to have vanished from Corus now make a reappearance.

Some of the best stories from some of the best of European SF writers, including Joanna Sinisalo, Andreas Eschbach, Elena Arseneva, and Jean-Claude Dunyach.

***

When Laris inherits a spaceship from a distant relative, she realizes that she might now fulfill her dream of finding the home planet of Prau, her mysterious, cat-like companion. What Laris and her friends - the beast masters Tani and Hosteen Storm - find in space, however, tests their abilities and threatens their lives. Prauo's homeworld is beset by dangers the intrepid travelers could not have anticipated. It will take all of their talents and experience to get back to Arzor alive.

After a Thraik attack decimates her family, the village takes control of her farm's assets and arranges a marriage for her. She assumes the guise of her brother Teldo and plans to accept Teldo's position as an apprentice to a great wizard. But she soon finds that the rest of the world isn't very welcoming to halflings. And that she is surrounded by fantastic dangers that are more than a match for a wizard's apprentice.

Two classic SPIDER novels reissued in one volume. In the first the Spider battles an army of giant robots that has New York City under siege. In the second novel, a criminal mastermind threatens the entire northeast with thousands of poison-fanged vampire bats.

Healer Abigail nurses back to health Jack, a daredevil officer in Wellington's army, who has broken his neck. Her price is marriage. She learns that he possesses untapped magical powers and suspects his recklessness is the result of a spell. Together they must track down the cause of a blight that is draining away the lives of their lands and tenants.

A murderous attack against a solitary habitat looks an open and shut case, until Tom Dreyfus uncovers a covert group led by a shadowy - perhaps inhuman - figure who believe the people should no longer be in charge of their own destiny. Before long Dreyfus and his team are fighting to save the entire Glitter Band from something worse than tyranny.

After having angered every terrorist on Earth and at least five governments, Mike Harmon just wants to relax, so he thinks buying a farm in a third world country looks like the answer. Of course, nothing is ever easy, especially when Chechen terrorists come knocking on his door and tenant farmers live in a truly Byzantine culture.

After the earl of Last retrieves his bastard son Janus from the slums of Murne, his companion, 15-year-old Miranda, swears vengeance. Before long she is dressed as a boy and being trained in the skills of the court by the dissolute Vornatti, an enemy of Last. Now, possessed by the bloodthirsty goddess Black-Winged Ani, she has become Maledicte.

Racing to unravel a riddle locked amid cryptic runes, and trapped between two murderous factions, the elite scientists of Sigma Force must piece together the truth behind the ultimate mystery of modern times - the origins of all life.

Geralt de Riv is a witcher, a man whose own magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. But he is no ordinary murderer: his targets are the monsters and demons that ravage the land and attack the innocent. In his travels, he meets incestuous kings with vampire daughters, vengeful genies, rancorous maidens, shrieking haarpies and despondent ghouls...but not all of these are evil.

Thieves steal the house of Jonny X67 and leave behind only a card that reads "Don't you hate it when this happens?". His quest to regain his home, traversing a cityscape whose neighbourhoods are organized by musical genres, and running into joke-telling elevators and holographic computer viruses, will bring him up against a lunatic motorcycle gang nicknamed the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a relentless Belgian assassin, and his own irate girlfriend.

Raine Benares is a Sorceress Seeker of average ability until she comes into possession of an amulet that amplifies her powers - and her enemies.

What do you get when you mix a squid-headed Ancient One, a mystical force-five hurricane, Rasputin's privates, the city of New Orleans and an undead Captain Nemo. Christopher Csejthe is going to find out.

[CANADIAN AUTHOR]. In an Oxford library, a boy touches a strange book and feels something pierce his finger. The volume is blank, wordless, but its paper has fine veins running through it and seems to quiver, as if it's alive. Words begin to appear on the page--words no one but the boy can see. And so unfolds a timeless secret.

Meet the Three Thieves, a group of Grays assigned to duty in a small Kentucky town. They have been preparing a child for generations. Innocent Conner Callaghan will face the ultimate terror as he struggles to understand who he has been bred to become, and what he must do to save humanity.

Kate and Thomas are sailing to London to make a fresh start - but someone lies in wait there to lure them into the darkest heart of the city. Meanwhile Raphah sets out on a terrifying journey to find his friends, all the while haunted by a shadowy beast. Eventually, the friends' paths meet on a cursed street, hidden from the world - a place where fates are decided and old enemies seek revenge.

On Earth, trading ships of a galactic federation load the planet's only viable product, slaves, in return for desperately needed water. A failed human settlement returns from Mars, including its only child, Margaret, who has eased loneliness with imaginary playmates - selves who are beginning to take on separate lives of their own: A queen. A spy. A warrior. A healer.... Years pass, and it is the adult Margaret's turn to be expelled from Earth. Soon she will gather many Margarets from among the stars in a quest that will ultimately determine whether the human race lives or dies.

As investigator Jack Carlson pokes behind the facade of the small town of Winship, the more frighteneed he becomes. How could someone disappear in an open meadow, as if swallowed by the earth? Why does the ground seem to glow in spots? Why is no one able to stop the gangs of young thugs who roam the streets at will?

Eugenides, the Thief of Eddis and narrator of THE THIEF, is the King of Attolia in name only. His retainer Costis has just decked him and the Queen of Attolia wants to behead Costis but Eugenides has plans for Costis that involve espionage and intrigue. The people, the Queen, and Costis have underestimated Gen. It is never wise to underestimate Eugenides.

Nanotech-enhanced warrior Jon Moore and AI-enhanced Assault Vehicle Lobo team up on a frontier world that has become the secret battleground between two megacorporations determined to control its riches and the local jump gate.

Female werecats are disappearing from all over the South, and the Pride is unable to find its missing members or to stop the Stray responsible. An error in judgment leads Faythe into the unsheathed claws of the Stray himself. Now she must free herself and stop the kidnappers before their horrific plot robs her Pride of its most valuable asset: its own continued existence.

Unless Jack, Draycos and a reluctant Alison can lead the Phookas to safety in the forest, the unfortunate creatures will become the latest victims of the genocide that threatens to wipe out their entire race. Jack must become a herdsman, protecting the Phookas from danger as they travel deep into the unexplored forest. But even more importantly, he must protect from the mercenaries and Alison the herd's dark secret.

Inquisitor Ravenor's pursuit of his arch-nemesis Molotch takes him and his team into the dangerous reaches of space known as the Halo Stars. Unknown to Ravenor, one of his team hides a deadly secret that could doom them all. Can our heroes find and defeat their enemy before the team is destroyed from within?

The body of a hardened soldier, thought to have died 20 years ago, washes ashore at Karrnath, still alive. He is unkempt, dressed in rags, and bent on cold vengeance.

An evil necromancer has begun to gather together Thay's restless dead for a cause that will have lasting impact on the face of Faer'n.

Peter Parker's normally likeable personality is deformed by a mysterious force. Tie-in to the new movie.

Two factions fight for control of a deadly alien substance, Tiberium.

The Ciejek clan has made itself a fortune exploiting Earth's downward spin. Now family-members are at one another's throat and have summoned the Predators for help in getting an upper hand. But when the Predators arrive, the brutal devastation that they unleash is beyond anything the Ciejeks could have imagined.

Hellboy's old flame Anastasia believes she has found the ancient dwelling of an evil dragon in the Himalayas. But soon misfortunes begin to strike her archaeological site. Hellboy can help - but his toughest challenge might be putting his past with Anastasia behind him.

Soon after the Singer Peter Attis is rescued from the Cylons people begin babbling incoherently and dropping into comas. Unwittingly, Peter has been spreading a highly contagious, nerve-deteriorating Cylon biological weapon - and he just performed for half the fleet. But many believe that this virus is their path to salvation and reject the vaccine Baltar's prepared. And now the Cylons show up again - in force.

Inarius - secret Prophet of the Cathedral of Light - has been playing Uldyssian against the two great religions in a reckless attempt to topple them both. But the demon Lilith, once Inarius's lover, seeks to use Uldyssian as her own pawn in a scheme to turn humans into an army of naphalem - godlike beings, more powerful than any angel or demon, who could overturn all Creation and elevate Lilith to supreme being.

After three more planeswalkers are lost, Teferi must abandon his life-long tendency to run away and finally make a stand.

Humanity's ongoing war with the alien factions that make up the Covenant is now about to enter its next phase. If the Covenant has its way and the human race is destroyed, it will be the final phase.

The final volume of the Von Carstein trilogy sees Mannfred Von Carstein assemble the hosts of the undead in preparation for his attack on the civilized world.

Ambassador Spock and his allies must find and penetrate the Watraii home base, where secrets about this new enemy's links to the Vulcan race are finally revealed.

One year after the Dominion War: The Watraii are determined to destroy the Romulan Star Empire. Ambassador Spock is equally determined to learn their secret. With the aid of his wife Captain Saavik and the "U.S.S. Alliance," his old comrades Scotty, Uhura, and Chekov, and Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the "U.S.S. Enterprise," Spock executes a daring plan to bring about peace before the Alpha Quadrant is once again plunged into war.

Anastasia is a former Wolf Clan warrior, now leading a band of mercs against her ex-comrades. Now she must prove not only her ability, but her complete separation from the Wolves - in combat. Verena is the new commander of a ragtag merc force. Her desire for greatness will uncover her own superior abilities, and draw her into a final confrontation in which mercy is unheard of - and only death awaits the unworthy.

Having witnessed the events on Istvaan III, Deathguard Captain Garro seizes a ship and heads to Terra to warn the Emperor of Horus's treachery. But the fleeing "Eisenstein" is damaged by enemy fire, and becomes stranded in the warp. Can Garro and his men survive the depradations of Chaos and get his warning to Terra in time?

Test your mastery of WARHAMMER trivia.

New DRAGONLANCE stories from authors such as Richard A. Knaak, Jean Rabe, and Paul B. Thompson.

A Golem invasion is imminent. To stop them, Caballisics, Inc must form unholy alliances with the dead of London and the shadowy organisation known as the Dark Parliament. London is about to become a war-zone...

The King isn't dead! Elvis Presley might not be a Colonel in the US Army anymore, but he's got a reputation as being one of the toughest independent Sanctioned Ops in the South. Yet, can he prevent the world being destroyed (further) while fighting off the KKK, swamp mutants and voodoo priests?

Jedi master Luke Skywalker has unified the Jedi Knights into a cohesive order. But now planetary interests begin to threaten the new time of relative peace, and Luke is plagued by dark visions. Evil is rising again - out of the best of intentions.

The first three NIKOLAI DANTE novels in one volume: THE STRANGELOVE GAMBIT, IMPERIAL BLACK, and HONOUR BE DAMNED.

Omnibus edition of the novelizations of THE PHANTOM MENACE, ATTACK OF THE CLONES and REVENGE OF THE STITH.

Having stabilised their gene-seed, and brought a halt to their mutation, the Soul Drinkers start rebuilding their Chapter with new recruits. But the recruits have their own ideas. Rather than protect the Imperium, they wish to wage war against it. With the Imperial forces and the Inquisition closing in on the renegade Chapter, can Sarpedon rally his troops to face the true enemy?

When one of Sharn's most famed Inquisitives is hired to investigate a brutal murder at Morgrave University, his brilliance may be his damnation, as he uncovers a trail of blood leading from the deadliest neighbourhoods of the City of Towers to the highest reaches of power.

A collection of stories drawn from the pages of over a decade's worth of Forgotten Realms anthologies, plus new surprises in three previously unpublished stories from one of the defining voices of this great fantasy setting!

Neither Buffy nor Willow are particularly comfortable with aligning themselves with a necromancer - an immortal Russian sorceress named Yulia Dryanushkina - until, 24 hours later, Sunnyvale's vampires start behaving strangely - and half the senior class goes missing.

A mix of classic short stories with new tales.

Some of the best fantasy art produced throughout Games Workshop's history, focusing on the grim world of Warhammer.

Death row inmates are made contestants on a reality television show. You win freedom and cash by killing all the other contestants. Caught up in this mad "game" is Jack Conrad who refuses to cooperate and plays instead by his own rules. As time runs out and the body count mounts, the government tries to shut down the game. Conrad must do "everything" he can to stay alive.

The enigmatic intergalactic herald, the Silver Surfer, comes to Earth to prepare it for destruction. As the Silver Surfer races around the globe wreaking havoc, Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben must unravel the mystery of the Silver Surfer and confront the surprising return of their mortal enemy Dr. Doom before all hope is lost.

In 2165 the human race has just joined the greater galactic community and now struggles to carve out a place for itself.

When the ruler of the massive hive city of Necromunda falls dead, Kal Jerico is coerced into taking his place. But with assassins taking pot shots at him from all sides and forced into marrying a Spire noble, Kal begins to suspect there may be more to his rapid ascension than first appeared. Will Kal triumph and discover the root of the conspiracy or will he end up dead, or worse, married!

An omnibus edition of the adventures of wily Commissar Cain, his malodorous aide Jurgen, and the 296th Valhallans.

While assisting local forces quell widespread civil disorder, Commissar Cain and his regiment of Valhallans discover sinister forces are at work behind the scenes. With a rioting populace, aliens on the rampage, and the Inquisition poking their noses everywhere, how can the wily commissar ever find the easy life he prefers?

Aliisza and Kaanyr Vhok have returned from their attempted invasion of Menzoberranzan and turned their sights on Sundabar. But before she can complete a mission in that beseiged city, Aliisza finds herself in the one place a demon would never want to go, no matter how sure she is of her wits and cunning: the very heart of Celestia!

For the 30th anniversary, the story behind the original movie with new interviews and new materials.

The alien Kh'thon appear in the skies, claiming that they are the former occupants and rightful owners of Earth. The military might of the Kh'thon is enforced by the Exemplar, humans augmented with a dizzying array of powers - much like the X-Men themselves. Only the X-Men stand a chance of stopping the Kh'thon invasion of Earth, before humans and mutants alike become enslaved by alien masters.

AVATAR ONE and TWO (by Perry), SECTION 31: ABYSS (by Weddle and Lang), and GATEWAYS: DEMONS OF AIR AND DARKNESS (by DeCandido) in one volume - telling the tale of the aftermath to the Dominion War.

After the rescue of the refugees of Pax Tharkas, Flint and Tanis Half-Elven travel to the dwarven kingdom of Thorbardin, while the rest of the Companions of the Lance confront fresh challenges of their own.

Second companion to the popular television series.

The conclusion to the WATERCOURSE trilogy.

Marienburg is the greatest port of the Old World, a melting pot of different cultures and races. When he is made a captain of the watch, ex Imperial army officer Kurt Schnell soon finds his promotion is a poison chalice. His watch station is in the worst part of town, his men are scum, strange creatures prowl the streets at night - what more could possibly go wrong?

As villians take advantage of the absence of Earth's great protectors and overrun Metropolis and Gotham, rookie and veteran superheroes are pressed into service. This is the story of 52 weeks without the world's greatest superheroes.

Novelization for the new movie.

When archaeologist Jacob Ramsey stumbles across a dying Protoss and attempts to revive him, the alien psychically and violently begins to "upload" its memories, essentially rewriting and rewiring Jake's human brain. He learns the terrible secret that the dying alien was willing to pass on to an enemy - and what Jake decides to do with the information will seal the fate of worlds throughout the galaxy.

The youthful adventures of the much-loved heroes, Florin, Islif, and Jhessail, as they battle to win a name for themselves and then to defend it against the machinations of a more insidious and devious evil than they ever thought to face.

The crew of Starbase Vanguard and the USS Sagittarius must keep Jinoteur out of enemy hands, but the ancient Shedai, who ruled the Taurus Reach in ages past, have come back seeking revenge. This introduces a new unpredictable element into a three-way struggle for Jinoteur between the Federation, the Klingon and the Tholian Assembly.

Jade Falcon Galaxy Commander Malvina Hazen and her warriors are consolidating power on worlds they've wrested from the Republic when a ship appears at Skye's jump point. Its commander challenges her to single BattleMech combat. The outcome of this battle could begin a civil war that could unmake the entire Clan way of life.

Barreth Forlo has been possessed by the spirit of Maladar the Faceless. Now Shedara and Hult are pitted against their friend, and must find a way to stop Maladar from raising his ancient empire from the ashes of history

Two heroes are caught in a web of deceit during the three nights of the year when the dark things of the world emerge from the shadows to prey on the unwary.

Joanna Dark, fresh from her first mission - Codenamed INITIAL VECTOR - and now operating as a full-fledged secret agent for the Carrington Institute, is assigned to hunt down and destroy those responsible for the attacks on Carrington Institute offices. But her search for the faceless enemy leads her not just into another bloody battle with hypercorp dataDyne - but headlong into a global conspiracy that's been shaping the world for decades.

Luke Skywalker and his friends become caught in an intergalactic quagmire of political intrigue that will pit Jedi against Jedi.