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Grave Peril (The Dresden Files, Book #3)
by Jim ButcherFrom Publishers Weekly Wizard Harry Dresden stars in the third installment of the Dresden Files (following Fool Moon), a haunting, fantastical novel that begins almost as innocently as those of another famous literary wizard named Harry. In the opening scene, Dresden and his knight friend, Michael, battle the ghost of a woman who is terrorizing a local hospital's maternity ward. From there, the novel quickly evolves into an unorthodox tale spiced with sexual innuendo and subtle humor (Dresden carries his ghost-hunting gear in an old Scooby-Doo lunch box). Due to the weakened barrier between the spirit world which Butcher refers to as "the nevernever" and the actual world, obsessive and violent ghosts are on the loose in modern-day Chicago, and they seem to be targeting Dresden and Michael. Horny vampires and possessive demons join the mix as Dresden journeys into the spirit world to hunt down the villains who are terrorizing him and his friends. Butcher narrates Dresden's story in the first person, which limits the amount of detail he can inject into the lives of his secondary characters. Despite this narrow point of view, Butcher successfully lends human dimensions to vampires and spirits through his vivid descriptions and colloquial dialogue. (Sept.)Forecast: A vivid cover showing glowing barbed wire wrapped around a pair of cemetery gates is misleading as is a cover quote appealing to fans of Laurell K. Hamilton and Tanya Huff but it will catch the browser's eye. This over-the-top tale is more likely to entertain young adult readers than fans of the aforementioned authors.
Bring the Jubilee
by Brian W. Aldiss Harry HarrisonSuppose the South had won the Civil War. The Northern states are poor, backward, and largely agrarian, an exploited colony of the prosperous South.
The Power of Blackness
by Jack WilliamsonBranded a criminal, he sought refuge with a mysterious clan of intergalactic revolutionaries, and found his heritage at last.
Orbit 1 (Orbit #1)
by Damon KnightNine science fiction stories by well known writers of the time including: Staras Flonerans by Kate Wilhelm, The Secret Place by Richard McKenna, How Beautiful With Banners by James Blish, The Disinherited by Poul Anderson, The Loolies are Here by Allison Rice, Kangaroo Court by Virginia Kidd, Splice of Life by Sonya Dorman, 5 Eggs by Thomas M. Disch, The Deeps by Keith Roberts
The Big Black Mark
by A. Bertram ChandlerThe account of the pivotal moment in John Grimes career, the big black mark on his service record that forced him to change his loyalties.
To Keep the Ship
by A. Bertram ChandlerAlthough this was a low point in the ever-changing space career of John Grimes, it was not without its surprising moments...
Destiny Doll
by Clifford D. SimakThe planet beckoned them from space, and then closed around them like a Venus fly trap.
Selections From Strangers in the Universe
by Clifford D. Simak7 short stories - Target Generation, Mirage, Beachhead, The Answers, Retrograde Evolution, The Fence, and Shadow Show
So Bright the Vision
by Clifford D. Simak4 novelettes - So Bright the Vision, The Golden Bugs, Galactic Chest, and Leg Forst.
The Drylands
by Mary RosenblumAfter years without rain, disaster lay ahead for the Pacific Northwexst, unless the strange talents born of the drought could stop it. Drought had come to the twenty-first century, and the land was dying. Crops failed, refugee camps overflowed, and riots raged across the country, and the Army Corp of Engineers had the dirty job of rationing what little water was left. Carter Voltaire, a Corps officer in charge of the Columbia Riverbed pipeline had orders to stop a group of desperate farmers sabotaging the pipe at any cost. Nita Montoya, a drylands woman burdened with a strange mental talent, knew the farmers were being framed. She could help Carter expose the real saboteurs, but only by exposing her own abnormal ability. In the drylands, the few people strangely altered by the drought were feared and persecuted if their mutations came to light. But if Nita couldn't trust Carter with her secret, there was no way to stop the wave of violence that would sweep their lives away.
Traitor to the Living
by Philip Jose FarmerA machine that enables the living to communicate with the dead threatens to allow angry and vengeful ghosts to reenter the world of the living and enact cruel revenge
The Lovers
by Philip Jose FarmerOne of the milestones of modern science fiction. The Lovers virtually turned the field upside down with its portrayal of a sexual liaison between a human and an alien. Originally published in a much shorter version in a science-fiction magazine in the early 50's, the novel now appears in a definitive edition, newly revised by the author. This landmark work, whose emotional appeal and narrative compulsion remain rewardingly fresh, makes a dramatic and memorable statement about the essentials of life and death and love.
The Gates of Creation
by Philip Jose FarmerImagine a whole series of separate universes, made to suit the whims of a race of super-beings. Imagine these universes with their own laws, cultures, creatures and ecologies--all existing solely to please the fancies of their individual master. Then imagine one such universe constructed as a diabolical trap to destroy a single person--the man called Robert Wolff, one of the race of universe-makers, and once of Earth. When the satanic Master-Lord, Urizen, kidnaps Wolff's wife, he forces Wolff to enter the deadly universe of ambushes, filled with every kind of tortuous snare that the evil mind of the Master-Lord can devise. Wolff has only his courage and his wits with which to combat this cosmic maze--unless he can perform a miracle, he and Chryseis are doomed. The GATES OF CREATION is the fabulous second adventure in Philip Jose" Farmer's World of Tiers Series.
The Celestial Steam Locomotive (Volume I of The Song of Earth)
by Michael Coney"My story takes place during the year 143,624 Cyclic, and it is about three humans of varying species who became known as the Triad. There are other stories, too. These stories relate to events that took place at different times during Earth's history, but they are all essential to the central theme of the Triad, and of Humanity." In a future so distant that man has evolved into five distinct species on an Earth that is but one of many possible Earths, Michael Coney takes up myth, magic, alien worlds, wondrous beings, dreams, and high technology to weave a rich tapestry of epic proportions. The Celestial Steam Locomotive, the first volume of The Song of Earth, begins an extensive future history of Earth and man's home galaxy as told by Alan-Blue-Cloud, a pure intelligence, ineffable and immortal, who remembers not only what was but what will be.
The Crossroads of Time (Crosstime #1)
by Andre NortonBlake Walker had to cross innumerable parallel worlds in search of the means to save his own home world from disaster.
Plague Ship (Solar Queen #2)
by Andre Norton Andrew NorthExotic gems and valuable oils were the lures that drew the space trader Solar Queen to the new planet Sargol, and also called forth his most ruthless competitor.
The Worlds of Science Fiction
by Robert P. MillsRobert P. Mills's Introduction: A large proportion of the freshest, most stimulating fiction of our times is being done in the taboo-free field of science fantasy, and this anthology's purpose is to offer prime examples of that statement. The selections come from the pens of a clutch of distinguished writers who have occasionally or often investigated the vistas which are opened up when the fences of reality are levelled. As a bonus-each story is a favorite, on one count or another, of its author, and the author in each instance has attached a note explaining why. And the epilogue, from Alfred Bester, looks into the problems of an author asked to name his favorites among his own works ... in the course of which he tells a multitude of stories. The stories here are not exclusively pure science fiction, though there are some examples present-the intention is to offer a wide variety of stories which will be intriguing and intelligible to the general reader as well as to the fan of science fiction (which last, in its more specialized forms, requires, for understanding, a scientific bent and some knowledge of what has been done in the field). The range in time is from the distant past to the far future, and in setting, from this world to outer space. There are familiar social backgrounds, and new ones that man may come to one day, or strive toward, or strive to avoid; there are aliens and robots and the people who live next door; there is man as he was, as he is, and as he may be. There is space travel, and mind travel and time travel and stasis; there is hope, and there is despair. There is one constant-man. And what all these stories attempt to do in one way or another is find a new vantage point from which to look at that curious beast in his endlessly various, noble and ignoble aspects.
Gods for Tomorrow
by Hans SantessonGod is dead--today's profane cry will be met by terrible retribution from the Gods of Tomorrow. That is the awesome prediction in this unusual collection of science fiction stories. A terrifying new world emerges from the stories presented in this anthology. Some of America's finest science fiction writers present the man of tomorrow--at the mercy of Gods he himself has created.
The Amazing Bone
by William SteigOn her way home from school, Pearl, a pig, finds a talking bone that saves her from would-be robbers and from a hungry wolf. A charming story. This file should make an excellent embossed braille file.
Triple Detente
by Piers AnthonyIt was the dictum of the Conqueror that the population of the planet must be halved. Control of live births and encouragement of suicides would have only a limited effect...
The Acts Of King Arthur And His Noble Knights
by John Steinbeck Thomas MaloryJohn Steinbeck writes in his introduction "I have wanted to bring to present-day usage the stories of King Arthur .. I wanted to set them down in plain present-day speech for my own young sons,
Eyes of the Empress
by Camille Bacon-SmithThe most unusual detectives team ever. A Demon and his Half-Human son, set out to solve the theft of 3 priceless crystals.