Ray Bradbury, the undisputed Dean of American storytelling, dips his accomplished pen into the cryptic inkwell of noir and creates a stylish and slightly fantastical tale of mayhem and murder set among the shadows and the murky canals of Venice, California, in the early 1950s. Toiling away amid the looming palm trees and decaying bungalows, a struggling young writer (who bears a resemblance to the author) spins fantastic stories from his fertile imagination upon his clacking typewriter. Trying not to miss his girlfriend (away studying in Mexico), the nameless writer steadily crafts his literary effort--until strange things begin happening around him. Starting with a series of peculiar phone calls, the writer then finds clumps of seaweed on his doorstep. But as the incidents escalate, his friends fall victim to a series of mysterious "accidents"--some of them fatal. Aided by Elmo Crumley, a savvy, street-smart detective, and a reclusive actress of yesteryear with an intense hunger for life, the wordsmith sets out to find the connection between the bizarre events, and in doing so, uncovers the truth about his own creative abilities.

What would happen if America and Russia redefined their spheres of influence? If the Soviets withdrew their interests in Cuba, South America, Afghanistan – and the US pulled their troops out of Europe? Such a radical redrafting of the political map would have consequences for all those involved? Charles Krogh thought he had left the intelligence world for good, but before long finds himself immersed back in the vast invisible game without rules, the game of deception and bluff... the game without which the world can never be safe... or at peace. Nicholas Reed, brutally murdered by a stone-cold KGB killer – what did he know? Marshal T. K. Golovanov, Hero of the Soviet Union and one of the most powerful men in the world – why is he jeopardising the future of his country with a female agent? Michael Townshend, an English businessman on a visit to a Moscow trade fair – what is the real reason for his trip? Win or lose,...

Cord MaKiy and the band of teenagers from Earth who had been exiled to the planet of Klydor had only to wait—along with their newfound ally, Lathan—until ColSec, the dreaded Colonization Section of Earth’s despotic government, sent an investigative team. The next step in their plan could then be taken. They would seize the ColSec ship and return to Earth, recruiting members of the youth gangs there to join a carefully planned rebellion against ColSec’s stranglehold on the space colonies.But their efforts in the eerie, decaying urban ruins of Limbo, where the wild Streeter gang rules, end in disaster. The Streeters’ leader is set against the plan and betrays Cord and his friends to the Civil Defenders. The teenagers face prison and probable execution, while the rebellion seems to have been wrecked before it had a chance to start.In the end Cord MaKiy and his friends, known to readers of Exiles of ColSec and The Caves of Klydor, must fight a last-stand battle against ColSec—a battle that they believe they cannot win. In this final book of the trilogy. Douglas Hill’s legion of fans will be gripped from the first action-packed moment to the very last.

CHAPTER 1 W hen Dawn Rochelle was thirteen years old, they told her she had cancer. She sat in her doctor's office, clutching her mother's hand, ...

A “brisk and entertaining” novel of a barren, mysterious planet that may save humanity—or destroy it—by the author of Star Wars: Heir to the Empire (Publishers Weekly).  Chasing a new frontier, humankind sends a manned starship into the universe and away from the overpopulated Earth in hopes of finding a new planet to colonize. But every Earthlike world they discover is already inhabited. As it turns out, the universe is a very crowded place. An alien council offers to lease the one remaining uninhabited world: Astra, a bleak and barren but serviceable planet. The new settlement, though, quickly experiences serious problems, from dying crops to the mysterious disappearance of anything and everything that is made of metal. And then Astra reveals a secret neither the aliens nor the human governments could ever have imagined.

In The Old Gringo, Carlos Fuentes brings the Mexico of 1916 uncannily to life. This novel is wise book, full of toughness and humanity and is without question one of the finest works of modern Latin American fiction.One of Fuentes's greatest works, the novel tells the story of Ambrose Bierce, the American writer, soldier, and journalist, and of his last mysterious days in Mexico living among Pancho Villa's soldiers, particularly his encounter with General Tomas Arroyo. In the end, the incompatibility of the two countries (or, paradoxically, their intimacy) claims both men, in a novel that is, most of all, about the tragic history of two cultures in conflict.

<p>Martin Martel is an exile in trouble with the gods in this SF novel by the bestselling writer L. E, Modesitt, Jr, now back in a new trade papeback edition from Tor. After finding out that he has unusual powers, he is banished from the planet Karnak. Martin is thrust into the tranquil world of Aurore, vacation paradise for the galaxy. There he finds that the reality of Aurore is much different from its serene veneer. The gods are wantonly cruel and indifferent to the chaos they cause: are they really gods or just men and woman with larger-than-life powers? Whatever the answer Martin Martel must challenge their supremacy to defend his life, love, and the fate of all mankind.</p><p></p><p></p>

It was not McAllister's speed with a gun – nor his accuracy. It was his infernal luck. The way he walked away alive from every fight.Brennan was nervous. He had come to Black Horse to kill. And McAllister was wearing the sheriff's badge.At stake was the life of a newspaperman who opposed the land-grabbing ranchers. Also the safety of his beautiful daughter ... and the future of the terrorized small farmers.But the hired assassin and the lawman had one thing in common – a passion for horses. And it was McAllister's plan to bait his trap by staging the greatest horse-race the West had ever known ...

The book that marked the first appearance in the United States of Robertson Davies’ mischievous alter ego, Samuel Marchbanks, is now available as an eBook for the first time. In 1942, two years after returning to Canada from Britain, Robertson Davies took up the role of editor of the Peterborough Examiner. During his tenure as editor at the Examiner, a post he held until 1955, and later as publisher of the newspaper (1955–65), Davies published witty, curmudgeonly, mischievous, and fiercely individualistic editorials under the name of his alter ego, Samuel Marchbanks, “one of the choice and master spirits of his age.” In this single volume, first published in 1985, the “gentle headwaiter to Marchbanks’ splendid banquet” has edited and selected from his alter ego’s observations to bring together previous titles in the Marchbanks bibliography: The Diary (1947), The Table Talk (1949), and Samuel Marchbanks’ Almanack (1967).  Here is treasure! Marchbanks on politics, on his furnace, on theatre, on the taxman, on trains, on Christmas, on book-banners, on manners, indeed on everything under the sun! Not only this, but Davies’ copious and quite delectable Notes are “calculated to remove all Difficulties caused by the passage of Time and to offer the Wisdom, not to speak of Whimsicality, of this astonishing man to the Modern Public, in the most convenient form.” Reviewing the first edition of Papers for the New York Times in 1986, Davies’ longtime friend John Kenneth Galbraith said: “Not many journalists would wish to risk having their daily efflux dug out and published after a lapse of 40 years. . . . This writing of four decades ago is consistently incisive, insulting, funny, relevant and altogether interesting.” The Papers of Samuel Marchbanks, best savoured at leisure, and returned to time and again, “offers a humourous and insightful picture of postwar Canadian life as seen through the eyes of a delightful eccentric who reminds . . . of a boozeless W.C. Fields.” Charles Bishop, English Dept., University of New Orleans.

From the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and author of the Cairo trilogy, comes Akhenaten, a fascinating work of fiction about the most infamous pharaoh of ancient Egypt. In this beguiling new novel, originally published in 1985 and now appearing for the first time in the United States, Mahfouz tells with extraordinary insight the story of the "heretic pharaoh," or "sun king,"--and the first known monotheistic ruler--whose iconoclastic and controversial reign during the 18th Dynasty (1540-1307 B.C.) has uncanny resonance with modern sensibilities.   Narrating the novel is a young man with a passion for the truth, who questions the pharaoh's contemporaries after his horrible death--including Akhenaten's closest friends, his most bitter enemies, and finally his enigmatic wife, Nefertiti--in an effort to discover what really happened in those strange, dark days at Akhenaten's court.  As our narrator and each of the subjects he interviews contribute their version of Akhenaten, "the truth" becomes increasingly evanescent.  Akhenaten encompasses all of the contradictions his subjects see in him: at once cruel and empathic, feminine and barbaric, mad and divinely inspired, his character, as Mahfouz imagines him, is eerily modern, and fascinatingly ethereal.  An ambitious and exceptionally lucid and accessible book, Akhenaten is a work only Mahfouz could render so elegantly, so irresistibly. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Read this classic romance by USA TODAY bestselling author Carole Mortimer, now available for the first time in e-book!He'll settle for nothing lessAfter years of watching her mother's gullible heart drive her from one man to the next, Laurel has decided to marry for sensible reasons. She doesn't believe in fairy tales, knights in shining armour or happy endings.So, when her Ôsafe' fiancée breaks up with her on the night of their engagement party, she's surprised to be rescued by her own knight, Reece Harrington. Laurel has always avoided the attraction between her and Reece. He wants way more than Laurel can give—total possession...!Originally published in 1985 Knight's Possession by Carole Mortimer released on Feb 21, 1986 is available now for purchase.

Epub (my conversion)They were noble, proud, and fierce.This collection captures the courage of the Indianswho fought for the honor of their tribes.

Written by Marian Babson. When two grand dames of Hollywood, silent film star Eve Sinclair ('she put the sin in Cinema') and ex-hoofer Trixie Dolan set out for London to attend a film retrospective held in Eve's honour, they fully expect to be the centre of attention. What they don't expect is that all the lovely attention will be generated not by an appreciation of their talents but by a series of grisly murders associated with the retrospective. Even less do they expect to find themselves co-starring as the prime suspects in the entire murder investigation!The well-known fact that life imitates the movies is borne out shortly following the opening of the festival when several murders are committed, and each one is straight out of a scene from Eve's old films. Suspects include a group of would-be thespians occupying the flat above Eve's and a few jealous old cronces. Eve and Trixie once again pool their talents in order to find the cinematic culprit ...and barlye avoid ending up on the cutting floor themselves, so to speak. Marian Babson was born in Salem, Massachusetts, but has lived in London for the greater part of her life. She worked in many different kinds of business before becoming a full-time writer.