The survivors find themselves chained in the dark, filthy hold of a ship crossing the ocean to the New World, where they are sold into slavery. The powerful master of a vast Southern plantation purchases the 11-year-old Irish lad Aidan O'Dere. Yes, you read that right--in this alternate America, the South was colonized by black Africans, and the North by Vikings, who sell abducted Celts and Franks to the Southerners. Through his brilliant inversion of our history, author Steven Barnes examines the complex evils of slavery in a new light with Lion's Blood, an intelligent and exciting novel of freedom and bondage, battle and intrigue, sex and love, set in an America threatened by total war as Aztecs, Zulus, Moors, and whites clash. A Hugo Award and Cable Ace Award nominee, Steven Barnes has written 15 novels and 15 teleplays. --Cynthia Ward There is a sequel to this book called Zulu Heart

    . . Kenneth Hite is back with more proof that Everything Is A Conspiracy Waiting To Happen. This second collection of Hite's popular columns from Pyramid, our online magazine, contains just as much obscure knowledge, bizarre cross-references, and Things We Weren't Meant To Know as the first one - and it's all updated and annotated! Remember, it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you . . . whoever They are.

    Even as he pondered how to obey, Videssos's legions are on the march, attacking Makuran first. Abrivard finds himself fighting a defensive war, putting his great battle skills to the task of driving the invaders from his home, the land of the Thousand Cities. But even as he struck back at the invader, he realized that force of arms alone would not carry the day, for Videssos's powerful sorcerers were the stuff of legend, and a strong sword are could not stand against a potent battle spell which could strike the mightiest warrior dead from miles away . . .

    And never before had men been more divided. For Jew to unite with Nazi, American with Japanese, and Russian with German was unthinkable.But the alternative was even worse.As the fate of the world hung in the balance, slowly, painfully, humankind took up the shocking challenge . . .

    Each has different histories and societies, some different geologies, but all share the same physical laws and chronology. At critical historical points on one of the planets, crucial decisions result in two Earths with the same prior history but differing subsequent ones. Major events on neighbouring planets in the Timestream affect each other strongly...James IV, High King of Ireland and the worlds he rules, is deposed at the height of the Three Worlds' War in 1941. Banned from the throne by his corrupt nobles for sixty years, he struggles to survive and maintain the Pax Hibernia (Ireland's enforced peace over the planet) despite clan MacCarthy's genocidal high-tech schemes. Characters struggle with religious and political loyalties as all are drawn into Greater Hibernia's intrigues. Romance and tragedy converge on the stage in remote Edwardstown, launching reborn lives and new hopes.