Best of
Alternate-Universe

2010

The Thick of It: The Missing DoSAC Files


Armando Iannucci - 2010
    Based around the idea that King of Spin Malcolm Tucker has lost a confidential and highly-damaging file on a train, this book presents a collection of sensitive documents: personnel files, policy drafts, letters and emails, election campaign documents and top secret papers on the government's media strategy for wars and recessions.

Short Stories by Kurt Vonnegut (Study Guide): Harrison Bergeron / EPICAC / 2BR02B / Welcome to the Monkey House / Miss Temptation / Report on the Barnhouse Effect


Books LLC - 2010
    Chapters: Harrison Bergeron, Epicac, 2br02b, Welcome to the Monkey House, Miss Temptation, Report on the Barnhouse Effect, All the King's Horses, Who Am I This Time?, Deer in the Works. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: "Harrison Bergeron" is a satirical, dystopian science fiction short story written by Kurt Vonnegut and first published in October 1961. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, the story was re-published in the author's collection, Welcome to the Monkey House in 1968. In the story, social equality has been achieved by handicapping the more intelligent, athletic or beautiful members of society. For example, strength is handicapped by the requirement to carry weight, beauty by the requirement to wear a mask and so on. This is due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments to the United States Constitution. This process is central to the society, designed so that no one will feel inferior to anyone else. Handicapping is overseen by the United States Handicapper General, Diana Moon-Glampers. Harrison Bergeron, the protagonist of the story, has exceptional intelligence, strength, and beauty, and thus has to bear enormous handicaps. These include headphones that play distracting noises, three hundred pounds of weight strapped to his body, eyeglasses designed to give him headaches, a rubber ball on his nose, black caps on his teeth, and shaven eyebrows. Despite these societal handicaps, he is able to invade a TV station, declare himself Emperor, strip himself of his handicaps, then dance with a ballerina whose handicaps he has also discarded. Both are shot dead by the brutal and relentless Handicapper General. The story is framed by an additional perspective from Bergeron's parents, who are w...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=18941

I've Got Nothing To Do Today But Smile


gyzym - 2010
    Arthur/Eames (Inception) FanficArthur's a corporate lawyer, Eames owns the coffee shop across the street, and all good love stories start with a quadruple shot latte.Words:19867 complete

Named


R.C. McLachlan - 2010
    Somehow, that isn't the worst part of Dean's week.Art Post: http://sleepwalker1015.livejournal.co...Words:94601 complete

Life Sentence: Two Tales of the Living Dead


Kelley Armstrong - 2010
     LIFE SENTENCE As other Cabals look to vampires for the cure to mortality, Daniel Boyd sets his sights on the “other” undead: zombies. Of course, finding volunteers for his experiments proves a bit of a challenge, but when a man only has six months to live, he’s willing to break a few rules. LAST STAND In the aftermath of a zombie virus outbreak, a troop of soldiers fights to save their people from extinction. But there’s something a little different about this particular group of survivors...

The Bearkeeper


Rose Streif - 2010
     Raised by werewolves in the backwoods of southern Indiana, Deandra Brown has chosen to follow in the footsteps of her father, a paranormal investigator for the mysterious Society of Asherah. Along the way she must deal with her controversial heritage, a suddenly uncertain love life, an adjustment to city living and the problematic friendship of Matthew Arktouros, an age-old immortal who has latched onto her family as a means of keeping his sanity. And now he has an adversary in the form of the elusive Grinning Man, a predatory Spirit with the power to stir minds into madness, murder, and suicide. The Grinning Man cannot harm Matthew and Matthew cannot harm him, yet the unchecked potential for collateral damage is more than the average anomalist--and anomalist's daughter--can contain. In the meantime, a troupe of actors who have been performing the same Shakespearean repertoire for several hundred years comes to a startling realization: that the Grinning Man is in the thrall of a man once charged with bringing them to justice. For fame was once a capital crime in the secretive world of the immortal Djinn-folk, and certain of these actors bore names of such significance that they dare not use them in public even now. A sweltering midsummer is the setting and stage for this steam and gaslight-drenched fantasy of dark humor, action, and suspense, where a vibrant cast of characters is illuminated by a clairvoyant narrator whose tenuous grasp over time and space makes for a unique reading experience.