This collection shows Miles and Ekaterin meeting (Komarr), getting to know each other as Miles tries to court her (A Civil Campaign), and the wedding (Winterfair Gifts), and, of course, Miles dealing with assorted family relationships. Miles deals with political problems along the way plus recounts the loves of his life to Ekaterin. ...none of them would marry him; they all went on to lead successful lives--so unlike her life on Komarr. The last on his list was Rian: "And what does she do now?" ... "Now, She's an empress" ... "Can I take a number and get in line?" ... "The next number up", he breathed, "is one".Contents:Komarr: Miles Vorkosigan is sent to Komarr, a planet that could be a garden with a thousand more years of terraforming; or an uninhabitable wasteland, if the terraforming project fails. The solar mirror vital to the project has been shatteredby a ship hurtling off course, and Miles Vorkossigan has been sent to find out if it was an accident, or sabotage. Miles uncovers a plot that could exile him from Barrayar forever - and discovers an unexpected ally, one with wounds as deep and honor as beleaguered as his own.A Civil Campaign: On Komarr, Miles met the beautiful Vor widow Ekaterin Vorsoisson, who has no intention of getting married after the heartbreak and betrayal of her first experience. But Miles has a cunning plan to change her mind. Unfortunately his clone-brother Mark and his cousin Ivan have cunning plans of their own, and the three-way collision of cunning plans threatens to undo Miles' brilliant romantic strategy."Winterfair Gifts": Miles and Ekaterin make elaborate preparations for their wedding. But Miles has an enemy who is plotting to turn the romantic ceremony into a festival of death.

    Captain Jacob Valance has no memory of his past. Left on a strange ship in an unfamiliar sector of the galaxy, he was forced to begin a new life. Years pass and in that time he's earned a reputation as a man who can hunt down hardened criminals and go where others fear to tread. The crew of his ship, the Samson, are caught up his problems as the Captain's past starts to catch up with him. Just as new allies fall in line old enemies come creeping out of the shadows, putting everyone in jeopardy.While the crew struggles to deal with their own problems, Regent Galactic begins putting a plan in motion that will bring about the fourth fall of man and position their Corporation as the dominant power on the fringe. Their ambition and greed spell disaster for mankind.Spinward Fringe Broadcasts 1 & 2 continues and expands on a saga that begins in Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins. It can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004...

    The Confederation of Humanity is a democracy fracturing under the strain of nearly a century of war with alien invaders, the warriors of the Kreelan Empire. Humanoids with blue skin, fangs and fingers that end in razor sharp talons, they have technology that is millennia beyond that of the Confederation, yet they seek out close combat with sword and claw, fighting and dying to honor their god-like Empress. For the Confederation, there is no negotiation, there is no surrender. There is only the fierce struggle to survive.On an embattled world, young Reza Gard finds himself face to face with Tesh-Dar, the greatest of the Empire’s warriors. Born to a race whose recorded history spans half a million years, Tesh-Dar – a warrior priestess – is endowed with powers that are supernatural to human eyes. To Reza, a boy whose parents she has just slain, she is a monster. Holding him off the ground, face to face, she is slowly strangling him when he lashes out with his dead father’s knife, cutting her face across the left eye. Surprised and impressed with this young human animal, she bestows upon him a matching wound, a trophy of sorts, and inexplicably lets him live.Orphaned and alone, Reza is sent to the planet Hallmark. Supposedly a safe haven for war orphans, in reality it is little more than a slave labor planet. Toiling in grain fields under a burning sun, Reza leads a ragtag band of orphans doing the best they can to survive. But again, Tesh-Dar intervenes in his life. Leading an attack against Hallmark, she has been sent by her Empress on a special mission: to gather human children and return them to the Empire as part of an experiment to see if they have souls. Reza, along with thousands of others, is captured, with Hallmark left behind in flaming ruin. He awakens to the silver-flecked feline eyes of Esah-Zhurah, a young warrior tasked with teaching him the language and customs of her people. At first beaten and caged, Reza gradually earns her grudging respect. Over the years that follow he not only survives, but thrives as he learns the warrior ways of the Empire, becoming both more and less than human. As the relationship between the two young warriors deepens, Tesh-Dar and the Empress wonder if Reza may be the One foretold in an ancient prophecy, who will redeem the Kreelan race from an ancient blood curse.As Reza’s final challenge looms, Esah-Zhurah performs an ancient blood ritual that binds them together in body and spirit. For the first time the Bloodsong, the tie that binds every Kreelan soul to the Empress, echoes in his veins, at last making him one with the Children of the Empress. But his acceptance of the Kreelan Way leaves him with a dreadful choice: he must either make war against the humans, or – if he refuses – leave the Empire and Esah-Zhurah behind forever. The path he takes leads him toward a destiny set in motion millennia before, with the fate of both races hanging in the balance…

    Guided or possessed by an intelligence from beyond time, with new weapons, old treachery, and an implacable will to power, the Malwa will sweep over the whole Earth. Only three things stand between the Malwa and their plan of eternal domination: the empire of Rome in the East, Byzantium; a crystal with vision; and a man named Belisarius, the greatest commander Earth has ever known.In the Heart of Darkness : Having conquered sixth century India, the Malwa Empire is forging the subcontinent's vast population into an invincible weapon of tyranny. Belisarius, the finest general of his age, must save the world. Guided by visions from a future that may never be, he and a band of comrades penetrate the Malwa heartland, seeking the core of the enemy's power. And when Belisarius leads the forces of good, only a fool would side with evil.

    Even Fleet can no longer be depended on to keep the peace as family factions seek to control the new political order.

    But unless they learn to work together, neither of them will come back from their first mission together alive!

    Before she was an acclaimed mercenary soldier with the Gyrfalks, she was "Redhead," a young recruit in Lizardi's Lunatics. Meanwhile, there was a weatherman, Ichliad Brunner. A weatherman's job is to observe and predict. What else can an honorable Liaden do, but his duty? A space-based Liaden meteorologist can only observe the trials of a mercenary troop abandoned in place during a world war fueled by hate and superstition. The young soldier who carries the station's weather equipment to the surface, is cheerful, bright, and going to die. The station commander isn't concerned because the data on weapons used to gas populations and destroy cities is priceless, while the soldiers below are only misfits. Misfits like Miri Robertson, who doesn't know quite when to give up. The framing story is set immediately after the novel "I Dare", and ties those early characters back into the main intentions/plot direction laid out at the end of "I Dare".

    The children who worked the mine were orphans, kids who had been abandoned, who had lost their parents, or were generally unwanted. But Mags was different.Mags was “Bad Blood,” because his parents were bandits who had been killed in a raid by the Royal Guard. “Bad Blood” because he’d been found in a cradle in the bandits’s camp. Blood so bad that no one had wanted to take him in except Cole Pieters. When he was big enough to see over the sides of the sluices he had gone to work at the mine. Mags knew nothing of the world beyond the mine, and was unaware of how unusual his paltry existence was. Then some strangers on huge white horses forced their way past the Pieters family and carried him away to Haven to become a Herald Trainee.Suddenly the whole world opened up for him. He was warm and well fed for the first time in his life, and he had Dallen, his Companion, who seemed more miraculous than an angel. But the world of the Collegium was not all heavenly. There was political upheaval in Valdemar’s capital, for the court had been infiltrated by foreign “diplomats,” who seemed to be more interested in seeding discontent than in actual diplomacy…and Mags seemed to be the only one who’d noticed.…

    Can Caramon even hope to save his twin brother? At the same time, the beautiful cleric Crysania has undergone a mission to redeem Raistin. Will she meet success or be drawn into evil as well? Can a reunion of the Companions be far behind?

    ----- From the mind of pulp great, H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: the idea that life is incomprehensible to human minds and that the universe is fundamentally alien. He's developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of Enlightenment, Romanticism, and Christian humanism. -----48 Stories included in this volume: The Beast in the Cave; The Alchemist; The Tomb; Dagon; A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson; Sweet Ermengarde; Polaris; The Green Meadow; Beyond the Wall of Sleep; Memory; Old Bugs; The Transition of Juan Romero; The White Ship; The Doom that Came to Sarnath; The Statement of Randolph Carter; The Terrible Old Man; The Tree; The Cats of Ulthar; The Temple; Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn; The Street; Poetry and the Gods; Celephais; From Beyond; Nyarlathotep; The Picture in the House; The Crawling Chaos; Ex Oblivione; The Nameless City; The Quest of Iranon; The Moon-Bog; The Outsider; The Other Gods; The Music of Erich Zann; Herbet West: Reanimator; Hypnos; What the Moon Brings; Azathoth; The Horror at Martin's Beach; The Hound; The Lurking Fear; The Rats in the Walls; The Unnamable; The Festival; The Shunned House; The Horror at Red Hook; He; In the Vault ---- Full of intrigue, romance and adventure, this collection is a must for pulp literature fans!

    His Great Wife Shani bears him a son, and heir to his growing empire. But the ancestors have plans of their own. Shani bears him meji, twins boys considered an abomination among the Sesu but a blessing to Shani's people, the Mawena. Thus begins the story of two brothers destined to transform their world. One brother, Ndoro, fights for his place among the Sesu hoping to shed the stigma of abomination. The other, Obaseki, grows to a man among the Mawena, struggling with a gift that alienates him from his family. Both are forced to seek their destiny, travelling through teeming savanna, mysterious forests, haunted cliffs and torrid deserts, fulfilling a prophecy that changes them and their world forever.

    Cunning, ruthless, driven by an instinct for violence and defined by a complex code of honor, they must push ever outward in order to survive, defying the icy ravages of space with the fire of their hearts. They are the Klingons, and if you think you already know all there is to learn about them... think again. From its highest echelons of power to the shocking depths of its lowest castes, from its savagely aggressive military to its humble farmers, from political machinations of galactic import to personal demons and family strife, the Klingon Empire is revealed as never before when the captain and crew of the I.K.S. Gorkon finally return to their homeworld of Qo'noS in a sweeping tale of intrigue, love, betrayal, and honor.

    In a career spanning 59 years, Vance has been responsible -- more than any other writer in the field -- for creating exotic alien cultures and living, breathing worlds, among them Tschai, Durdane and Big Planet, Trullion, Cadwal and Wyst, Aerlith, Fader and Dar Sai.Now, in a single impressive volume, The Jack Vance Reader brings together three of the master's very best planetary adventures: the internationally acclaimed Emphyrio, the classic interplanetary whodunnit, The Domains of Koryphon, and the provocative and unforgettable The Languages of Pao.

    Extraterrestrial Credit is the fifth volume in the critically-acclaimed comic book series, PS238! In this collection, Cecil faces off with his first actual menace from outer space! The menace has friends and begins an all-out invasion of planet Earth! There's also adventures at "Career Day," guest starring Wil Wheaton! Charles, the teleporting bully makes another appearance, along with the rise of the mysterious Praetorian Academy! Collects issues #22-27.

    The Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting provides classic adventuring style and cutting-edge game design perfectly suitable for the world’s most popular roleplaying game!Note: Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Inner Sea World Guide has replaced this volume as the main Pathfinder campaign setting book. The newer volume has been expanded and updated, and is designed for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. And the PDF is cheaper, too!Cover art by Wayne Reynolds

    Goode is home from the war. Reportedly shattered by his experiences, he takes a night shift job at the local factory. It's no surprise that the girls there are smitten with the handsome young soldier, but as they start to leave their jobs--and no forwarding addresses--Rosie Ransom begins to suspect there's more to Johnny's homecoming than believed.When Johnny tries to turn a vampiric bite on her, Rosie kills him in self defense--and sees his soul, pure and uncorrupted, rise into the ether. Within hours, she's approached by handsome, dangerous Hank Turner, who believes her to be a Redeemer--a rare talent who can save a lost soul even after demonic possession has taken place. Rosie, facing the loss of her factory job as men--and her fiance Rich Thompson--come home from the war, is eager for any future that grants her the independence she's come to cherish as a working woman. If there are monsters to slay, she'll embrace the opportunity. Because without Rosie's help, the scare started by Johnny may turn into a full-fledged nightmare...

    The princesses of once upon a time, like Snow White and Cinderella, have grown old and become great queens. Now, their kingdom is in danger. A Forgotten Evil has returned. In a small village by the sea, two sisters, Zandria and Olena, begin a dangerous journey for Zandria to claim her birthright as a queen. Along their journey, they meet some unique friends and terrifying enemies while trying to survive places like the Dead Forest and escape troll-infested castles. Will they make it to the Crystal Castle in time to save Empyrean or will the sisters lose each other forever? One thing is certain, before their journey ends, Zandria will learn what it means to be The Fourth Queen

    He seeks an ancient scepter, a symbol under which to unite his people and hires Geth, a shifter who owns one of the trio of artifacts to which the scepter once belonged, to find it. But will the artifact do what the Darguul king needs it to?

    The narratives reveal many forms of artificial intelligence including a persecuted slave in "Computer Virus," a controlling force of the universe in "Mirror Image," or even one that's entirely indifferent to humans in "Savior." From the center of the galaxy to the swamps of Earth, all 13 inventive tales offer a trademark mix of hard science fiction interacting with flawed humanity.

    It is also a modern classic - a must-have addition to every fairy enthusiasts library. Choose this benchmark volume as the ultimate fairy book to own - and discover a blend of folklore, legend, history, poetry and literature that is comprehensive, quirky, knowledgable and deeply satisfying. This is a brilliantly concieved, highly informative exploration of fairy activities, legends, and haunts. Whether they are roaming in forests, caves, oceans, rivers, fairy kingdoms and palaces, flowers or trees, fairies or always up to something - dancing, making music, flying, playing, plotting, weaving spells and enhantments, making mischief, or simply being helpful and healing. Author Susannah Marriot explores every aspect of fairy lore, fairies, elves, sprites, sylphs, pixies and other magical beings, and delivers a spell-binding account of fairy realms with a narrative touch as light as a fairy wand. She takes the reader on an exciting voyage through the secret places of a hidden world.

    Bearing scars on her face and in her soul, she is adrift in a universe crushed beneath the might of the Zatvian Cooperative. Now Neva has received a mysterious summons from a ship called the Exile. He has no name except the insult flung at him--Rat. Without any memory of his former life, he is haunted by voices in his head, which threaten to drive him mad. Desperate to escape, Rat flees from the Zatvians hunting him by stowing away on what appears to be an ordinary freighter. The Exile is no innocent freighter, however, but instead a pirate ship embroiled in the last vestiges of rebellion against the Zatvians. So far, they have survived their private war. But now they have on board a man without a past, whose ravaged brain holds secrets that the Zatvians will kill to possess.

    Drawing on a wide variety of work by traditional and digital painters and illustrators from all over the world, it is a stunning sourcebook of ideas and inspiration guaranteed to stimulate the imagination and the senses in one lush full-color volume.Inside you'll find:An inspirational showcase of images from leading erotic fantasy artists and rising starsThe art of talents from around the globe such as Jim Murray, Arthur Suydam, Patrick Reilly, Cyril Van Der Haegen, Francis Tsai, and many many moreThe artists' inspirations, their techniques, and the stories behind their workDigital techniques that have introduced new styles into erotic fantasy artExclusive interviews with artists, which reveal the secrets of their unique effects

    When all Hell breaks loose on Earth, all Earth will break loose on HellThe Salvation War is a web original, written by Stuart Slade, which premiered online in the beginning of the year 2008, and starts by asking one question: what happens when God declares that humanity shall forever be kept away from Heaven, and all souls and bodies are now property of Satan? Humanity chooses to fight back, declaring war on both Heaven and Hell.

    More than a thousand years later, readers continue to fall under the spell of the romantic adventures known as the Arabian Nights. This original collection features rare and unusual illustrations inspired by the traditional tales of Sinbad, Aladdin, Ali Baba, and a host of other exotic characters.Spanning the decades between the 1890s and the 1920s, this volume draws upon images from the Golden Age of Illustration, when technological advances in printing led to a boom in the publication of artwork. Drawings and paintings by Maxfield Parrish, Edmund Dulac, Charles Folkard, and other acclaimed artists of the era appear here, in more than 185 color and black-and-white illustrations with captions. Abounding in mystery and excitement, these scenes from the timeless tales of heroism will captivate all lovers of fantasy and fairy tales, as well as collectors of rare books and art and illustration enthusiasts.

    A great man can be good, evil, or any shade of gray in between. A great man is a man who sees the world around him, and changes it to suit him, instead of letting it change him to suit itself. Lowin Fenly didn't want to be a hero, and he never thought of being a villain, but sometimes the path that must be walked by great men leads to dark places. Body twisted by dark magic, the scribe-turned-Knight must learn to control the beast he is becoming, or risk losing the few remnants of humanity he clings to.

    The one we know, and the one below. Aspen Matthews has always been drawn to the sea, that is why she became a marine biologist. But when an underwater experiment goes horribly wrong, Aspen discovers her connection to life under the sea is far more than scientific. She discovers that she is able to live and thrive beneath the sea!Aspen is thrilled to bring you the most complete collection of Michael Turner's first-ever creator owned series, Fathom, with this amazing Fathom: The Definitive Edition Trade Paperback! Inside, readers will find the rare Fathom Preview, issues #0 and #1/2, both of which have never been collected in a trade before now! Issues #1 through #9, including the special add-in pages, plus the sold out issues #10 and #11, also making their first trade debut!Re-envisioned pages and excerpts from issues #12 through #14, focusing on Aspen and Cannon's ordeal with Vana! Both original Fathom Swimsuit issues featuring pin-ups from a host of today's top artists, along with a jam-packed cover gallery and more seldom seen Fathom goodies as only Michael Turner and Aspen could deliver! We'll also be including the complete Aspen Extended Edition which bridges the gap between Fathom Volume 1 and Volume 2, and also features the first appearance of everyone's favorite Blue warrior goddess, Kiani! Combine all that together, and you have 496 massive pages of everything that was Fathom Volume 1.

    During this time, a strange amber glow suffused the sky. But, something else happened. Something in the comet's tail had an adverse affect on dead tissue and the result was the reanimation of every dead animal carcass on the planet. A handful of survivors hole up in a diner in the backwoods of New Hampshire while the undead creatures of the night hunt for human prey. There's a new blue plate special at DJ's Diner and Truck Stop, and it's you!

    If the Rebel Alliance hopes to bring its vision of peace to the galaxy, Emperor Palpatine and his unflinching enforcer Darth Vader must be stopped Experience the climax of one of the most beloved sagas in history as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and all the rest reach their ultimate destinies in this photo comic that fits perfectly into your pocket

    There's only one problem: he's only got days to live. Maybe the sinister Precipice Moth lurking in the cavernous innards of the Bug can help--if Jessie is willing to strike the kind of bargain with it that not even a dying man would take...

    The greatest adventure in the galaxy comes to life in this manga-sized adaptation of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back composed of frames taken directly from the movie Han Solo braves the icy wastes of Hoth to save his friend, Luke Skywalker crashes into the swamps of Dagobah in search of the last Jedi Master, and Princess Leia falls into the hands of Darth Vader amidst the clouds of Bespin in this legendary tale The battle between the cruel Galactic Empire and the ragtag Rebel Alliance reaches its highest pitch yet in this amazing pocket-sized photo comic