Admiral Naismith of the Dendarii Free Mercenaries, is a young man of many parts.Miles and his handsome cousin Ivan are called upon to play a simple diplomatic role on the capital world of Barrayar's old enemy until murder and deceit thrust them into Cetagandan internal politics at the highest levels, and Miles discovers the secrets of the haut-women's biological domain to be very complicated indeed.Commander Elli Quinn, sent by Miles on the trail of those secrets, meets a man who marches to the beat of a very different drummer. Dr. Ethan Urquhart, obstetrician from a planet forbidden to women, is on a quest at cross-purposes to Elli's mission - or is it?Consequences of Cetagandan bioengineering continue to play out, this time on a Dendrii sortie to the crime planet of Jackson's Whole. When he encounters a genetically altered super-soldier, Miles's routine rescue strike takes a sudden hard turn for the unanticipated.Contents: CetagandaEthan of AthosLabyrinth.

    Ballard has been one of Britain's most celebrated novelists. From the beginning he has been equally admired for his distinctive and highly influential short stories, the first of which - "Prima Belladonna" and "Escapement" - appeared in Science Fantasy and New Worlds in 1956. Now, all of his published stories - including four not previously featured in a collection - have been arranged in the order of original publication, providing an unprecedented opportunity to review the career of one of Britain's greatest writers.A Washington Post Best Book of 2009, Boston Globe Best Book, Los Angeles Times Favorite Book, and San Francisco Chronicle Best Book.Contents:- Prima Belladonna [Vermilion Sands] (1956)- Escapement (1956)- The Concentration City (1957, variant of Build-Up)- Venus Smiles [Vermilion Sands] (1957)- Manhole 69 (1957)- Track 12 (1958)- The Waiting Grounds (1959)- Now: Zero (1959)- The Sound-Sweep (1960)- Zone of Terror (1960)- Chronopolis (1960)- The Voices of Time (1960)- The Last World of Mr. Goddard (1960)- Studio 5, The Stars [Vermilion Sands] (1961)- Deep End (1961)- The Overloaded Man (1961)- Mr F. is Mr F. (1961)- Billennium (1961)- The Gentle Assassin (1961)- The Insane Ones (1962)- The Garden of Time (1962)- The Thousand Dreams of Stellavista [Vermilion Sands] (1962)- Thirteen to Centaurus (1962)- Passport to Eternity (1962)- The Cage of Sand (1962)- The Watch-Towers (1962)- The Singing Statues [Vermilion Sands] (1962)- The Man on the 99th Floor (1962)- The Subliminal Man (1963)- The Reptile Enclosure (1963)- A Question of Re-Entry (1963)- The Time-Tombs (1963)- Now Wakes the Sea (1963)- The Venus Hunters (1963)- End-Game (1963)- Minus One (1963)- The Sudden Afternoon (1963)- The Screen Game [Vermilion Sands] (1963)- Time of Passage (1964)- Prisoner of the Coral Deep (1964)- The Lost Leonardo (1964)- The Terminal Beach (1964)- The Illuminated Man (1964)- The Delta at Sunset (1964)- The Drowned Giant (1964)- The Gioconda of the Twilight Noon (1964)- The Volcano Dances (1964)- The Beach Murders (1966)- The Day of Forever (1966)- The Impossible Man (1966)- Storm-Bird, Storm-Dreamer (1966)- Tomorrow Is a Million Years (1966)- The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race (1966)- Cry Hope, Cry Fury! [Vermilion Sands] (1967)- The Recognition (1967)- The Cloud-Sculptors of Coral D [Vermilion Sands] (1967)- Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan (1968)- The Dead Astronaut (1968)- The Comsat Angels (1968)- The Killing Ground (1969)- A Place and a Time to Die (1969)- Say Goodbye to the Wind [Vermilion Sands] (1970)- The Greatest Television Show on Earth (1972)- My Dream of Flying to Wake Island (1974)- The Air Disaster (1975)- Low-Flying Aircraft (1975)- The Life and Death of God (1976)- Notes Towards a Mental Breakdown (1976)- The 60 Minute Zoom (1976)- The Smile (1976)- The Ultimate City (1976)- The Dead Time (1977)- The Index (1977)- The Intensive Care Unit (1977)- Theatre of War (1977)- Having a Wonderful Time (1978)- One Afternoon at Utah Beach (1978)- Zodiac 2000 (1978)- Motel Architecture (1978)- A Host of Furious Fancies (1980)- News from the Sun (1981)- Memories of the Space Age (1982)- Myths of the Near Future (1982)- Report on an Unidentified Space Station (1982)- The Object of the Attack (1984)- Answers to a Questionnaire (1985)- The Man Who Walked on the Moon (1985)- The Secret History of World War 3 (1988)- Love in a Colder Climate (1989)- The Enormous Space (1989)- The Largest Theme Park in the World (1989)- War Fever (1989)- Dream Cargoes (1990)- A Guide to Virtual Death (1992)- The Message from Mars (1992)- Report from an Obscure Planet (1992)

    Now, in one handy volume, are the two newest adventures of Vlad Taltos, human in aworld of near-immortal Dragaeran "elfs," witch and telepathic partner to the winged-lizard Loiosh. Dragon tells the story htat has bedeviled Vlad's fans for years: how a self-respecting assassin ended up as a soldier on the losing side of the famous Battle of Baritt's Tomb -- an apocalyptic warbetween two sorcerous armies. Since Vlad much prefers the shadows to daylight, and a knife in the back to massed magical battle, you know the answer involves the words "kicking and screaming"... Issola finds an older and slightly wiser Vlad on the run from his employers, the house of jhereg, over the small matter of a double-cross. Unfortunately, he's going to wish he had only the jhereg to worry about, since two of his most powerful friends have been kidnapped by teh Jenoine -- the enigmatic race that may have created the Dragaerans hundreds of thousands of years ago and who are masters of time and space itself. And if that's not enough, the Jenoine apparently want to hire Vlad to kill a God....

    The Lost Barkscrolls include the stories CLOUD WOLF, THE SLAUGHTERER'S QUEST, THE BLOODING OF RUFUS FILATINE and THE STONE PILOT.Unfortunately, this book is no longer in print. However, These four stories have now been included in the four most recent UK editions of the original books.- Cloud Wolf is now the first five chapters of The Curse of the Gloamglozer.- The Stone Pilot is at the end of Midnight over Sanctaphrax.- The Slaughterer’s Quest is at the end of The Last of the Sky Pirates.- The Blooding of Rufus Filatine is at the end of Freeglader.

    Your chance to read the first four volumes of one of the most thought-provoking and tremendously humorous epics in modern publishing. Join the quest in THE EYRE AFFAIR, where Fforde introduces the fresh and delightfully original literary detective, Thursday Next. With the wit and imagination of Lewis Carroll, and the ability to grip the reader from the start, Jasper Fforde has created a feisty, loveable heroine and a plot of such richness and ingenuity that it will take your breath away. Follow her adventures as she continues her exciting journey into the world's best books in LOST IN A GOOD BOOK, THE WELL OF LOST PLOTS and SOMETHING ROTTEN.

    It is home to an enigmatic machinelike structure called the Blood Spire, which has already brutally and systematically claimed the lives of one starship crew that attempted to uncover its secrets. But nothing will deter Richard Swift from exploring this object of alien origin…

    

    Introduction by Barry N. Malzberg. Dustjacket art by Bob Eggleton.

    Arthur Machen had a profound impact upon H.P. Lovecraft and the group of stories that would later become known as the Cthulhu Mythos. This first volume of Chaosium's Arthur Machen collection begins with the chilling "The Three Impostors" in its complete form, including the rarely seen sections "The Decorative Imagination" and "The Novel of the Iron Maid." Rounding out the first volume are "The Great God Pan," "The Inmost Light," and "The Shining Pyramid," all are excellent tales.

    True Names by Vernor Vinge, first published in 1981, is such a work.Here is a feast of articles by computer scientists and journalists on the cutting edge of the field, writing about innovations and developments of the Internet, including, among others:Danny Hillis: Founder of thinking machines and the first Disney Fellow.Timothy C. May: former chief scientist at Intel--a major insider in the field of computers and technology.Marvin Minsky: Cofounder of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab.Chip Morningstar and F. Randall Farmer: Codevelopers of habitat, the first real computer interactive environment.Mark Pesce: Cocreator of VRML and the author of the Playful World: How Technology Transforms Our Imagination.Richard M. Stallman: Research affiliate with MIT; the founder of the Free Software Movement.

    Howard is the world-renowned author of the Conan series and the stories that were the basis of the recent Kull movie. He also was one of H.P. Lovecraft's frequent correspondents, and an author of many pivotal Mythos tales. This book collects together all of Howard's Mythos tales, including the tales that originated Gol-Goroth, Unausspreclichen Kulten, and Friedrich Von Junzt. Included in this collections are several fragments left behind by Robert E. Howard which have been completed by a variety of authors.This book has been long anticipated by readers of H.P. Lovecraft and Call of Cthulhu players alike.

    Indeed, the souls in Hell can be seen, and angels occasionally come to Earth, typically causing a mixture of miraculous events and capricious disasters.

    This 32-page book features striking illustrations that entice young readers and new words to help develop vocabulary.A Classic Story For All: When the big bad wolf comes to town, three little pigs need to build houses to keep themselves safe from him. Find out whose house is the strongest, and learn how hard work always pays off in the end!Features: More than just an engaging and timeless fairy tale, this children’s book includes illustrations that jump off the page, a narrative that encourages imagination, and a universal lesson every child should learn.Leveled Reading: This early reading book engages preschoolers to third graders with leveled reading text, illustrations, vocabulary, and an interesting story about work ethic to promote reading comprehension.Why Rourke Educational Media: Since 1980, Rourke Publishing Company has specialized in publishing engaging and diverse non-fiction and fiction books for children in a wide range of subjects that support reading success on a level that has no limits.

    The story follows that of a sky-battle between the Galerider, Wind Jackal's ship, and the Great Sky Whale, a formidable slave ship. Special release for World Book Day 2001 and no longer in print - although Cloud Wolf is now the first five chapters of The Curse of the Gloamglozer in the most recent UK edition of the book.

    A new collection of short stories from Hopkinson, including "Greedy Choke Puppy," which Africana.com called "a cleverly crafted West Indian story featuring the appearance of both the soucouyant (vampire) & lagahoo (werewolf)," "Ganger (Ball Lightning)," praised by the Washington Post Book World as written in "prose [that] is vivid & immediate," this collection reveals Hopkinson's breadth & accomplishments as a storyteller.

    But that doesn't explain why NASA picks her to be part of a two man, two woman crew to Mars -- or does it?Bob Kaganovski, the ship's mechanic, is paid to be paranoid -- and he's good at it. After a teeth-rattling launch, Bob realizes that his paranoia hasn't prepared him for this trip. He can deal with a banged-up ship, but how's he going to survive the next five months with HER just a flimsy partition away?Halfway to the Red Planet, an explosion leaves the crew with only enough oxygen for one. All evidence points to sabotage -- and Valkerie and Bob are the obvious suspects.Oxygen is a witty, multi-award-winning roller coaster ride, with a plot that moves at the speed of light.The authors had hoped to work in some cool controversy on science, faith, the meaning of life, the existence of God, and possibly even the Coke versus Pepsi debate, but they were having so much fun writing the story that they forgot to offend anyone.This is the second edition of Oxygen, released in September, 2011. It includes four bonus appendices that will specially interest aspiring authors and readers who want to know the story behind the story. Learn how John and Randy sold this novel to a publisher in less than 7 weeks -- without an agent. See the exact proposal they used to sell the book. And read their hilarious critiques of each other's first scene.

    Included here are the works of masters of the form and of bright new talents, including:Stephen Baxter, M.Shayne Bell, Rick Cook, Albert E. Cowdrey, Tananarive Due, Greg Egan, Eliot Fintushel, Peter F. Hamilton, Earnest Hogan, John Kessel, Nancy Kress, Ursula K. Le Guin, Paul J. McAuley, Ian McDonald, Susan Palwick, Severna Park, Alastair Reynolds, Lucius Shepard, Brian Stableford, Charles Stross, Michael Swanwick, Steven Utley, Robert Charles WilsonSupplementing the stories is the editor's insightful summation of the year's events and lengthy list of honorable mentions, making this book a valuable resource in addition to serving as the single best place in the universe to find stories that stir the imagination and the heart.

    All Witch World knows that the hunted, hated beasts serve Evil--all except one young woman. Fleeing her home after her beloved grandfather dies, the orphaned Navajo-Comanche girl Eleeri follows an ancient and magical trail to Witch World. When she discovers the Kepliana mare Tharna and her newborn colt in the hands of men eager to destroy them, Eleeri fights for their freedom. Running for their lives, psychic Eleeri and telepathic Tharna bond. And in a hidden canyon, they discover the awesome truth: The Keplians were created to serve Light, and to ride with humans. THE MAGESTONE They are two strangers whose people have been at war for a millennium. Mereth, a Dales trader, crosses the sea to Estcarp and the archival citadel at Lormt, seeking clues to the fate of a missing heirloom, an ancient jewel of Power. At the same time, an Alizonder hound lord, Kasarian, finds that an ancestor's key opens a magic gate to distant Lormt. Alizonders are wolfish tyrants who fight with sadistic poisons

    But Lankhmar is under attack from a strange horde of invaders, including a two-headed dragon and an army of miniature wanderers ...Once those threats are seen off, a quest to the farthest reaches of Nehwon is in prospect. And then, in the last book of their adventures, Fafhrd goes sailing through the clouds, and the Mouser takes to the seas, before we finally bid a fond, if sad, farewell to Lankhmar. THE SECOND BOOK OF LANKHMAR includes the last three volumes of the hugely enjoyable series.

    His body is kept young and in perfect health by advanced scientific methods; he has amassed such a fortune that he can own entire planets; and he has become a god. No, not a god of Earth, but one of the panetheon of the alien Pei'ans: he is Shimbo of Darktree, Shrugger of Thunders. Yet he doesn't believe that his personality has merged with the ancient consciousness of Shimbo, that he really can call down the skies upon his enemies. The time comes, however, when Francis Sandow must use these powers against the most dangerous antagonist in the universe: another Pei'an god -- Shimbo's own enemy, Belion. And Belion has no doubt whatever of his own powers.... Eye of Cat A retired hunter of alien zoo specimens, William Blackhorse Singer, the last Najavo on a future Earth, is called upon by the World Government to aid in protecting an alien diplomat from a powerful and hostile member of his own species. Singer, in turn, seeks the aid of a shape-shifting alien known as "Cat" in carrying out the mission. Cat accepts, with one condition: when the mission is over, he wants a return bout with the man who captured him -- a chase with Singer as the hunted instead of the hunter....

    "Hermit and Six Toes"; "Vera Pavlovna's Ninth Dream"; "The Life and Adventures of Shed Number XII"; and "Tai Shou Chuan USSR" are four characterstic stories by the young Russian virtuoso Victor Pelevin, here collected in a New Directions Bibelot edition. With a deadpan and cooly ironic voice that speaks of the phantasmagorical, the surreal, the grotesque and the absurd just as affectingly as Gogol did in his day, Victor Pelevin writes of the dark chaos of the New Russia. In one story, a public toilet attendant discovers in her tiled hovel the entranceway to an alternate reality; in another, a man walks through a city at night with a companion he isn't entirely sure isn't his own shadow. This slim volume offers first-time Pelevin readers a compelling taste of his bleakly comic genius.

    The investigators of the National Research Institute of Police Science's 9th Forensics Laboratory must weigh the ethical choices in the ultimate invasion of privacy as they delve into people's minds to solve crimes.

    This collection contains ten stories in the "Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser" series, seven originally collected in Swords Against Death, two originally collected in Swords in the Mist, plus "Bazaar of the Bizarre", as follows, with dates of original publication:Thieves' House * Unknown, February 1943The Bleak Shore * Unknown, November 1940The Howling Tower * Unknown, June 1941The Sunken Land * Unknown, February 1942The Seven Black Priests * Other Worlds, May 1953Claws from the Night ["Dark Vengeance"] * Suspense, November 1951The Price of Pain-Ease * ss Swords Against Death, Ace, 1970Bazaar of the Bizarre * Fantastic, August 1963The Cloud of Hate * Fantastic, May 1963Lean Times in Lankhmar * Fantastic, November 1959

    Now, for the first time anywhere, Troublemakers presents a collection of Ellison's classic stories -- chosen by the author -- that will introduce new readers to a writer described by the New York Times as having "the spellbinding quality of a great nonstop talker, with a cultural warehouse for a mind."

    They find that balancing this honorable position along with keeping up with their lives on Earth is a difficult task. Their first mission is to defeat the evil Prince Phobos who rules over Meridian, the capital of Metamoor. He plans to suck Metamoor dry of its magic and then move on to the next world and repeat this process until he is ruler of the universe and able to defeat the Oracle.Includes issues 1-12:1. Halloween2. The Twelve Portals3. The Dark Dimension4. The Power of Fire5. So Be It Forever6. Illusions and Lies7. One Day You'll Meet Him8. The Black Roses of Meridian9. The Four Dragons10. A Bridge Between Two Worlds11. The Crown of Light12. The Challenge of Phobos

    Delany is one of the most acclaimed writers of speculative fiction. Babel-17, winner of the Nebula Award for best novel of the year, is a fascinating tale of a famous poet bent on deciphering a secret language that is the key to the enemy’s deadly force, a task that requires she travel with a splendidly improbable crew to the site of the next attack. For the first time, Babel-17 is published as the author intended with the short novel Empire Star, the tale of Comet Jo, a simple-minded teen thrust into a complex galaxy when he’s entrusted to carry a vital message to a distant world. Spellbinding and smart, both novels are testimony to Delany’s vast and singular talent.

    After a terrifying mid-air disaster and subsequent crash, these three are the sole survivors, stranded together on a deserted tropical island. Or so they think. Semi, Miranda, and Arnie stumble into the hands of Dr. Franklin, a mad scientist who’s been waiting for them, eager to use them as specimens for his experiments in genetic engineering.From the Hardcover edition.

    Though Gundam has only recently become a phenomenon in the U.S., it has existed for over 20 years, and was rated by fans in Japan (and many in the U.S. ) as the top anime franchise of all time.

    Using interviews with friends, family and fellow artists, this book provides an examination of his life.

    But the one mystery he's never solved is the mystery of his own origin. Red-skinned, pointy-tailed and horned, he stands out in a crowd. But did he come from hell to damn us or to save us?

    But Marco is curious, and before long he investigates. He finds a passage into a strange world, where he meets insect-like creatures who seem to know all about Lilly. They believe she is special and beg Marco to bring her to them so that she can embark on a dangerous quest to save their world from ruin. Can Marco help the creatures while protecting Lilly from harm?

    McIntyreThe July Ward / Sharon N. Farber (as S.N. Dyer)The Kidnapping of Baroness 5 / Katherine MacLeanSpeech Sounds / Octavia E. ButlerThe Ship Who Mourned / Anne McCaffreyA Woman's Liberation / Ursula K. Le Guin

    Now, in Gods and Mortals: Modern Poems on Classical Myths, we have the first anthology to gather the great 20th century myth-inspired poems from around the world. "Perhaps it is because the myths echo the structure of our unconscious that every new generation of poets finds them a source of inspiration and self-recognition," says Nina Kossman in her introduction to this marvelous collection. Indeed, from Valery, Yeats, Lawrence, Rilke, Akhmatova, and Auden writing in the first half of the century to such contemporary poets as Lucille Clifton, Derek Walcott, Rita Dove, Wislawa Szymborska, and Mark Strand, the material of Greek myth has elicited a poetry of remarkably high achievement. And by organizing the poems first into broad categories such as "Heroes," "Lovers," "Trespassers," and secondly around particular mythological figures such as Persephone, Orpheus, or Narcissus, readers are treated to a fascinating spectrum of poems on the same subject. For example, the section on Odysseus includes poems by Cavafy, W. S. Merwin, Gregory Corso, Gabriel Zaid, Louise Gluck, Wallace Stevens, and many others. Thus we are allowed to see the familiar Greek hero refracted through the eyes, and sharply varying stylistic approaches, of a wide range of poets from around the world. Here, then, is a collection of extraordinary poems that testifies to--and amply rewards--our ongoing fascination with classical myth.

    Then they were in his mind, and he could hear them."Green Music blends the gritty reality of Toronto's studio district with a medieval tropical paradise shaped by the union of sea turtles and humans. A struggling artist, overwhelmed by grief and the strange tales of a Great Lakes mariner, embarks on an epic journey into an unknown world. In her debut novel, Ursula Pflug delivers a shimmering narrative, gliding effortlessly between humour and psychological insight, delving deep into the unexplored depths of magic realism and fantasy.

    An exciting and colourful tale, lyrically written by Michael Lawrence, gorgeously illustrated by Robert Ingpen.

    The crew for the suicide mission will be the physicists' clones, and although the originals don't expect the crew to survive or send back information about the structure of spacetime at the Planck scale, they are secretly hopeful their genetic counterparts will prove them wrong.

    A study of the 12 motion pictures and five books (and some secondary films) that make up the eight decades of adventures of master criminal Mabuse, created by author Norbert Jacques in the best-selling 1922 German novel and brought to the screen by master filmmaker Fritz Lang in the same year. Both on screen and off, the story of Dr. Mabuse is a story of love triangles and revenge, of murder, suicides, and suspicious deaths, of betrayals and paranoia, of fascism and tyranny, deceptions and conspiracies, mistaken identities, and transformation. This work, featuring much information never before published in English, provides an understanding of a modern mythology whose influence has pervaded popular culture even while the name Mabuse remains relatively unknown in the United States.

     Dan Innes has received shattering news from the British Embassy in Bangkok: his daughter, Charlie, whom he hasn't seen or spoken to in two years, has been imprisoned in a Thai jail for drug smuggling. Angry, terrified, seething with reprimands and questions, Dan leaves for Thailand. But the jail at Chiang Mai marks the beginning of his search rather than the end. Following the faintest of trails up into the lawless, dangerous mountain region near Myanmar, where opium grows abundantly, Dan must retrace Charlie's steps -- and brave the same traps that have swallowed her...on a terrifying mission of self-discovery, blind faith, and salvation.

    With these words Mannam, the Lord of the Dead, commands Paedur the Bard to become the champion of the Old Faith. The Culai Heritage by Michael Scott is an omnibus collection of his three novels chronicling the adventures of the bard Paedur. In Magician's Law, Paedur is commanded by Mannam, the Lord of the Dead, to remind the people of the old ways, which are dying out. Thus begins his adventure traveling the realms, and so through his thoughts, words, and deeds breath new life into the old ways. In doing so he will meet some of the most interesting people and creatures that live in these lands. Also at all times he must be on the lookout for those of the new lords who wish to stop this reawakening of the old ways, and to show once and for all that they are the ones who shall be worshiped. In Demon's Law, Paedur finds himself traveling across the bridge between life and death. For he has found that Mannam may not have been totally upfront with him about what is going on in the realms. For, if you are the Lord of the Dead, what better way to increase your power then by having men fight, and die, for their lords? Now Paedur must take the fight direct

    Though Gundam has only recently become a phenomenon in the U.S., it has existed for over 20 years, and was rated by fans in Japan (and many in the U.S. ) as the top anime franchise of all time.

    Parodic one moment, serious the next, Harrison has been called by Brian Aldiss "one of the few authors capable of carrying the old vigor of earlier days forward into a new epoch."On the occasion of his fiftieth anniversary as a professional writer, Harrison has gathered together fifty of his best stories-one for each year-along with substantial notes and introductory material. 50 in 50 is at once a memoir, a compendium of an engaging body of work, and a look at the history of science fiction in the second half of the 20th century.

    Blending fiction and nonfiction, Lois Gresh's Techno Life 2020 is the first book of its kind. While many books predict the future, none focuses on one day in the life of an ordinary man and backs up the fiction with hard-based facts about tomorrow's science. The left pages are fiction, the right pages are fact. From the intimate perspective of a voyeur, we explore every facet of Joe Leinster's life: Love and Sex, Entertainment, Medicine and Dentistry, Work, Education, Transportation, Family, Food, Sleep. We watch everyman Joe struggle to keep his sanity while he chases the elusive and exotic glamour babe of tomorrow, Sherry Anne Scaturro. We pop inside Sherry Annes head and go with her to the shrink, the gynecologist, and the high-tech job where she puts the ultimate screws on poor Joe. Virtual love, virtual work, junk food that's good for you, self-monitoring of brain waves and psycho-cyber drugs, cosmetic surgery at your fingertips and in your own house; indeed, a house that responds to your every need and whim.

    Ahvren is fed up with war, but as a Vivitare soldier he must fight or risk dishonoring his family. His sister, Sabri, who dreams of freedom, is being forced to marry the emperor's loathsome son. The only chance either of them have to escape is if Ahvren can solve the mystery of the T'Chin in time. Why did forty planets of alien races surrender to the Vivitare without a fight? What is their strange preoccupation with matters of "profit"? And, most importantly, is there any truth to the rumors that the Vivitare emperor himself may soon be the target of an assassin?

    Ben is learning to cope with his newly diagnosed Asperger Syndrome, but when an alien crash-lands in his back yard, things really get complicated. The alien, Zeke, knows nothing about Earth's rules and norms and it is up to Ben and his friend Andy to help Zeke survive. The humorous parallels between the alien's inability to relate to humans and Ben's own idiosyncrasies highlight the difficulties Aspie kids face every day.Of Mice and Aliens is not just another kids' book. As well as being a delightful read for anyone who loves adventure, it is a valuable teaching tool that demystifies children with Asperger's, justifying their individuality as valid and interesting.