Isaac Asimov: Short Stories, Volume 1


Isaac Asimov - 2003
    With "Nightfall," written in 1941, Asimov triggered a spark of awareness in the publishing community that science fiction could be more than Buck Rogers comic books. His "Foundation" series and robot novels (he coined the word "robotics") are acknowledged as the cornerstone of modern science fiction. Asimov's Foundation series was awarded the Best All-time Novel Series Hugo Award in 1966. He was awarded the special lifetime Nebula Grandmaster award in 1987.Over the next fifty years, Isaac Asimov would distinguish himself as one of the most prolific, versatile, and creative authors ever. His broad range of works includes histories, children's books, collections of articles, mysteries, and books concerning the Bible, literature, geography, humor, and nonfiction science material. He managed over his creative lifetime to have at least one book included in each of the Dewey Decimal System's 10 major library classifications. He was known for his profound knowledge of Shakespeare, the Bible, Gilbert and Sullivan, limericks, and history, whether it be Roman, Greek or American. Isaac Asimov died in 1992 at the age of 72.Volume 1 of "Isaac Asimov: Short Stories" contains the Hugo and Nebula Award Nominee, Locus Poll Award Winner and Asimov's Reader's Choice Award Winner "Robot Dreams," the Hugo Award Winner and Locus Poll Award Nominee "Gold," the Locus Poll Award Nominee "Potential," the Asimov's Reader's Choice Award Nominated "Kid Brother," and more excellent short science fiction, including arare 1974 Saturday Evening Post four-part series, collectively entitled the "The Dream."

The Pandora Sequence: The Jesus Incident, the Lazarus Effect, the Ascension Factor


Frank Herbert - 1988
    The Jesus Incident-A sentient Ship with godlike powers (and aspirations) delivers the last survivors of humanity to a horrific, poisonous planet, Pandora-rife with deadly Nerve-Runners, Hooded Dashers, airborne jellyfish, and intelligent kelp. Chaplain/Psychiatrist Raja Lon Flattery is brought back out of hybernation to witness Ship's machinations as well as the schemes of human scientists manipulating the genetic structure of humanity. Book 1 in Herbert & Ransom's Pandora Sequence. The Lazarus Effect-In The Jesus Incident Herbert and Ransom introduced Ship, an artificial intelligence that believed it was God, abandoning its unworthy human cargo on the all-sea world of Pandora. Now centuries have passed. The descendants of humanity, split into Mermen and Islanders, must reunite ... because Pandora's original owner is returning to life! Book 2 in Herbert & Ransom's Pandora Sequence. The Ascension Factor-Pandora's humans have been recovering land from its raging seas at an accelerated pace since The Lazarus Effect. The great kelp of the seas, sentient but electronically manipulated by humans, buffers Pandora's wild currents to restore land and facilitate the booming sea trade. New settlements rise overnight, but children starve in their shadows. An orbiting assembly station is near completion of Project Voidship, which is the hope of many for finding a better world. Pandora is under the fist of an ambitious clone from hibernation called The Director, who rules with a sadistic security force led by the assassin Spider Nevi. Small resistance groups, like the one led by Twisp Queets and Ben Ozette, have had little effect on his absolute power. The Director controls the transportation of foodstuffs; uprisings are punished with starvation. The resistance fighters' main hope is Crista Galli, a woman believed by some to be the child of God. Crista pools her talents with Dwarf MacIntosh, Beatriz Tatoosh, and Rico LaPush to transcend the barriers between the different species and overthrow The Director and the sinister cabal with which he rules. Book 3 in Herbert & Ransom's Pandora Sequence.

A Man of His Word: The Complete Series


Dave Duncan - 2017
      These four fantasy novels of love and adventure follow the exploits of childhood friends Inos and Rap as their feelings are tested by the direst of circumstances. But while abduction, magic, and imprisonment conspire to separate them, the two remain steadfast in their determination to be together.  Magic Casement: Inos enjoys an idyllic childhood with her friend Rap, but friendship between a princess and a stable boy can never be simple. Soon, they are thrust into adulthood and a magical world full of infinite surprises.  Faery Lands Forlorn: When Inos is abducted through the magic casement and Rap tries to follow her, they arrive in two very strange new lands. With Rap in Faerie and Inos in Zark, they are at opposite ends of the world, but that doesn’t stop the young stable boy from heading to Zark to rescue his princess. And Inos is equally determined to head home to Krasnegar to claim her kingdom.  Perilous Seas: Hunted by the fearsome warlock wardens who rule the world, Inos is convinced that Rap has died. Little does she know, he is alive and, with the aid of his magic wand, trying to bring happiness to his beloved queen. But when the evil Nordland raider, Kalkor, arrives in port, Rap’s plans begin to fall apart.  Emperor and Clown: With Inos married to the wrong man and Rap dying in a dungeon, their cause seems hopeless. Only Aunt Kade refuses to admit defeat. Taking events into her own hands, she knows exactly the five men she can coerce into helping her . . .

The Lyra Novels: Shadow Magic, Daughter of Witches, The Harp of Imach Thyssel, Caught in Crystal, and The Raven Ring


Patricia C. Wrede - 2012
    Five fantasy novels set in the magical world of Lyra

Battlestar Galactica Trilogy: The Cyclons' Secret, Sagittarius Is Bleeding, Unity


Peter David - 2009
    Here, for the first time in one volume, are all three original Battlestar Galactica novels--based on the highly-lauded TV series that took the country by storm.In The Cylons' Secret, by Craig Shaw Gardner, a ship, scavenging the outer settlements for valuable Cylon technologies after the first human-Cylon war, stumbles on a super-secret scientific outpost beyond charted space. Mere hours later, Battlestar Galactica receives a one-word distress call from the scavenging ship: Cylons, causing the young Colonel William Adama to investigate.Sagittarius Is Bleeding, by Peter David, concerns President Laura Roslin, whose prophetic dreams have infused her people with hope that they will find Earth, humanity's cradle. But her new dreams of a galaxy overrun by the Cylons disturb her even as they energize an extremist political group. The threat of violent revolt puts Roslin at personal risk and endangers the fleet.In Unity by Steven Harper, Peter Attis, a rock star adored by all the fleet, including Starbuck, has recently been rescued from a Cylon prison ship. But after his first post-return concert, crewmembers are stricken by a strange malady that threatens to lay the fleet open to Cylon attack.

Best Sellers from Reader's Digest Condensed Books: To Kill a Mockingbird / The Shoes of the Fisherman / Seven Days in May / To Catch an Angel


Harper Lee - 1963
    To Kill a MockingbirdThe Shoes of the FishermanSeven Days in MayTo Catch an Angel

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapters 21 to 25


Mark Twain - 2011
    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Conan and the Treasure of Python


John Maddox Roberts - 1993
    The next thing Conan knew, he was up to his neck in Van pirates, killer ape-men, Aquilonian nobility, an ancient blood cult, a Stygian sorcerer and the murderous tribes of the dread Coast of Bones.

Compact Discworlds 1-4: The Colour of Magic/The Light Fantastic/Equal Rites/Mort


Terry Pratchett - 1995
    Discworld is a flat planet, supported on the backs of four elephants, who in turn stand on the back of the great turtle A'Tuin as it swims majestically through space.

Buckles, Boots & Mistletoe


Maggie Shayne - 2015
    Even more exciting, each of these stories will spin off into a series of its own. Maggie Shayne’s CHRISTMAS BLUESA true believer returns the music to a lonesome drifter’s soul.Miranda’s Shayne’s FINDING CHRISTMASA small-town coffee shop owner melts a humbug hero’s wounded heart.River Shayne’s A HERO FOR HANNAHCan a woman in grave danger learn to trust one more time?Jessica Lewis’s THE SOLDIER’S CHRISTMAS BABYA lonely serviceman comes home for a holiday he’ll never forget.Grab a cup of eggnog, curl up near the tree, and fall in love with the holidays all over again!

The Worlds Trilogy: Worlds, Worlds Apart, and Worlds Enough and Time


Joe Haldeman - 2016
    In Worlds, Worlds Apart, and Worlds Enough and Time, the acclaimed Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author of The Forever War imagines a near future rife with exhilarating and terrifying possibilities, when hundreds of thousands of human beings have abandoned the Earth’s surface to live in man-made habitats orbiting the troubled planet.   Haldeman’s science fiction saga follows Marianne O’Hara, a young inhabitant of the World known as New New York, from her arrival on Earth as a student who becomes seduced by radical politics, through her coming of age amid the Worlds’ war and the habitats’ devastation, and ultimately to Marianne’s emergence as a leader—and possibly the last hope of the human race as it heads toward the stars.   Stephen King said of the first book in Haldeman’s trilogy, “There are scenes in Worlds I will remember forever.” These gripping novels will enthrall anyone interested in the future—that of our planet and of the human race.

Soulminder


Timothy Zahn - 2014
    For Dr. Adrian Sommers, a split second of driving while distracted leads to tragedy-and obsession. His family destroyed, he devotes his entire being to developing Soulminder, a technology that might have saved his son as he wavered on the edge of death. Sommers's vision is to capture a dying person's life essence and hold it safely in stasis while physicians heal the body from injury or disease. Years of experimentation finally end in success—but those who recognize Soulminder's possibilities almost immediately corrupt its original concept to pursue dangerous new frontiers: body-swapping, obstruction of justice, extortion, and perhaps even immortality.

Eye of Vengeance


Graham McNeill - 2012
    An Ultramarines audio dramaThe Ultramarines defend a planet from a chaos invasion

Three Faces of Me


R.L. Stine - 2012
    The little black plastic box looks like a camera, but when Ira presses the green button on top, nothing happens. After dinner that night, Ira can’t believe what he sees in his room: a boy with the same clothes—and face—as Ira! He tries to get this second Ira to leave, but it’s no use. Deciding to have a little fun, Ira makes the boy go to school in his place—but it’s a disaster. The new Ira isn’t good at math like the real Ira, and he’s horrible at softball. Worst of all, he plays with the girls during recess! Ira’s clone is ruining his rep—fast. And when a third Ira shows up, Ira number one has to find a way to make the others disappear for good before his whole world is turned upside down. But how do you get rid of yourself?

The Dark Thorn


Shawn Speakman - 2011
    In the wilds of a discarded world, Philip Plantagenet, son of Henry II, moves to claim a birthright nine centuries in the making, one that drives him to eliminate the Tuatha de Dannan--at any cost to both worlds.Haunted by a past he can't forget and a knightly responsibility he can't shun, Richard is drawn into levels of machinations--and a world--far darker than any he has ever encountered.