In Maine, severely retarded. Small towns across America are being systematically "wiped out" by terrorists and their campaign of germ warfare waged against the U.S. The President's only option seems to be an equally deadly counterattack.

    Told in the same fanciful, irreverent style as the Hitchhiker trilogy, with scraps of scripts, letters and comments from Adams, Don't Panic is the perfect companion to one of the most successful series in publishing history.

    Many generations after the Delikons have conquered and reordered Earth, their system of power and organization begins to crumble.

    Plus, you'll find a perplexingly frank introduction by the author himself, giving a behind-the-scenes look at each book and the zany radio series that inspired them. But that's not all! You also get a ferocious giggle of a short story, starring the two-headed, three-armed, ex-president of the Universe -- Zaphod Beeblebrox. The saga begins and ends...The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy--Arthur Dent, mild-mannered, out-to-lunch kind of guy, is plucked from Earth just before it is demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Towel in hand, he begins his journey through space and time with his rescuer Ford Prefect, a traveling research for the Guide.The Restaurant at the End of the Universe--where the floor show is Doomsday and Arthur and Ford dine with Zaphod Beeblebrox, well-appendaged, ex-head honcho of the universe, and Trillian, his human girlfriend. The four friends begin their quest for answers to some of the most confounding questions challenging mankind. When will they finish eating? What is the question to the ultimate answer? (which happens to be 42).Life, the Universe and Everything--Everything important and then some is examined in this third book, when Arthur Dent and his companions find they must avert Armageddon and save the Universe for life as we know it (or think we know it!).So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish--Galaxy-weary space traveler Arthur Dent returns to Earth With his new voidoid gang to discover that it has been mysteriously reinstated. But more pertinent questions remain: Why did all the dolphins disappear? What is God's Final Message to His Creation? What really happened the day the Earth was demolished?And finally, in Young Zaphod Plays it Safe--the two-headed hero travels to the depths of the ocean floor to investigate the mysterious destruction of the ship that "could one hundred percent positively never crash." with the annoying assistance of the Safety and Civil Reassurance Administration, Zaphod learns some disturbing secrets...If you're just discovering Douglas Adams's galactic gangbuster of a series, don't panic--The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide is your chance to have it all! (Towel not included.)--jacket

    His life has been filled with music, and having only songs for companions, he develops a voice that is unlike any heard before. Ansset's voice is both a blessing and a curse, for the young Songbird can reflect all the hopes and fears his auidence feels and, by magnifying their emotions, use his voice to heal--or to destroy. When it is discovered that his is the voice that the Emperor has waited decades for, Ansset is summoned to the Imperial Palace on Old Earth. Many fates rest in Ansset's hands, and his songs will soon be put to the test: either to salve the troubled conscience of a conqueror, or drive him, and the universe, into mad chaos.Songmaster is a haunting story of power and love--the tale of the man who would destroy everything he loves to preserve humanity's peace, and the boy who might just sing the world away.

    When a planet's religious sects fall victim to a serial killer, an Interfed agent must immerse himself in a world of stark spirituality to save the lives of two extraordinary women...

    Home to a civilization dedicated to o'thia, the ruling ethic of pure logic. But it was not always so; thousands of years before, Vulcans were a violent, warlike race, with tempers surpassed only by the planet's hot, arid sands. The philosopher Surak would show his people another way, teach them to reject their emotions and embrace logic and knowledge. The Vulcans would evolve and prosper, eventually exploring the stars and attaining further enlightenment as they encountered other cultures. In the twenty-third century, Commander Spock, Captain Kirk, and the U.S.S. Enterprise are summoned to Vulcan when its people consider seceding from the Federation and returning to their isolationist ways. Vulcan's savage history becomes fully revealed as Spock, his father Sarek, and Kirk work to preserve the planet's future from anti-Terran factions with hidden agendas. The crisis is twofold for the half-human Spock -- should Vulcan secede, he will be required to resign from Starfleet and return home, or forever sever ties with his homeworld.Years later, a decades-old plot to destroy the Federation from within forces Ambassador Sarek from the bedside of his dying wife, Amanda. The ambassador's decision widens the long-standing rift between himself and Spock at a time when they must pool their resources together. While the Enterprise crew contends with Romulans, Klingons, and the mysterious Freelans, Sarek's only comfort comes from reading Amanda's journals, which reveal more about his human spouse, his son, and himself than he ever realized.

    Blackstone has the impunity to destroy—or create—as it sees fit.Infinity “Finn” Blackstone is the seventeen-year-old daughter of Blackstone’s reclusive CEO—but she’s never even met him. When disturbing dreams about a past she doesn’t remember begin to torment her, Finn knows there’s only one person who can provide answers: her father.After Finn and an elite group of peers are invited to Blackstone’s top-secret HQ, Finn realizes she may have a chance to confront her father. But when a highly sophisticated company AI morphs into a killing machine, the trip descends into chaos. Trapped inside shape-shifting walls, Finn and her friends are at the mercy of an all-seeing intelligence that will destroy everything to get to her.With no hope of help, Finn’s dream-memories may be the only chance of survival. But will she remember in time to save her own life and the lives of those around her?

    Daniel, a teen runaway-turned-paparazzi out for his big break, witnesses the first shot hit Suyana, and before he can think about it, he jumps into the fray, telling himself it's not altruism, it's the scoop. Just like that, Suyana and Daniel are now in the game of Faces. And if they lose, they'll die.

    A CAPTAIN ADRIFT IN SPACE. ONE OF THEM IS INFECTED WITH AN ALIEN PARASITE. In this dark science fiction thriller, a young woman must confront her past so the human race will have a future.Rosalyn Devar is on the run from her famous family, the bioengineering job she's come to hate, and her messed-up life. She's run all the way to outer space, where she's taken a position as a "space janitor," cleaning up ill-fated research expeditions. But no matter how far she goes, Rosalyn can't escape herself. After too many mistakes on the job, she's given one last chance: take care of salvaging the Brigantine, a research vessel that has gone dark, with all crew aboard thought dead.But the Brigantine's crew are very much alive--if not entirely human. Now Rosalyn is trapped on board, alone with a crew infected by a mysterious parasitic alien. The captain, Edison Aries, seems to still maintain some control over himself and the crew, but he won't be able to keep fighting much longer. Rosalyn and Edison must find a way to stop the parasite's onslaught...or it may take over the entire human race.

     But now Speaker Archon, formerly a privateer and currently head of the world of Star’s Rest, has brought news of a discovery which may prove a great boon to humankind, or a catalyst for its destruction.

    Pages of Biblical text have been appearing on every terminal throughout the network--disrupting the staff and costing the company a lot of time and work.But he's astonished to discover that the religious text tells the story of St. Vidicon of cathode, who protects people from the consequences of Finagle's General Principle and its most famous corollary, Murphy's Law. Then his attempt to exorcise the virus places him face-to-0face with the blessed saint. Father Vidicon needs a disciple to aid him in answering prayers, solving problems and averting disasters across the globe. In exchange, the Saint will give Tony some much-needed help with his love life. Now Tony's providing tech support for a world in peril. And it's going to take more than rebooting to fix this kind of system failure...

    And a billion years later, a galaxy explodes in war. When the heavy metal ruin of Mirkheim is discovered at the edge of Known Space, the gigantic planet becomes the center of a war that is fought in all the far reaches of Earth's dazzling and corrupt empire. This epic adventure of the end of a thousand-year civilization sweeps from hyperspace skirmishes in the radio glare of dark suns, to the bloody deals in the corridors of Earth itself, where the stars are traded like coins.

    Wondrous gifts: the ability—with a glance, a gesture, a word—to summon animals, bring forth fire, move the land. Fearsome gifts: They can twist a limb, chain a mind, inflict a wasting illness. The Uplanders live in constant fear that one family might unleash its gift against another. Two young people, friends since childhood, decide not to use their gifts. One, a girl, refuses to bring animals to their death in the hunt. The other, a boy, wears a blindfold lest his eyes and his anger kill. In this beautifully crafted story, Ursula K. Le Guin writes of the proud cruelty of power, of how hard it is to grow up, and of how much harder still it is to find, in the world's darkness, gifts of light.

    It is an assignment Cazaril dreads, for it will ultimately lead him to the place he fears most, the royal court of Cardegoss, where the powerful enemies, who once placed him in chains, now occupy lofty positions. In addition to the traitorous intrigues of villains, Cazaril and the Royesse Iselle, are faced with a sinister curse that hangs like a sword over the entire blighted House of Chalion and all who stand in their circle. Only by employing the darkest, most forbidden of magics, can Cazaril hope to protect his royal charge—an act that will mark the loyal, damaged servant as a tool of the miraculous, and trap him, flesh and soul, in a maze of demonic paradox, damnation, and death.