In the City of Gold and Silver: The Story of Begum Hazrat Mahal


Kenizé Mourad - 2010
    The soul of the 1857 War of Independence; orphaned poetess of the Chowk; captivating wife of King Wajid Ali Shah of Awadh; the Rani of Jhansi's contemporary and soul sister; freedom fighter and misunderstood mother; illicit lover and intrepid war leader--she risked everything only to face the greatest betrayal of all...This is a salute to Hazrat Mahal--a dazzling meteor in Indian history.

Rosetta


Barbara Ewing - 2007
    She thinks she is named after the Princess Rosetta of the fairytales, who married the King of the Peacocks and lived happily ever after. But when she finds that it is a mysterious small port town in Egypt that gave her her name, her interest in hieroglyphics is born. Years later, when Rose is an older, wiser and sadder woman, it is her love of language that saves her life. The French Revolution; the rise of the power of the English church; the battles for Egypt between the British and the French; the discovery of the hieroglyphs on the Rosetta Stone in that same small port town - and above all the machinations of a rich, amoral, social-climbing member of the new' aristocracy and the extraordinary characters that surround him - all whirlpool together to carry Rose into France and a shared moment with Napoleon Bonaparte, and into the dark, unknown world of North Africa in her search to understand the meaning of words, and to find a child of her own.

The War Against the Rull


A.E. van Vogt - 1959
    van Vogt wove several of his classic stories of The Rull into a novel, he created a work of enduring popularity in the science fiction field. Now back in print for the first time in the 1990s, this Tor edition includes "The First Rull," a story that postdates the novel and makes this book the first complete edition of the saga of the war between humanity and the alien shapechangers.

Warriors 1


George R.R. Martin - 2010
    R. Martin’s Introduction to Warriors:“People have been telling stories about warriors for as long as they have been telling stories. Since Homer first sang the wrath of Achilles and the ancient Sumerians set down their tales of Gilgamesh, warriors, soldiers, and fighters have fascinated us; they are a part of every culture, every literary tradition, every genre. All Quiet on the Western Front, From Here to Eternity, and The Red Badge of Courage have become part of our literary canon, taught in classrooms all around the country and the world. Our contributors make up an all-star lineup of award-winning and bestselling writers, representing a dozen different publishers and as many genres. We asked each of them for the same thing—a story about a warrior. Some chose to write in the genre they’re best known for. Some decided to try something different. You will find warriors of every shape, size, and color in these pages, warriors from every epoch of human history, from yesterday and today and tomorrow, and from worlds that never were. Some of the stories will make you sad, some will make you laugh, and many will keep you on the edge of your seat.”The stories in the first mass market volume of this book are:Introduction: Stories of the Spinner Rack, by George R. R. MartinForever Bound, by Joe HaldemanThe Eagle and the Rabbit, by Steven SaylorAnd Ministers of Grace, by Tad Williams The King of Norway, by Cecelia HollandDefenders of the Frontier, by Robert SilverbergThe Mystery Knight, by George R. R. Martin

Cat's Cradle


Maurice Baring - 1925
    With subtle twists and turns in a fascinating portrait of society, Maurice Baring conveys the moral that love is too strong to be overcome by mere mortals.

Sphinx


T.S. Learner - 2009
    During a clandestine dive to an old shipwreck, archaeologist Isabella Warnock unearths an artefact unlike anything she has ever seen: an astrarium, a powerful ancient device rumoured to have shaped the destinies of pharaohs and kings since the beginning of time. But her discovery comes at a terrible price.

Masquerade


Gayle Lynds - 1996
    For her, there is only the present...and the chilling knowledge that the world's most lethal assassin has set his sights on her.When your only link to your identity is a stranger who claim to be lover? Gordon is so gentle, so loving--and so secretive. If Liz dares to put her life into his powerful hands, will he guard it with his own--or snuff it out?When violence explodes around you, when nothing makes sense, when nobody--including you--is whom he or she appears to be? As Liz unravels a series of lies, she begins to suspect that the truth she encounters might be far more sinister--and deadly--than the original deception...

Agent of Chaos


Norman Spinrad - 1967
    But at the same time he was too organically a radical ever to be confused with a conservative. Result: Agent of Chaos! Boris Johnson thinks he wants democracy. But in the course of his adventures he discovers that democracy to him means freedom. It's a banned concept from the Millennium of Religion. Like God. He finds himself dealing with a byzantine political situation worthy of anything from the banned past. The dictatorship is the Hegemony. Opposition is provided by the aptly named agents of C.H.A.O.S. Meanwhile, the Brotherhood of Assassins plays a game that no one can fathom. Whose side are they on? Whose fool are you? Spinrad explores his philosophical theme in a manner all too rare in contemporary science fiction. The problem is that Order will always try to eliminate any random factors. By its very nature, it encourages opposition and that feeds the forces of chaos. But chaos has built in problems as well. Its victories cannot help but feed the forces of reaction, of order. The heroes in this novel ultimately opt for personal freedom. The villains try to establish a dictatorship over the very nature of reality itself. And then Spinrad throws in the discovery of aliens. A starship sets forth to meet them, the Prometheus. The Hegemony doesn't like that.

Sherlock Holmes and the Hentzau Affair


David Stuart Davies - 1991
    He is to engage the services of Rudolf Rassendyll once more to impersonate the King while the monarch recovers from a serious illness. But Rassendyll had mysteriously disappeared. In desperation Sapt consults Sherlock Holmes who with Watson travels to the Kingdom of Ruritania in an effort to thwart the plans of the scheming Rupert of Hentzau in his bid for the throne.

A Whiff of Death


Isaac Asimov - 1958
    That's why Ralph's accidental demise due to a confusion of chemicals struck Brade, as well as the police, as highly unlikely.Someone on campus had, somehow, switched bottles on poor Neufeld, and the result was as deadly as had been planned. The trouble was all the right suspects were in the wrong places when it happened...all the wrong suspects had the right motives...and the one person most qualified to solve the crime was already being considered the killer!

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Volume I


Anne Brontë - 1848
    The character development is very strong and realistic, and the dialogue of the novel is very powerful.

A for Andromeda


Fred Hoyle - 1962
    After the computer is built it begins to relay information from Andromeda. Scientists find themselves possessing knowledge previously unknown to mankind, knowledge that could threaten the security of human life itself.

The Green Archer


Edgar Wallace - 1923
    Edgar Wallace was born in Yarmouth, Greenwich, Norfolk. His biological parents were actors Richard Horatio Edgar (who never knew of his existence) and Mary Jane "Polly" Richards, nee Blair. Known as Richard Freeman, Edgar had a happy childhood, forming an especially close bond with 20-year-old Clara Freeman who became like a second mother to him. His foster-father George Freeman was an honourable and kind man and determined to ensure Richard received a good education. He is most famous today as the co-creator of "King Kong", writing the early screenplay and story for the movie, as well as a short story "King Kong" (1933) credited to him and Draycott Dell. He was known for the J. G. Reeder detective stories, The Four Just Men, The Ringer, and for creating the Green Archer character during his lifetime. His other works include: The Angel of Terror (1922), The Clue of the Twisted Candle (1916), and The Daffodil Mystery (1920).

Opium


Colin Falconer - 1994
    Laos is a sleepy post-colonial backwater, run by generals and at war with the communist Pathet Lao in the north. Corsican gangsters, left behind after the French departure five years before, run the opium trade, flying raw opium out of the mountains to Bangkok and Saigon. The most celebrated of the milieu is Rocco Bonaventure, cursed with a daughter who turns heads everywhere she goes. Baptiste Croce is kind of man her father has always warned her about - a handsome and womanising pilot with his eye on the main chance. But Noelle is a woman to be reckoned with, as both Rocco and Baptiste discover for themselves. Their affair, conducted against the looming mountains of Indochina and its blazing poppy fields, change all their lives forever. Baptiste risks his life for her again and again in the air; or is it for control of his father's opium business? Meanwhile in the teeming slums of Hong Kong's Walled City, a Chinese refugee uses his cunning and his fists to rise to become Red Pole of the Fei Leung triad. He sees beyond the filthy opium dens to a day when the drug will help him rule the world. From the jungles of the Golden Triangle to the tenements of sixties Hong Kong, from colonial Saigon to the skies of northern Laos, romance and horror collide in a stunning novel of passion and greed and breath-taking action. The Opium series charts the story of the drug trade in Indochina, from sacks thrown in the back of tiny planes in the nineteen sixties to the multimillion dollar international industry that soon became the plague of the western world.

Artifact


Gregory Benford - 1985
    And the miracle it contains does not belong on this Earth.It is mystery and madness -- an enigma with no equal in recorded history. It is mankind's greatest discovery ... and worst nightmare.It may have already obliterated a world. Ours is next.