"You let a man die today because you couldn't be bothered!" "It wasn't my business." "You think nothing in life is your business!" the wizard howled. "But I'll make it so things will be!" Finnian waited alert, ready to kill if the wizard voiced a curse, but he only looked hard and said: "From now on, as long as you stay in my land, you will aid any man or woman in need of help." That didn't sound so bad..until Finnian discovered the whole realm needed help!

    Yet unlike men, whom the disease could destroy, the animals of the planet thrived. Each generation was more forceful and intelligent than the last.In the ruins of what was once a university complex, a vast band of The People, more highly evolved than those on the outside, sought to master the works of men. And they learned that the demons (as men were called) were not legendary but real. Then one day a spaceship landed...

    . . until Sombra C.Schools are closed. Thousands of sick people are locked in confinement points to die. Vigilante soldiers are pacing the streets. A mutation of a common cold virus has resulted in the deadly Sombra C illness, which is spreading through the world like wildfire. Highly contagious, it transforms its victims in the weeks before death into violent, zombie-like creatures.Zaley Mattazollo and her friends are thrilled when the anti-viral medication Zyllevir is proven to freeze the infection in its tracks. Finally their lives can go back to normal . . . except they don’t. Riots and bombings and assassinations, zombies and Shepherd soldiers running loose: the civil unrest stirred up by Sombra C unravels their world more and more by the day. And then an attack upon their holiday party changes their lives forever.

    Their patience, keen eyes, and ruthlessness helped win the Battle of Stalingrad and turn the tide of the Second World War. James Riordan visited Stalingrad in 1959 and several times later. In 2006 he met Tania Chernova, whose story was so fascinating that Riordan made her the heroine of this compelling novel. The year is 1942. Legendary sniper Vasily Zaitsev, who killed a record 242 Nazis, recruits Tania to seek out and shoot German officers. At first, she finds it almost impossible to kill. But when she discovers that her beloved grandparents, along with many of her friends, have been brutally murdered by invading Nazis, she vows to “break them like sticks.” Following her capture and daredevil escape, she leads a handpicked unit on what seems like a suicide mission — to seize Field Marshall Paulus, the Commander-in-Chief of the invading army. But Tania is no ordinary marksman. Author Riordan’s dramatic narrative and wealth of period detail make this story of one of the lesser-known episodes in World War II history a gripping one.

    These are the pictures of the dead: family portraits, mementos of the treasured, now unrecognizable, and others. The roots of Halloween lie in the ancient pre-Christian Celtic festival of Samhain, a feast to mark the death of the old year and the birth of the new. It was believed that on this night the veil separating the worlds of the living and the dead grew thin and ruptured, allowing spirits to pass through and walk unseen but not unheard amongst men. The advent of Christianity saw the pagan festival subsumed in All Souls' Day, when across Europe the dead were mourned and venerated. Children and the poor, often masked or in outlandish costume, wandered the night begging "soul cakes" in exchange for prayers, and fires burned to keep malevolent phantoms at bay. From Europe, the haunted tradition would quickly take root and flourish in the fertile soil of the New World. Feeding hungrily on fresh lore, consuming half-remembered tales of its own shadowy origins and rituals, Halloween was reborn in America. The pumpkin supplanted the carved turnip; costumes grew ever stranger, and celebrants both rural and urban seized gleefully on the festival's intoxicating, lawless spirit. For one wild night, the dead stared into the faces of the living, and the living, ghoulishly masked and clad in tattered backwoods baroque, stared back.

    Fafhrd and the Mouser had served him well and in vastly more varied fashion the the Mad Duke.-"The Sadness of the Executioner"by Fritz LeiberMorreion made a furious motion; as his hand swept the air, it left a trail of sparks. "Magic derives from personal force! My passion alone will defeat the archveults! I glory in the forthcoming confrontation. Ah, but they will regret their deeds!"-"Morreion" by Jack VanceStunned, beaten, naked, with hardly a tool or weapon among them, the merfolk followed their lord. Tauno hung, fists clenched on harpoon, until they were out of sight. The last stones of the royal hall toppled, and Liri was a ruin.-"The Merman's Children" by Poul AndersonThree goblins were entangled in the webs. They kicked and struggled furiously, spittling like cats, but only managed to become more tightly and completely enmeshed in the sticky green stuff. The six other goblins came flying, howling, at him.-"The Higher Heresies of Oolimar" by Lin Carter (Amalrik the Mangod)

    Blessed with the physique of a demigod and one of the world’s foremost minds, he travels the globe on a quest to confront evil and punch it in the face. At his disposal is a vast fortune, an endless array of gadgets and loyal friends. Now, one of those friends has gone missing in a Central American jungle and the only clue is the grotesque image of a demonic tribal mask. Dam and his trusted valet Bertrand rush headlong into danger and go face-to-face with evil incarnate to save their missing friend and attempt to destroy the Horror in Honduras.

    After the events of SecondWorld-a failed attempt by modern Nazi forces to carry out a worldwide genocide and claim the planet for the Aryan nation-he now hunts down the enemy, most of whom are running for cover. But others, as Cowboy discovers beneath the sands of Tanis, Egypt, are searching for a way to strike again. Hidden beneath the "lost city" is a network of tunnels and traps protecting an ancient power that predates Egypt's mighty empires. Vesely, along with archeologist, Dr. Sarah Pasha, traverses the underground realm, heading deep into dangerous territory. But they're not alone. Sturmbannfuhrer Oskar Dirlewanger, one of the most infamous and violent Nazi leaders from World War II, and his Direlwanger Brigade, fifty of the most ruthless criminals in the Reich, are closing in, bent on retrieving the ancient power for themselves and resurrecting SecondWorld. Trapped and on the run, Vesely and his lethal aim must face off against an army, but Nazis are far from the most dangerous element beneath the hot sands. Upon finding the ancient power source, Vesely not only recognizes it, but knows where it came from: Atlantis. With I AM COWBOY, a 38,000 word novella, Jeremy Robinson builds on his novel, SECONDWORLD, maintaining the frenetic pace, expanding the history and creating an ending that will keep his readers speculating for years to come. Combining the adrenaline rush pacing of Matthew Reilly and the ancient mystery of James Rollins with a dash of Indiana Jones, I AM COWBOY is a fast-paced battle through history featuring one of Robinson's most beloved characters.

    He ran away from his alcoholic father at the age of fourteen. An old man in Texas takes an interest in him, helping the runaway get a new identity. The boy becomes John Harding.Harding joins the Marine Corps with his new identity, looking for a chance to get an education and start over. While in special ops overseas, he’s recruited by a CIA agent who sees something in Harding besides his knack for languages and combat skill. Denny Strobert knows he’s found a killer.HARDCASE begins in a back alley warehouse in East Oakland, CA, where Harding fights for money, and to keep his skills honed, coupled with the fact he likes it. Harding does odd jobs with the only guy he trusts implicitly, his handler and manager, Tommy Sands. They bodyguard, escort tourists around the Bay Area, and do bail bond, skip trace work for a lawyer named Tess Connagher.Tess Connagher, both fascinated and repulsed by Harding, cannot stay away from him. She rapidly finds out Harding is not some East Oakland leg-breaker, and being around him can be very dangerous, whether you’re his friend or his enemy. She makes a couple of serious errors in judgment - Tess thinks she can control Harding, and she uses him to help Lora, her older sister.

    A midnight run through a cemetery to impress a couple of girls is hardly the stuff of legend, but Alex Carlisle longs to escape the crushing mediocrity of life after high school. Then he stumbles upon the ritual, and the cultists, and two bound and bloodied women. Alex intervenes and the ritual blows up in his face, leaving him bound to them both: Rachel and Lorelei, an angel and a succubus. It’s hardly the sort of challenge a guy can face with dignity when he still lives at home with his mom. Alex never imagined falling for an immortal demon seductress, or that he’d spend his nights dodging her co-workers, her old boss, and every other supernatural freak in Seattle. He never thought a woman like Lorelei could have a rival like Rachel, either. But then, nobody ever said adulthood would be easy. WARNING: “Good Intentions” contains explicit sexuality, violence, nudity, inappropriate use of church property, portrayals of beings divine and demonic bearing little or no resemblance to established religion or mythology, trespassing, bad language, sacrilege, blasphemy, attempted murder, arguable murder, divinely mandated murder, justifiable murder, filthy murder, sexual promiscuity, kidnapping, attempted rape, arson, dead animals, desecrated graves, gang activity, theft, assault and battery, panties, misuse of the 911 system, fantasy depictions of sorcery and witchcraft, multiple references to various matters of fandom, questionable interrogation tactics, cell phone abuse, reckless driving, consistent abuse of vampires (because they deserve it), even more explicit sexuality, illegal use of firearms within city limits, polyamory, abuse of authority, hit and run driving, destruction of private property, underage drinking, disturbances of the peace, disorderly conduct, internet harassment, bearers of false witness, mayhem, dismemberment, falsification of records, tax evasion, an uncomfortably sexy mother, bad study habits, and a very silly white guy inappropriately calling another white guy “nigga” (for which he will surely suffer).

    Fascinating, entertaining, and insightful, these essays cover many subjects and are delivered with the gentle eloquence Boreham is famous for. A mustread for fans of Boreham's beautiful work and worthy of a place on any bookshelf. Contents include: “A Slice of Infinity”, “Readymade Clothes”, “The Hidden Gold”, “'Such a Lovely Bite'”, “Landlord and Tenant”, “The Corner Cupboard”, “With the Wolves in the Wild”, “Dick Sunshine”, “Forty!”, “A Woman's Reason”, “The Handicap”, “Gog and Magog”, “My Wardrobe”, “'Pity my Simplicity”, “Tuning From the Bass”, et cetera. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly rare and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, highquality edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author. First published in 1919.

    The message he was sent there to deliver made him wish he were dead - in only six weeks' time the total nuclear arsenal of Camp Jackson/Mars was to be released upon the enemy..

    Blazing brawls and gritty adventure awaits dieselpunks, nostalgians, die hard or pulp-curious fans. Hope you can take a punch, because these two-fisted tales hit hard!For young hoods, the Aether Age streets of mob-plagued Chicago present a world of opportunity. And Mack and Mickey are headed straight for the top in "That Sort of World: a Tale of the Aether Age."It's class-warfare in Citadel City as Pandora Driver and her Car of Tomorrow deliver rough justice to the elites and a douche named the Gooch in "Who are the People in your Neighborhood?""The Wise Man Says" introduces Mick Trubble: a hard drinking, chain smoking charmer who bites off more than he can chew... then chews like hell. The Troubleshooter takes the grit and slang of a hardboiled detective and drops it in a dystopian setting that mixes Fedoras, trench coats, flying cars and android policemen.The dirty streets of Roanoketown were his home and his only family. Until he met HER. Now he'll follow HER into hell, tamahaak held high, and fight as a proud Indian against the Anglo Oppressors. He'll wager his life to be a true "A Friend of Spirits."Download if you dare!

    Stumbling onward into adolescence he lays bare a young man's desperate attempts to make sense of a world distorted by alcohol, bullies and yes men, This striking first novel, or 'creative confession', is at turns hilarious and harrowing. Laced with lindes of unforgettable poetry it is that rare and wonderful thing - a book which had to be written.

    Raised as a savage on the hostile planet of Mercury and honed into a fearless warrior in the low canals of the Red Planet, Stark is one of science fiction's greatest adventurers and is Leigh Brackett's most famous character. In The Ginger Star, Simon Ashton, Stark's foster father, has been kidnapped by the Lords Protector, and only Stark can rescue him!