DESTINED TO BE TORN APART.In an Elven city beneath the streets of Chicago, the perfect storm rages, kept under control only by Marbella Mercy, the Storm Princess. Now she is of age, champions from each of the elven houses will play a game of wit and strength to fight for her hand – and for the chance to control the forces of nature.Baelen Rath, a warrior and leader of the feared House of Rath, is the only male Marbella has ever trusted. He'll risk everything to be her champion. But what he and the others don't know? The princess is fighting too.Because she's discovered that the winner is cursed to kill her, not marry her, and the only way to save herself is to win.But Marbella is fighting a power greater than herself, because someone believes that the perfect storm should be unleashed and for that to happen – the princess must die.

    A band of warriors. And one troubled kingdom.It is whispered in Agathia that the legendary warriors of the mist—cursed by the gods—can be summoned only when a champion is needed and the cause is just. Gideon, their captain, knows this to be the one path that will lead his men to redemption—lest they face an eternity of damnation.Years have passed since anyone has journeyed to the river's edge, but times are desperate. Oppressed by a cruel guardian whose dark magic threatens to destroy her people, the beautiful and courageous Merewen calls upon the bespelled warriors. In Gideon she finds more than a champion, and in his arms, more than protection. However, their enemies are fighting with a power darker than anything than they imagined, and should Gideon fail, she will lose everything she holds dear—including her heart.

    Their cups, combs and jewelry are found in every Illyrian home. They left behind a legend, too—a hidden sanctuary called Haven, where even now the secrets of their civilization might still be found.Chaka's brother was one of those who sought to find Haven and never returned. But now Chaka has inherited a rare Roadmaker artifact—a book called A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court—which has inspired her to follow in his footsteps. Gathering an unlikely band of companions around her, Chaka embarks upon a journey where she will encounter bloodthirsty rirver pirates, electronic ghosts who mourn their lost civilization and machines that skim over the ground and air. Ultimately, the group will learn the truth about their own mysterious past.

    This promotional stunt could even lead to her having her own show on the radio. Too bad she's cohosting with the station Lothario rather than hottie Adam "the Hawk" Hawkins.Her wish is granted when Adam shows up on location. Dream job and dream guy...does life get any better? After everyone leaves and the lights go out, Erica seduces him. While their steamy after-dark activities go against the station's rules, they agree that what happens in the bed stays in the bed. Back at work those forbidden adventures still tempt them. Then again, there's nothing like the thrill of the forbidden....

    But now treachery strikes at the very heart of the Dominion as two never meant to rule--one a highly skilled General, the other a master of the magical arts--seek to seize the crown by slaughtering all of clan Leonne blood.

    Salvatore's Crimson Shadow Trilogy, which consists of the novels The Sword of Bedwyr, Luthien's Gamble, and The Dragon King. This trilogy follows the story of The Crimson Shadow, a Robin Hood-like figure causing mischief and protecting the innocent in a medieval fantasy setting. There's magic, a humorous dwarf sidekick, and lots of adventure and fun.

    As shells and shrapnel rain down, British soldiers and townsfolk dig themselves in. Waiting for rescue, they try to keep up their spirits with parties and cricket matches. But General Buller's relief column can't break through. All that comes is danger, disease and starvation. Foden's spellbinding narrative introduces a cast of characters ranging from Irish Republican renegades to London literary editors to some of the most famous faces of the twentieth century. And at the centre is young Bella Kiernan, for whom the long siege represents an unexpected freedom: a chance to break old loyalties and establish new loves. Inspired by the letters of the author's great-grandfather, a British trooper, this is a powerful fictional recreation of the first modern war. With its internment camps, war-correspondents and cine-cameras, the siege and its aftermath sowed the seeds of conflicts to come.

    This text uses place names to describe some of these meanings.

    Wells in The War of the Worlds. Wrecked Martian spaceships, back-engineered by Charles Babbage and Nikola Tesla, have carried the Queen's Own Electric Fusiliers to the red planet, and Mars is now part of the ever-expanding British Empire. Professor Coffin has a problem: the pickled Martian's tentacles are fraying at the ends, and his Most Meritorious Unnatural Attraction (the remains of the original alien autopsy, performed by Sir Frederick Treves at the London Hospital) is no longer drawing the crowds. The less-than-scrupulous sideshow proprietor likes Off-worlders' cash, so he needs a sensational new attraction. Word has reached him of the Japanese Devil Fish Girl; nothing quite like her has ever existed before. But Professor Coffin's quest to possess the ultimate showman's exhibit is about to cause considerable friction among the folk of other planets. Sufficient, in fact, to spark off Worlds War Two.

    Afraid of being thrown into an isolation chamber, Michael goes home, but quickly falls violently ill. By the time he recovers and returns to work scary things are happening. Everyone who has come into contact with that patient is being systematically killed. On the run, he accidentally infects a woman living in the shadows of the underworld. She becomes ill as well, but survives. Then they begin feeling younger-and younger. Why would the government want to suppress something like this? After barely escaping federal gunmen, the two of them set out to discover what kind of infection they are harboring even though it might mean the end of their freedom.

    Dick's tales of twisted perceptions and false realities have shaped modern SF and provided the inspiration for numerous blockbuster movies.'For everyone lost in the endlessly multiplicating realities of the modern world, remember: Philip K. Dick got there first' TERRY GILLIAMIn The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch mankind is offered a permanent shared illusory world when industrialist Eldritch introduces the alien drug Chew-Z.In Martian time-Slip Arnie Kott and his plumbing union control the entire water supply on Mars. But Arnie is poisoning the lives of everyone around him.Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Dick's grim vision of a bounty hunter stalking renegade replicants through a devastated future was made into the film Blade Runner.Ubik crosses the boundaries of life, death and reality with the story of Glen Runciter. He is dead. Or is he? As reality warps for those he left behind nothing is certain anymore.A Scanner Darkly is, perhaps uncharacteristically for Dick, about the dangers of drug use, drawing a future plagued by an almost hallucinatory level of drug-induced violence.Philip K. Dick (1928-82), was born one of twins; his sister died in infancy. He lived most of his life in California and wrote more than fifty books in a career of prodigious productivity and achievement. The films Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report and Paycheck are all based on his stories.

    In his remarkable new thriller, Emerson fuses together a gripping drama with unforgettable scenes of peril that, in this realm, can explode at any second.Jason Gun, a risk-taking rookie firefighter who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, has found in his firehouse the family he never had as a child. Then, in one ill-fated turn of events, it all begins to go wrong.A bizarre accident brings a thrill-seeking woman into Engine Company 29–and into Jason’s life. Suddenly, his future on the job is at risk. Two fellow firefighters know that he missed a call because of some sexual heroics at the wrong time and place. Now, deeply in their debt, he will find out what kind of men his partners really are.When these two firefighters come upon a fortune in missing bearer bonds–money found in a dead man’s house–Jason is forced to become an accessory to their crime. And when evidence of their greed, foolishness, and thievery begins to emerge, Jason is witness to an even darker deed.Suddenly, the twenty-four-year-old, who only wanted to do the right thing, is trapped behind a wall of silence. Trying to undo his mistake, Jason moves further into the darkness, where a beautiful young woman might just be his emotional rescue–or yet one more very wrong move. Unfortunately for Jason, the worst isn’t behind him. Like a fire hit by wind, the killing has raged out of control.Capturing the thin line that separates a hero from a criminal, and an enemy from a friend, Earl Emerson’s new novel is a gripping tale of a man’s dangerous fall from grace–and of his fierce battle for redemption.

    He is the first to join the powerful rys spellcaster Shan, whose race possesses magical powers and whose Queen Onja rules many human kingdoms as their Goddess. The wickedness and tyranny of Onja disgust Shan and he desires to seize the rys throne from her. The third renegade is Miranda. After escaping from her abusive slave master, she becomes a crucial player in Shan's bid for power. To weaken Onja, Shan raises rebellion among her human subjects and gathers allies to his cause. Shan demonstrates his magic in battle and convinces his followers that the fearsome rys Queen can be overthrown. For over two thousand years Onja has ruled, but now, not even fear of her ability to enslave souls will stop her ambitious enemies.

    When the Queen invites him to join the interplanetary Congress, Andrew unveils his aggressive plans for reinstating a republic. All the political corruption, betrayal, and deception of a rotten government is unleashed, and he is framed for murder, branded a traitor and forced to run.While enemies amass all around, and civil war engulfs the galaxy, Andrew’s pride alienates his few remaining allies. The deaths of those around him mount, forcing humility on Andrew at great cost. Pride crushed and questioning his own existence, he fights his demons in order to protect those he’s come to care for. Striking deep into the heart of enemy territory, he must accomplish the impossible…survive.

    . . . The impossible has spawned the unthinkable. A military experiment in the year 2021 has thrust an American-led multinational armada back to 1942, right into the middle of the U.S. naval task force speeding toward Midway Atoll—and what was to be the most spectacular U.S. triumph of the entire war. Thousands died in the chaos, but the ripples had only begun. For these veterans of Pearl Harbor—led by Admirals Nimitz, Halsey, and Spruance—have never seen a helicopter, or a satellite link, or a nuclear weapon. And they’ve never encountered an African American colonel or a British naval commander who was a woman and half-Pakistani. While they embrace the armada’s awesome firepower, they may find the twenty-first century sailors themselves far from acceptable.Initial jubilation at news the Allies would win the war is quickly doused by the chilling realization that the time travelers themselves—by their very presence—have rendered history null and void. Celebration turns to dread when the possibility arises that other elements of the twenty-first century task force may have also made the trip—and might now be aiding Yamamoto and the Japanese.What happens next is anybody’s guess—and everybody’s nightmare. . . .From the Trade Paperback edition.