Valente. A collection of some of Catherynne Valente's most admired stories, including the Hugo Award-nominated novella "Silently and Very Fast" and the Locus Award finalist "13 Ways of Looking at Space/Time," with a brand-new long story to anchor the collection.Contents:The Melancholy of Mechagirl (2011) poemInk, Water, Milk (2013)Fifteen Panels Depicting the Sadness of the Baku and the Jotai (2010)Ghosts of Gunkanjima (2005)Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time (2010)One Breath, One Stroke (2012)Story No. 6 (2013)Fade to White (2012)The Emperor of Tsukayama Park (2005) poemKillswitch (2007)Memoirs of a Girl Who Failed to Be Born from a Peach (2005) poemThe Girl with Two Skins (2008) poemSilently and Very Fast (2011)

    

    Whether it's Ikaros flying too close to the sun, Prometheus stealing fire from the gods or the tragedy of Oedipus, their characters have inspired art, literature, plays and films, and constellations named after them fill the night sky. But how much do you really know about them?From the clash of the Titans to the fall of Troy, here are the greatest legends of all time, brilliantly retold by classical scholar Jenny March. All the heroes, monsters, villains, gods and goddesses of classical civilization are included; the epic journeys of Odysseus and Aeneas; the founding of Athens and Rome; the quests of Jason seeking the Golden Fleece and Theseus slaying the minotaur. Giving the origins, development and interpretation of each myth, this is the essential guide to the stories that have shaped our world.

    It’s the only way to contain the fey curse that scars her cheek. The Great War is five years gone, but its scattered victims remain—the ironskin. When a carefully worded listing appears for a governess to assist with a "delicate situation"—a child born during the Great War—Jane is certain the child is fey-cursed, and that she can help. Teaching the unruly Dorie to suppress her curse is hard enough; she certainly didn’t expect to fall for the girl’s father, the enigmatic artist Edward Rochart. But her blossoming crush is stifled by her own scars, and by his parade of women. Ugly women, who enter his closed studio...and come out as beautiful as the fey. Jane knows Rochart cannot love her, just as she knows that she must wear iron for the rest of her life. But what if neither of these things is true? Step by step Jane unlocks the secrets of her new life—and discovers just how far she will go to become whole again.

    That is, until I met my phoenix.”Ana de Navalles has almost nothing, aside from her friends. Having always been a child of the slums, her fortunes change when she’s admitted to Galfour’s Point, the prestigious and almost-mythical academy, and the only place in the world where you can train to become a dragon rider.Just before she is set to leave, her friend Cien is murdered before her by a mob-affiliated criminal with surprising strength. But Ana does not cower. With dark magic seemingly on the rise, her hunger to make something of herself – and thirst for revenge – is revived.After mere days at the academy, Ana is beginning to feel like the odd one out. A poor slum-dweller in a school of snobbish rich kids, all eyes are on her, and if she can’t pass her entrance exams, she’ll be kicked out without so much of a glance at a dragon.So when she discovers a young phoenix, newly hatched, and quickly establishes a bond with the precocious and unpredictable creature, Ana’s suddenly the talk of the academy. If, that is, she can convince the school authorities to let them stay.As Ana and her friends – some new and some old – prepare to investigate Cien’s murder, nefarious forces within the academy, and outside in the wider world conspire against them. Can Ana and Fyrenza – her newly named phoenix - rise from the ashes, and shine bright upon a cruel world?This novel contains violence. This is a young adult fantasy novel. If you love epic phoenix-tamer fantasy, life-risking adventure, and loyal friendships, Phoenix Whisperer is for you.

    Bibi, the first male in twelve generations of Browns not to have taken his own life, has a furious crush on a beautiful nine-fingered woman and an unbearable urge to understand the meaning of Time, the Universe, and America. So Bibi begins his quest--careening through a world of bizarre cults, gravity-defying crones, and lunatics of every stripe--all for a chance to meet his long-lost uncle Otto, a legendary junk-dealer who lives on the Hope Valley Hubcap Ranch. Because in a world that is spinning a little too fast, and a little too wildly, Bibi’s destiny is to find the essence of hope, the beauty of hubcaps, and the meaning of life in the Valley of the Hubcap King....With a touch of Candide, a dash of Don Quixote, and healthy dose of Zen, Sean Murphy’s wondrous, riotous novel is the story of an ordinary man searching through a hilariously off-kilter world--for the truths that might just save us all.From the Paperback edition.

    With stirring imagination and an eye for colorful detail, award-winner Matthew Thayer transports readers back to a European continent that is a sea of green, a sensory overload of natural beauty. Home to woolly mammoth, hairy rhino, wolf pack and forests without end, it is a land unspoiled.There is also danger and adventure at every turn. The book series 30,000 B.C. Chronicles begins with Bordeaux. Strong women, brave men and despicable villains, the characters rise to meet the many challenges of the ancient world. The memories they share of home and the scarred Earth they left behind paint an intriguing picture of mankind’s future.

     Trolls aren't born. They're made, and they fight for the kingdom of Adynn. They are its first and fiercest protectors, guarding the roads into the mountain kingdom. When young Morgana befriends a newly made troll boy and names him Peter, she unwittingly reveals her magic to his creator. Sorcerer Veritas removes her from her remote village to the School of Sorcery. There she will learn to cast spells and forge charms, but she’ll also learn the high price of friendship, and the reality that someone with her magical ability will always be a target for others who seek power. War is coming to the kingdom of Adynn. The Vlad Empire, with its death magic and slaves, is closing in. Morgana will be trained as a war wizard, but in her heart she resists the role. She doesn’t want to fight and she refuses to kill. So Sorcerer Veritas will provide a little motivation. "The Troll Bridge" is an all new fairy tale, a coming of age quest about the power of friendship and the price of magic.

     Moon Tortured (Book 1) Death should be the end of your life—not the beginning. Sky life started with a death—her own. She spent the first twenty-three years of her life unaware of this, among other things. She always thought she was just a shapeshifter until she wakes up in a strange house with only vague memories of her mother’s death at the hands of vampires. At the request of a powerful witch, Sky is put under the protection of the Midwest Pack. But she isn’t sure she can trust them, especially after she meets the dangerously sexy Ethan, a pack member, who’s known for being more ruthless than altruistic. After she’s attacked by a necromancer, a mercenary, and the vampires who killed her mother, she has no choice but to accept the pack’s help. The Midwest Pack aren’t quite what they seem—but then again, neither is Sky. As they form an uneasy alliance to search for the reason behind the vampires’ vicious attacks, it becomes clear that Sky possesses magic no one has ever seen—and it all started with what happened at her birth. Darkness Unchained (Book 2) What happens when your only allies are your enemies? Just survive. That’s been Sky’s goal since uncovering a dangerous secret: she had died at birth and became host to a very powerful spirit shade. Now Skylar has the rare ability to manipulate magic—an ability some would kill for. Needing to lie low, she declines membership in the Midwest Pack, the most powerful pack in the country. Sky thinks she can return to a normal life. She’s wrong. When a pack member is brutally assaulted, Sky saves her. The Midwest Pack and their rivals, the Northern Seethe, are under attack, and the pack wants Sky to help find the person responsible. Once again, Sky must negotiate the lies, secrets, and strange politics that govern the otherworld while struggling not to draw attention to her abilities. Now she wonders if she will be able to find the killer—and get out alive. Midnight Falls (Book 3) A shapeshifter who possesses magic shouldn’t exist—and some people want to keep it that way. Sky has finally accepted that her life will never be simple again. As a werewolf who is a host to a powerful spirit shade, Sky has the ability to manipulate magic, among other things—and that means she has many enemies in the otherworld. In need of allies, Sky joins the Midwest Pack. Being part of the pack is supposed to make things better. Instead, she is pulled into a clandestine world of strange politics, dark secrets, and hidden dangers. When Sky does a powerful spell to protect Ethan, the pack’s Beta, she is cursed by the Creed—the ruling body of the witches who will do anything to get rid of her. Adding to the problems, the Midwest Pack becomes responsible for guarding the Clostra, a book of magic that everyone wants, including the Creed. In the wrong hands, it can destroy the otherworld and force a battle that no one can win. Lunar Marked (Book 4) Sometimes the penalty for magic is death. The Midwest Pack used the Clostra to perform a powerful and dangerous spell to save Sky. Now the pack is dealing with the aftermath and doing damage control. But they can’t hide how the magic has changed the dynamics of the otherworld—or that they are responsible.

    Welcome to my new life.I'm Clementine Cole. I thought I was a normal nineteen-year-old with anger issues, but I was wrong. I’m not angry, I'm just a witch.After my cat started talking to me one night, I made a few discoveries:First, magic is real and nightmares aren’t just in your dreams.Second, I'm the last witch in the world.Third, there's an academy for magic users just like me.Trouble is, I don't quite fit in at the academy. Witches get a bad rap, and everyone thinks we're destined to turn evil. Okay, maybe I've been in a few fights and speak my mind, but I'm no villain."Good witches don't lie," my teachers tell me. If I don't want to get kicked out of the academy, I have to follow the rules. No fighting, no lying, and definitely no secrets.But what if the one keeping secrets is the headmistress herself?Welcome to the Academy of Shadowed Magic.

    Expeditions have turned up enormous, dinosaur-like footprints while others have not come back at all. No one is quite sure what's hiding in the unexplored regions of the African jungle, but one thing is for certain. It is a place like no place on Earth. A world lost in time. A place where monsters dwell. A modern retelling of Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel, full of thrills, action, and suspense along with extensive research regarding the very real Mokele-Mbembe legends of the Congo region, "The Lost World: A Retelling" is an adventure not to be missed.

    Money, fame, power. He had created a multibillion dollar company from almost nothing and turned Ryan's Future technology inc into one of the forefronts of technological innovation.He had it all, yet he gambled it all on a crackpot idea that Earth had it's own wormhole.He'd proven it too, and now he was in for the adventure of his life. No, he wasn't going to sit back and let others go in his stead, he was going to be on the forefront of this grand adventure.To move mankind one step further closer to the stars.He'd found adventure all right, all that and more as he found his team cut off, trapped in the middle of an invasion.Princess Deidra and her younger Sister Zara were having a series of bad days. When the neighboring kingdom suddenly invaded they found themselves on the front lines and swiftly in danger. But will the dashing Gaijin save them? Save them from the wilds of their world, the invaders, and more importantly, themselves?Princess Deidra isn't so sure she wants to be saved!

    Elizabeth was the daughter of two Selkies, you see, and she had just been passed up for a skin. But then a mysterious cousin who calls herself Annie appears, and Elizabeth finds other things to think about...It can be easy to forget that worlds don't wait for heroes before they begin. It can be easy to forget that things happened before the lights came up and the story started. This is one of those things that happened: this is one of those tales that slipped through the cracks. It is the story of a girl named Elizabeth, and a girl named Annie, and what they were to one another, in the sight and sounding of the sea.Maybe it isn't fair. But fairy tales never really are.

    Since Tania's mysterious disappearance on the eve of her wedding five hundred years before, Faerie has been sunk in darkness and gloom. The courtly Lord Gabriel Drake, who Tania was once to marry, has found her and brought her back.With Tania's return, Faerie comes alive again as a land of winged children, glittering balls, and fantastic delights. But Tania can't forget Anita's world, or the boy she loved there.Torn between two loves and between two worlds, Tania slowly comes to discover why she disappeared so long ago. She possesses a singular magical ability and she must use it to stop a sinister plan that threatens the entire world of Faerie.

    When their parents travel to visit their dying grandfather, the sisters are left behind in their home in the woods.But before they leave, Liba discovers the secret that their Tati can transform into a bear, and their Mami into a swan. Perhaps, Liba realizes, the old fairy tales are true. She must guard this secret carefully, even from her beloved sister.Soon a troupe of mysterious men appear in town and Laya falls under their spell-despite their mother's warning to be wary of strangers. And these are not the only dangers lurking in the woods...The sisters will need each other if they are to become the women they need to be - and save their people from the dark forces that draw closer.