At twenty-three, her steady job and safe engagement seem very dull. If she is to inject a little excitement into her life, she realises, now is the time to do it.But the excitement lying in wait for Harriet is beyond even her wildest ambitions. Answering a job advertisement to assist a world-famous actress, Harriet finds herself plunged into an intense and secret world of sexual obsession - playing an unwitting part in a very private drama, but discovering in the process more about her own desires than she had ever dreamed possible...

    Levine * Paul J. McAuley * Mary Rosenblum * Daryl Gregory * Jack Skillingstead * Paolo Bacigalupi * Greg Egan * Elizabeth Bear * Sarah Monette * Ken MacLeod * Stephen Baxter * Carolyn Ives Gilman * John Barnes * A.M. DellamonicaSupplementing the stories are the editor's insightful summation of the year's events and a list of honorable mentions, making this book a valuable resource in addition to serving as the single best place in the universe to find stories that stir the imagination and the heart. Contentsxiii • Summation: 2006 • (2007) • essay by Gardner Dozois1 • I, Row-Boat • (2006) • novelette by Cory Doctorow28 • Julian: A Christmas Story • (2006) • novella by Robert Charles Wilson66 • Tin Marsh • (2006) • novelette by Michael Swanwick81 • The Djinn's Wife • [India 2047] • (2006) • novelette by Ian McDonald112 • The House Beyond Your Sky • (2006) • shortstory by Benjamin Rosenbaum121 • Where the Golden Apples Grow • (2006) • novella by Kage Baker164 • Kin • (2006) • shortstory by Bruce McAllister172 • Signal to Noise • (2006) • novelette by Alastair Reynolds204 • The Big Ice • (2006) • shortstory by Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold221 • Bow Shock • (2006) • novelette by Gregory Benford251 • In the River • (2006) • shortstory by Justin Stanchfield266 • Incarnation Day • (2006) • novella by Walter Jon Williams295 • Far As You Can Go • (2006) • shortstory by Greg van Eekhout305 • Good Mountain • (2005) • novella by Robert Reed350 • I Hold My Father's Paws • (2006) • shortstory by David D. Levine360 • Dead Men Walking • (2006) • novelette by Paul J. McAuley374 • Home Movies • (2006) • novelette by Mary Rosenblum395 • Damascus • (2006) • novelette by Daryl Gregory418 • Life on the Preservation • (2006) • shortstory by Jack Skillingstead431 • Yellow Card Man • [The Windup Universe] • (2006) • novelette by Paolo Bacigalupi457 • Riding the Crocodile • (2005) • novella by Greg Egan492 • The Ile of Dogges • (2006) • shortstory by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette499 • The Highway Men • (2006) • novelette by Ken MacLeod524 • The Pacific Mystery • (2006) • shortstory by Stephen Baxter540 • Okanoggan Falls • (2006) • novelette by Carolyn Ives Gilman566 • Every Hole Is Outlined • (2006) • novelette by John Barnes589 • The Town on Blighted Sea • (2006) • shortstory by A. M. Dellamonica606 • Nightingale • [Revelation Space] • (2006) • novella by Alastair Reynolds653 • Honorable Mentions: 2006 • (2007) • essay by Gardner Dozois

    . . Urgent you penetrate icefield for possible rendezvous. Maximum risk must be accepted. Repeat. Must be accepted.'"In the weird world where huge ice islands rotate round the North Pole, Soviet submarines still prowl beneath the icecap. Top Russian oceanographer Michael Gorov, early believer in world peace, flees from his Soviet base to hand the West secrets which would neutralize the East's potential stranglehold.His escape route is across the grimmest terrain on earth - the empty wastes of the frozen Arctic.Keith Beaumont, Polar veteran, is sent to bring Gorov in to safety. Moscow sends master polar strategist, Colonel Igor Papanin to seize him first. Exposed to traitors and worsening weather, Beaumont struggles to outwit a whole Soviet fleet to save Gorov - to help him to reach the Western base. Target 5.Colin Forbes 'has no equal' "Sunday Mirror"

    As a ragged impoverished boy, he had been one with the villagers. Now, as the new Earl, he's met with hostility and resentment, especially from his childhood sweetheart, Marged Evans. To make things right with his people (and to win back Marged), he masquerades as a "Rebecca," one of the bewigged, white-cloaked leaders of the 1842 riots against Welsh toll roads. Disguised as a man, Marged rides as one of Rebecca's "daughters," and, as to be expected, falls in love with the man behind the mask.

    One of the premier writers of the Golden Age of science fiction, Van Vogt is best known for The World of Null-A, the first science fiction book to be printed by a mainstream publisher.

    Getting distracted by a pretty client.2. Getting attracted to the client.3. Getting caught kissing her.4. And finally, getting her pregnant.My ranch is my refuge.I opened it up to help trauma victims recover.Teaching them to ride horseback is healing for us all.Until Livvy shows up.It’s not the first time a client had a crush on me.This is just the first time it’s been a problem.This woman could be the death of me.She’s adorable, brave, and so unique.Trying her best to get over her husband’s death two years ago.Our attraction makes her feel guilty.God knows I shouldn’t be looking twice at her unless I’m adjusting a stirrup.There’s no going back.We were meant to be together.No matter what obstacles stand in our way.Affection, passion, it’s wonderful until we argue and she takes off.Now I have to find her in a dangerous storm before something happens to her.I won’t let anything happen to her.I’ll keep her safe, heal her grief.Let her know that she has my heart.Forever until I die.

    

    A crib burglar, he robs apartments—never hotels, never offices, never liquor stores, never jewelers. Strictly apartments, and strictly during the day. He’s paranoid, ready to cut and run as soon as a job turns sour—he’s already been to prison once, and he doesn’t plan on getting caught again—but he’s about to get the offer of a lifetime, the big make he’s always been looking for. How can he say no? This could set him up for life—but it could also send him back to Sing Sing for good. The stake revolves around Daisy, a one-legged hooker who spends Thursday afternoons at the home of a Westchester millionaire. It would be simple if Alex wasn’t increasingly distracted by Jessica, his square neighbor who has no idea he’s a burglar and seems to like him. Between these two very different women lies the biggest opportunity of Alex’s life. Will he get his hands on it before the alarms start to sound?

    Henri Robin, a special agent of the French secret service, arrives in the ruined city and feels linked to it by a vague and recurrent memory. There is a shooting, a kidnapping, druggings, encounters with pimps and teenage whores, police interrogations, even torture. Bits and pieces of the Oedipus story resonate through the book's elegant labyrinth as Robin slowly senses that he was in Berlin before - as a child, with his mother, perhaps looking for his father. A brilliantly executed novel in prose of an almost hallucinatory richness, Repetition is proof that Robbe-Grillet's vision is, in a time of identity theft and porous nationhood, more relevant than ever.

    He knew he wasn’t looking for anything pure or righteous.He’d never known tenderness, nor did he want to know.It didn’t fit with being Bratva.But when he met her, this tiny bundle of woman he almost wished he were different.There was something about her that appealed to something deep inside him.Something he never realized was even there.She had reached down deep into his soul and taken a piece of himself he didn’t know was even there.For her, he almost wished he was different.Because now that he had tasted her he wouldn’t let her go.RavenShe knew who he was and what he was but she never expected to be drawn to him.She had nothing to offer a man like him.He was one man she never should have met, let alone been allowed to taste.He was everything she’d ever dreamed of and so much more.She knew she should have walked away from him for her own sake.But if she did she’d be nothing more than a shattered soul....

    Ireland is a world stage, hosting a prestigious Muslim Leaders' Conference. The delegates are hand-picked - but they are not to know that. Security is tight - but alas, not tight enough.

    The author provides the tools and the guidelines necessary for step by step personal development in every area of life. Based on the concept of Whole Mind Integration, the book is presented in five parts. Exercises at the end of each chapter provide the opportunity for guided practical application of the concepts presented.

    To his adoring wife, Lady Jane Rochford, he was cold and indifferent. When Anne failed to give Henry VIII the son she had promised him, and he was tiring of her tart tongue and tantrums, false charges of adultery were hastily concocted. Lady Rochford provided the crowning touch when she accused her husband and his beloved sister of incest. Both died upon the scaffold. Lady Rochford paid dearly for her treachery. She was left alone, shunned and friendless, until wild, sweet, wanton Katherine Howard danced into her life and became Henry's fifth queen. When Katherine, disgusted by the obese and impotent King's fumbling attempts to make love to her, took a lusty young lover Lady Rochford helped them meet. And when the truth came out, she was the first to betray them. As she sits in the Tower of London, being tormented by the ghosts of George and Anne Boleyn, and awaiting her own appointment with the headsman's axe, Lady Rochford takes up her pen. Vengeance Is Mine is her story.

    She's praying finding the right man won't be nearly that hard. With the "help" of her meddling family and friends, it's not, even if she partly found a Mr. Right just to get them off her back.But now what? Rosie and Jonathan couldn't be in more different places in their lives, and they are about to find out just how exhilarating-and disastrous--a mismatched love affair can be. Will they get to the part where they're broken in and life is nothing but great sex and comforting hugs, or will one of them get sent off in scorn like a pair of too-small stilettos that felt okay in the store? What do you do when Mr. Right gets the timing wrong?

    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.