He runs away, taking only a gem-eyed doll he calls Junky, & joins a carnival. Finding acceptance at last, Horty never dreams that Junky is more than a toy, nor does he realize that a threat far greater than his cruel father inhabits the carnival & has been searching for Horty longer than he has been alive.This book was also published as "The Synthetic Man".

    Twenty years after the discovery of artificial wormholes launches Earth space exploration to unforeseeable heights, Starplex Director Keith Lansing investigates a mysterious vessel that soon threatens the station with intergalactic war.

    The staggering order was emotionless and inhuman — exactly like the iduve, the strange aliens who had handed down the decree.Perhaps the most advanced and least understood race in the known universe, the idvue lived in giant spaceships that roamed in random patterns around the galaxy. For nearly two hundred years one of these mammoth vessels, The Ashanome, had been stalking an offender ... one of their own kind who betrayed an ancient rite and fled into the sanctuary of "human" space.Now, as The Ashanome went into orbit around his hiding place, it was time for vaikka, the ultimate vengeance and return of honor which the iduve cherished above all else. To accomplish their task, they commanded the aid of three very different individuals — Aiela Lyailleue, a young man of the peaceable kallia race who was forcibly inducted into the Starlord's service, possibly never to see his home or family again; Daniel, a savage human with nothing but fear and a blind hatred for his captors; and Isande, a beautiful woman who knew more about the iduve than the iduve themselves.Together, through the process of Asuthi, all three had their minds melded into a single entity — learning not only each other's language, but each other's way of life, inner feelings and deepest secrets. For in a short time they would descend to the threatening surface of Priamos. Their mission: search out and kill the offender.If they were to be successful, they would surely need the combined resources of all their wits and intuitive knowledge. Within a few short hours, the trio had to find the needle in the haystack — or they and all the planet's million other men, women and children would perish in a single, searing flash of white hot energy. The iduve knew no other way...

    The planet attracted unwary travelers, hardened space-sailors, and merchant buccaneers -- a teeming, constantly shifting horde that provided a comfortable income for certain quick-witted fellows like Flinx and his pet flying snake Pip. With his odd talents, the pickings were easy enough so that Flinx did not have to be dishonest ... most of the time.In fact, it hardly seemed dishonest at all to steal a starmap from a dead body that didn't really need it anymore. But Flinx wasn't quite smart enough. He should have wondered why the body was dead in the first place...

    From peasants to masters of the galaxy's most powerful families, all were subject to the queen's unpredictable decrees of "outlawing" and death.Owen Deathstalker, unwilling head of his clan, sought to avoid the perils of the Empire's warring factions but unexpectedly found a price on his head. He fled to Mistworld, where he began to build an unlikely force to topple the throne-- a broken hero, an outlawed Hadenman, a thief, and a bounty hunter. With their help, the Deathstalker took the first step of a far more dangerous journey to claim the role for which he'd been destined since before his birth...

    Science-fiction, autobiography, and a candid, witty send-up of the publishing industry combine in a wild adventure of a novel that winds up in the wrong hands.

    Clarke Award-nominated author Ken MacLeod, an action-packed space opera told against a backdrop of interstellar drone warfare, virtual reality, and an A.I. revolution. In deep space, ruthless corporations vie for control of scattered mining colonies, and war is an ever-present threat. Led by Seba, a newly sentient mining reboot, an AI revolution grows. Fighting them is Carlos, a grunt who is reincarnated over and over again to keep the "freeboots" in check. But he's not sure whether he's on the right side. Against a backdrop of interstellar drone combat Carlos and Seba must either find a way to rise above the games their masters are playing or die. And even dying might not be the end of it. The Corporation WarsThe Corporation Wars: Dissidence The Corporation Wars: InsurgenceThe Corporation Wars: Emergence

    What they find defies their imaginations and mocks their attempts at logical explanation. It is a spaceship of phenomenal dimensions, apparently, undamaged by its fall from the sky. And, most startling, it appears to be at least three hundred years old...."The suspense is real."THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW"A page-turner...Chichton's writing is cinematic, with powerful visual images and nonstop action. This book should come with hot buttered popcorn."NEWSWEEK

    Regularly appears on "Greatest science fiction" lists.

    A secret room...in an obscure museum has become the final resting place of its proprietor, whose dead body lies surrounded by an astonishing collection of Greek antiquities--a treasure once looted from the Nazis.The face of death...A priceless Mycenaean death mask has been taken, along with the bones of a legendary hero thought to exist only in ancient myth.AN UNHOLY GRAIL OF EXTRAORDINARY POWERThe theft draws museum curator Deborah Miller into a terrifying web of murder, mystery, and devastating retribution by those whose dreams of glory remain undefeated...

    E, Modesitt, Jr, now back in a new trade papeback edition from Tor.After finding out that he has unusual powers, he is banished from the planet Karnak. Martin is thrust into the tranquil world of Aurore, vacation paradise for the galaxy. There he finds that the reality of Aurore is much different from its serene veneer. The gods are wantonly cruel and indifferent to the chaos they cause: are they really gods or just men and women with larger-than-life powers? Whatever the answer Martin Martel must challenge their supremacy to defend his life, love, and the fate of all mankind.

    He wreaks havoc and destruction as surely as a hurricane wherever he goes. Commando Central has planted an electrode transmitter-receiver deep inside his brain and infiltrated him into the Destroyer Spacefleet to prevent it from gaining absolute mastery of the galaxy. But Bron's own brand of chaos is lethally unpredictable. And when whole planets are annihilated by monster hellburner bombs set on course seven hundred million years ago from distant Andromeda, aimed directly at Bron himself, both sides realise that something more colossal, more threatening and infinitely more powerful is taking a hand in Bron's weird destiny...The Patterns of Chaos is SF in the grand style-a mighty tale of galactic intrigue and destruction.

    Jan would have given anything to know whether those "faces" masked emotions of violence, contempt, murder - or worse - if this alien race had emotions at all!His one chance at escape depended on knowing. And he had to escape - for if these creatures decided that the soul of earth were the wrong color, then they would destroy the world!

    Within hours after the Lunar observatory picked up a strange new X-ray source in Cygnus, the disastrous picture was clear. An immense object was hurtling toward the Solar System at nearly the speed of light...and its intense radiation would surely wipe Earth free of all life within six months.There was nothing anyone could do.Then, incredibly, the rogue that had appeared out of nowhere suddenly changed its trajectory and stopped in the area of Jupiter.And that was flatly impossible!

    Dick Award: In a nuclear-ravaged California, a humble musician sets out on a dangerous quest to rescue his lost love from the clutches of a soul-devouring religious cultIn the twenty-second century, the City of Angels is a tragic shell of its former self, having long ago been ruined and reshaped by nuclear disaster. Before he was in a band in Ellay, Gregorio Rivas was a redeemer, rescuing lost souls trapped in the Jaybirds cult of the powerful maniac Norton Jaybush. Rivas had hoped those days were behind him, but a desperate entreaty from a powerful official is pulling him back into the game. The rewards will be plentiful if he can wrest Urania, the official’s daughter and Gregorio’s first love, from Jaybush’s sinister clutches. To do so, the redeemer reborn must face blood-sucking hemogoblins and other monstrosities on his way to discovering the ultimate secrets of this neo-Californian civilization. One of the most ingeniously imaginative writers of our time, Tim Powers dazzles in an early work that displays his unique creative genius. Alive with wit, intelligence, and wild invention, Dinner at Deviant’s Palace is a mad adventure across a dystopian future as only Tim Powers could have imagined it.