This collection includes the following stories:"Jizzle""Esmerelda""Heaven Scent""Look Natural, Please""Reservation Deferred""Affair of the Heart"

    New material explores the history of this book.

    Emma Bovary, Emma Woodhouse, Captain Ahab, Odysseus, Huck Finn... all are gathered for the Annual Convention of Prayer for Being, to meet, to discuss, to pray for their continued existence in the mind of the modern reader. But what begins as a grand enterprise erupts into total pandemonium: with characters from different times, places, and genres all battling for respect and asserting their own hard-won fame and reputations. Dealing with such topical literary issues as deconstruction, multiculturalism, and the Salman Rushdie affair, this wild and humorous satire pokes fun at the academy and ultimately brings into question the value of determining a literary canon at all.

    With his heart turned black, he rekindles the savagery of his race. In sacking Nantes, his bravery and luck earn him a place in the skalds' songs. Word of his deeds reaches his kin in the North, and more and more sea captains sail to Francia to join him, hoping his luck might help theirs.Thor of Dublin, Hasting's old rival, will seek him out and ask him to join his new alliance of sea kings. Together, they will launch the most ambitious raids their people have ever attempted. They will sail south to the land of the Moors to test their alliance's strength and, if successful, turn their sights to an even more daring prize: Paris.The Norns make nothing easy. A secret affair will risk unraveling the alliance and bring the sea kings to the brink of civil war.

    But when foreign residents attempt to do battle with the locals politico is assassinated, Steele suddenly becomes the prime suspect.

    But with a beautiful defector of dubious loyalties guiding him, Maxwell's mission could take a wrong turn at any moment...

    Two old friends strike up an old feud filled with dangerous games on the vast preserve of their hunting club in this rollicking story of boyhood rivalries pushed to the limit.

    Grinner and his bride Reeni, members of a race of Freaks created by mutation and quarantined in Freaktown ghetto, plunge into pornography in order to save money for a Syntha-skin treatment, but although Grinner wants normality, Reeni does not.

    He dreamed of the Viking ideal, sailing to distant shores and battling honorable foes. Laden with gold, he would return home in glory. The same life of adventure that his grandfather, Ulfrik Ormsson, experienced awaited him. It proved a false dream. Along with his cousin and best friend, Yngvar discovers a world unlike the sagas of the great heroes. He encounters murder and treachery. Raiding is nothing more than merciless theft. True riches remain elusive and sea kings dominate the waves. Yngvar trusts to his honor and courage to carry him. Yet powerful enemies swarm all around him. Fate guides him into the teeth of a clash between two of history's mightiest jarls. He will require all his cunning and daring to survive. So begins a new saga of Viking adventure and war. Join the shield wall once more and witness the fierce history of the Norsemen.

    They've got homes on Long Island and a dream: to pull off the perfect heist. Tom and Joe also have badges, uniforms and guns, just like the rest of the New York City police force! These two shining examples of New York's Finest don't care what they steal or how, as long as it comes out to 2 million dollars. But they get involved with the Mob and find out that robbing Wall Street can be very dangerous

    

    super- jet named after the Greek God of war. With its ultra powerful laser and ability to easily outmaneouver anything else in the sky, the Ares opens a new era in warfare. But when it is stolen before of a crowd of international dignitaries, the President and his defence staff must use outdated technology to try to stop their creation from sparking a war between civilizations.It's up to Colonel "Jesse" James to save the world from impending doom. But, the obstacles will be numerous. He faces suspicion from the President's chief advisor, a romantic interest with unknown allegiances, and a terror plot that seems too obvious to be true. In his fourth novel, Stewart is in top form- fusing a high octane plot with hair raising flight scenes drawn from his career as a fighter pilot.

    As he tries to get back, he finds something he wasn't expecting, something that points toward everything he thought he knew about the world and said, “No, it isn't like that at all.” He had a choice: pretend he hadn’t seen it, or spend the rest of his life trying to understand it. The ripples from the choice he made would, over the next two generations, spread as far as the other side of the world, and maybe, just maybe, even farther than that.This story is, however, only partly about Private Dawson. At another level, this is the story of a present-day 18-year-old boy's freshman year in college. And on a much deeper level, this is a story about what happens when you stare into Nietzsche's abyss, and the abyss does more than just stare back at you. Whether there are even more levels than that is for the reader to determine.Life is improvisational theater. You're given a name and a situation, but where the scene goes after that is up to you and the other players. The other players in this story represent every hue of the moral spectrum, from saint to sociopath, but each of them has a part to play. The props for this play include bells and pillows and bayberry candles, bullets and fireworks and plaid flannel shirts. Come on in, find your seat, and let’s cue the curtain. You’re going to enjoy this.

    The victim is a high ranking drug cartel member, and the leadership of the organization wants revenge. The mission is given to their most ruthless and effective assassin and the order is clear, track down and eliminate the killer. Matt Brunner, a former US Marine and Gulf War veteran becomes an accidental pawn in the cat and mouse game that follows, and has to use all his expertise and experience to stay alive. But is it enough? The cartel is powerful and has tentacles that reach far and deep, and very few people manage to escape its grip. Shock and Awe is the first installment of the Matt Brunner quadrilogy, which follows the protagonist as his life starts to spiral out of control. A fast paced action thriller that is guaranteed to get your heart pumping!

    When he discovers the truth of their nature, he vows to destroy the Order and have the Knights burned to the last.When hundreds of Templars are arrested in France and Catherine is taken by De Floyran, Galeren resolves to rescue her and save as many of his brethren as he can. Alone, he journeys to France and into the heart of danger to face his enemy and risk everything to save his race from destruction.