Its vampiric rulers have indulged their bloodlust in every shadow-clad alley, turning the once-proud metropolis into a charnel house. Already crushed beneath the tyranny of Radukar the Wolf and his Thirsting Court, a spate of vicious murders plunges the mortal inhabitants into fresh terror. Emerging to uncover a connection between the attacks is an unlikely group of heroes: a vampire hunter from Carstinia, a slum-born vigilante, a ruthless wizard, and a soldier who is the last survivor of her noble bloodline. Arrayed against them are the undead monsters that thrive upon Radukar's gory regime. But a daring search for answers turns into a fight for survival when the Wolf himself descends his Ebon Citadel and joins the carnage in the streets…

    But he soon learns that rats in suits are even worse. What do you do when rats invade your barn? Kill them or negotiate? Mason finds out the hard way that force does not always work! An allegory of war and violence? A statement on the arms race? Neal Asher’s work takes Orwell’s Animal Farm into a grimly humorous future where evolution is outrunning humanity. You may never trust a rat again! “I’ve never read anything like MASON’S RATS before … it’s sharp, funny and highly inventive. There’s more fun in this one slim volume than in many a full-length novel!” – Stephen Gallagher

    A. Salvatore expands his sweeping fantasy epic to include a new generation of heroes and villains. Picking up where the first three books leave off, this convenient eBook bundle contains the follow-up novel and sequel trilogy that round out the beloved series:  MORTALISASCENDANCETRANSCENDENCEIMMORTALIS  The long struggle is over at last. The demon is no more, its dark sorceries shattered by the gemstone magic wielded by the woman known as Pony. But victory did not come easily. Many lives were lost, including Pony’s lover, the elf-trained ranger Elbryan Wyndon, and their son. And despite the demon’s demise, the kingdom still seethes in a cauldron of plots and machinations. When a deadly sickness suddenly appears among the people of Corona, Pony must undertake a pilgrimage that will test her powers—and her faith—as never before.   But unknown to Pony, her child never died. Instead, he is secretly raised to be a weapon. Stolen away by the queen of the elves, the headstrong Aydrian shows great promise in the arts of combat, and he is as powerful with the gemstone magic as Pony. Hungry for power, Aydrian soon joins forces with his own mother’s mortal enemy, setting himself on a collision course with destiny.  Praise for the DemonWars Saga   “An enthralling epic adventure story, it introduces memorable characters and an intricate scheme of magic the readers won’t soon forget.”—Terry Brooks, on The Demon Awakens  “R. A. Salvatore at his best—and even better.”—New York Times bestselling author Michael A. Stackpole, on Mortalis  “As R. A. Salvatore continues to build his detailed and complex history, his readership is sure to build as well.”—New York Times bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson, on Ascendance  “Outstanding . . . [Transcendance has] a first-rate female high-fantasy protagonist.”—Booklist   “Fans will dance with joy.”—Kirkus Reviews, on Immortalis

    http://www.baenebooks.com/chapters/97...

    On Voltemand, long before they gain fame and glory as Gaunt’s Ghosts, the Tanith are a broken unit. Crippled by doubt and hating their commander for his part in the death of their world, they are fractious and undisciplined. Leading a patrol into no-man’s-land, Gaunt is ambushed. The Tanith must rally around and protect their new leader, or be consigned to history.A short story from the Sabbat Worlds Anthology.

    But traitors within the Sacristans have other ideas and a shocking act of betrayal sets the stage for one of the bloodiest battles of the Horus Heresy…This story is a prequel to Graham McNeill’s epic Horus Heresy novel Vengeful Spirit, and first appear in The Imperial Truth.

    A young hero overcomes implacable foes to lead a planet fallen into a dark age back to the high point of its lost technological civilization. Contains The Anvil and The Steel in the General series.  Series relaunched in The Heretic and continuing in The Savior.After the collapse of the galactic Web, civilizations crumbled and chaos reigned on thousands of planets. Only on planet Bellevue was there a difference. There, a Fleet Battle Computer named Center had survived from the old civilization. When it found Raj Whitehall, the man who could execute its plan for reviving human civilization, he and Center started Bellevue back on the road leading to the stars. Now Raj Whitehall has come close to reuniting the entire planet of Bellevue. Because of his victories and because of the way he won them, Raj is loved by the people—and his army would follow him to Hell. Even those closest to him, his band of sworn companions and his wickedly subtle but utterly loyal wife, hold him in awe. And that's the problem. For though Raj battles only in the name of his emperor and has proven his loyalty again and again, still the half-mad jealousy and fear of that emperor Clerett is about to give Raj no choice but to revolt or face death and the loss of all he has gained for freedom.About prequel omnibus volume, Hope Reborn:"The various battles and intrigues–all of them very clever and some of them very unexpected–make up the core of these extremely well-written and unabashedly fun books. And really, the action never stops. I highly recommend them to you as they’ve come out in a tasty trade format that’s very easy to hold and lug around (they are, in other words, backpackable)."—Amazing Stories About the Raj Whitehall series:“[T]old with knowledge of military tactics and hardware, and vividly described action. . .devotees of military SF should enjoy themselves.”—Publishers Weekly“[A] thoroughly engrossing military sf series. . .superb battle scenes, ingenious weaponry and tactics, homages to Kipling, and many other goodies. High fun.”—Booklist

    Includes detailed maps and information on all the characters and creatures contained in the medieval world of RuneScape.

    Striking out into the stars, he searches for any signs of his lost Iron Hands brethren, hoping to bring them back to Terra to aid in the final defence of the Palace. The question remains – just who has survived the slaughter on Isstvan V, and what yet remains of them?A Horus Heresy short story by John French.

      FREE Far from the Madding Crowd  Illustrated  Active Contents, Font Adjustments & Navigation About ‘Romeo and Juliet' by William Shakespeare The play Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays. Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers. Romeo and Juliet is sometimes considered to have no unifying theme, save that of young love.Romeo and Juliet have become emblematic of young lovers and doomed love. All Time Best-Sellers in Classics

    Anderson. Working from Frank Herbert's own notes, the acclaimed authors reveal the chapter of the Dune saga most eagerly anticipated by readers: the Butlerian Jihad.Throughout the Dune novels, Frank Herbert frequently referred to the war in which humans wrested their freedom from "thinking machines." In Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson bring to life the story of that war, a tale previously seen only in tantalizing hints and clues. Finally, we see how Serena Butler's passionate grief ignites the struggle that will liberate humans from their machine masters; here is the amazing tale of the Zensunni Wanderers, who escape bondage to flee to the desert world where they will declare themselves the Free Men of Dune. And here is the backward, nearly forgotten planet of Arrakis, where traders have discovered the remarkable properties of the spice melange. . . . Dune: The Machine Crusade More than two decades have passed since the events chronicled in Dune: The Butlerian Jihad. The crusade against thinking robots has ground on for years, but the forces led by Serena Butler and Irbis Ginjo have made only slight gains; the human worlds grow weary of war, of the bloody, inconclusive swing from victory to defeat.The fearsome cymeks, led by Agamemnon, hatch new plots to regain their lost power from Omnius--as their numbers dwindle and time begins to run out. The fighters of Ginaz, led by Jool Noret, forge themselves into an elite warrior class, a weapon against the machine-dominated worlds. Aurelius Venport and Norma Cenva are on the verge of the most important discovery in human history-a way to "fold" space and travel instantaneously to any place in the galaxy.And on the faraway, nearly worthless planet of Arrakis, Selim Wormrider and his band of outlaws take the first steps to making themselves the feared fighters who will change the course of history: the Fremen.Here is the unrivaled imaginative power that has put Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson on bestseller lists everywhere and earned them the high regard of readers around the globe. The fantastic saga of Dune continues in Dune: The Machine Crusade. Dune: The Battle of Corrin It has been fifty-six hard years since the events of Dune: The Machine Crusade. Following the death of Serena Butler, the bloodiest decades of the Jihad take place. Synchronized Worlds and Unallied Planets are liberated one by one, and at long last, after years of victory, the human worlds begin to hope that the end of the centuries-long conflict with the thinking machines is finally in sight.Unfortunately, Omnius has one last, deadly card to play. In a last-ditch effort to destroy humankind, virulent plagues are let loose throughout the galaxy, decimating the populations of whole planets . . . and once again, the tide of the titanic struggle shifts against the warriors of the human race. At last, the war that has lasted many lifetimes will be decided in the apocalyptic Battle of Corrin.In the greatest battle in science fiction history, human and machine face off one last time. . . . And on the desert planet of Arrakis, the legendary Fremen of Dune become the feared fighting force to be discovered by Paul Muad'Dib in Frank Herbert's classic, Dune.

    Here, for the first time in one volume, are all three original Battlestar Galactica novels--based on the highly-lauded TV series that took the country by storm.In The Cylons' Secret, by Craig Shaw Gardner, a ship, scavenging the outer settlements for valuable Cylon technologies after the first human-Cylon war, stumbles on a super-secret scientific outpost beyond charted space. Mere hours later, Battlestar Galactica receives a one-word distress call from the scavenging ship: Cylons, causing the young Colonel William Adama to investigate.Sagittarius Is Bleeding, by Peter David, concerns President Laura Roslin, whose prophetic dreams have infused her people with hope that they will find Earth, humanity's cradle. But her new dreams of a galaxy overrun by the Cylons disturb her even as they energize an extremist political group. The threat of violent revolt puts Roslin at personal risk and endangers the fleet.In Unity by Steven Harper, Peter Attis, a rock star adored by all the fleet, including Starbuck, has recently been rescued from a Cylon prison ship. But after his first post-return concert, crewmembers are stricken by a strange malady that threatens to lay the fleet open to Cylon attack.

    31 will die.The second round of the ultimate deathmatch begins here! Thirty-two Supes, Fears, and Neuts are being held captive by a mysterious higher power and forced to fight one-on-one until only one champion remains. Which fan-favorite characters from BOOM! Studios' latest original smash hit are on a collision course against their will? The mysteries grow deeper and the casualty list grows longer as DEATHMATCH continues! Written by industry legend Paul Jenkins (FAIRY QUEST, INHUMANS) and drawn by comics superstar Carlos Magno (PLANET OF THE APES, TRANSFORMERS), DEATHMATCH is a dark, psychological deconstruction of the superhero genre that can’t be missed. This stakes increase in this second volume collecting the second four issue arc of BOOM! Studios’ highest debuting original series ever!

    But a few brave souls struck out into that desolate wilderness, desperate to free themselves from the restrictions of the civilized world…KING OF THE MOUNTAIN: Nathaniel King doesn’t need much incentive to escape the confining, bustling city of New York. When his uncle starts spinning tales of a great treasure hidden in the wilderness, Nathaniel finds the lure of the West impossible to resist. Nathaniel’s trail leads from danger to danger, and into the uninhabited Rocky Mountains. If he can survive, Nathaniel will unearth a treasure far more valuable than he ever imagined.LURE OF THE WILD: Nineteen-year-old Nathaniel King and a rugged mountain man named Shakespeare McNair are headed to a rendezvous of trappers and fur traders in the Rocky Mountains. But hostile Utes and Blackfeet Indians pursue them relentlessly, determined to have their scalps. Despite the protection of a friendly band of Shoshone, Nathaniel and his companion risk the loss of their freedom…and their lives.

    Hephaestus Books represents a new publishing paradigm, allowing disparate content sources to be curated into cohesive, relevant, and informative books. To date, this content has been curated from Wikipedia articles and images under Creative Commons licensing, although as Hephaestus Books continues to increase in scope and dimension, more licensed and public domain content is being added. We believe books such as this represent a new and exciting lexicon in the sharing of human knowledge. This particular book is a collaboration focused on Novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery.