City of Golden Shadow


Tad Williams - 1996
    Kids, including her brother Stephen, have logged into the net, and cannot escape. Clues point to a mysterious golden city called Otherland, but investigators all end up dead.

Stone Spring


Stephen Baxter - 2010
    This is alternate history at its most mindblowing.

Honored Enemy


Raymond E. Feist - 2001
    Wounded and disheartened, the Mauraders set out for the shelter of a frontier garrison. They don’t know that a Tsurani patrol is sent to support an assault on that same garrison. Arriving simultaneously, the Marauders and Tsurani find the outpost already overrun by a dark enemy whose ferocity is legendary in Midkemia. In order to survive, the foes must band together and fight as one.As they make their way across the inhospitable climate, the two batallions struggle not only with the elements and their enemy, but also their consciences. Can their hatred for their mutual enemy overcome their distrust of each other? And, with both sides carrying painful scars from past wars, what is more important: one’s life or one’s honor?

Homebody


Orson Scott Card - 1998
    As Homebody eloquently proves, no contemporary writer outshines Orson Scott Card in crafting unlikely heroes or in suffusing the everyday world with an otherworldly glow.Don Lark's cheery name belies his tragic past. When his alcoholic ex-wife killed their daughter in a car wreck, he retreated from the sort of settled, sociable lifestyle one takes for granted. Only the prospect of putting a roof over other people's heads seems to comfort Lark, and he goes from town to town, looking for dilapidated houses he can buy, restore and resell at a profit. In Greensboro, North Carolina, Lark finds his biggest challenge yet -- a huge, sturdy, gorgeous shell that's suffered almost a century of abuse at the hands of greedy landlords and transient tenants. As he sinks his teeth into this new project, Lark's new neighborhood starts to work its charms on him. He strikes up a romance with the wry real estate agent who sold him the house. His neighbors, two charming, chatty old ladies, ply him endlessly with delicious Southern cooking. Even Sylvie, the squatter Lark was once desperate to evict from the old house, is now growing on him.But when Lark unearths an old tunnel in the cellar, the house's enchantments start to turn ominous. Sylvie turns cantankerous, even dangerous. There's still a steady supply of food from next door, but it now comes laced with increasingly passionate pleas for Lark to vacate the house at once. In short, everybody seems to want to get rid of him. Whether this is for his own good or theirs, Lark digs in his heels for reasons even he's not sure of. He embarks on a struggle for his life -- and his friends'-- against a house with a past even more tragic than his own. If Lark wins, he gets the kind of home and community he's always dreamed of. If he loses, all is lost....

Once...


James Herbert - 2001
    A stroke victim, Thom finds himself partially incapacitated and battling daily to regain control of his life. Moved by haunting dreams of his youth, he travels back to the wooded land where he grew up to recuperate. Surrounded by the comforts of Castle Bracken, Thom plans to relive old, forgotten memories.But Thom's return has stirred an ancient evil at Castle Bracken, one cloaked in the guise of a friend. His only chance for survival lies in a world that he no longer believes in. International bestselling author James Herbert opens the door into a place of wonder and terrible danger; where the unexpected becomes the norm, where the separation of dreams and nightmares is thin, and where "Once upon a time . . ." doesn't always lead to a happy ending.

The Golden Apples of the Sun


Ray Bradbury - 1953
    He saw the skin peel from the rocket beehive, men thus revealed running, running, mouths shrieking, soundless. Space was a black mossed well where life drowned its roars and terrors. Scream a big scream, but space snuffed it out before it was half up your throat. Men scurried, ants in a flaming matchbox; the ship was dripping lava, gushing steam, nothing!Journey with the century's most popular fantasy writer into a world of wonder and horror beyond your wildest dreams.Contents:- The Fog Horn (1951)- The Pedestrian (1951)- The April Witch (1952)- The Wilderness (1952)- The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl (1948)- Invisible Boy (1945)- The Flying Machine (1953)- The Murderer (1953)- The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind (1953)- I See You Never (1947)- Embroidery (1951)- The Big Black and White Game (1945)- A Sound of Thunder (1952)- The Great Wide World Over There (1952)- Powerhouse (1948)- En la Noche (1952)- Sun and Shadow (1953)- The Meadow (1953)- The Garbage Collector (1953)- The Great Fire (1949)- Hail and Farewell (1953)- The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953)

The Doomsday Vault


Steven Harper - 2011
    At 21, her age and her unladylike interest in automatons have sealed her fate as an undesirable marriage prospect. But a devastating plague sends Alice off in a direction beyond the pale—towards a clandestine organization, mad inventors, life-altering secrets, and into the arms of an intrepid fiddle-playing airship pilot.

We Can Build You


Philip K. Dick - 1972
    Stanton and Abraham Lincoln. The problem is that the only prospective buyer is a rapacious billionaire whose plans for the simulacra could land Louis in jail. Then there's the added complication that someone--or something--like Abraham Lincoln may not want to be sold.Is an electronic Lincoln any less alive than his creators? Is a machine that cares and suffers inferior to the woman Louis loves--a borderline psychopath who does neither? With irresistible momentum, intelligence, and wit, Philip K. Dick creates an arresting techno-thriller that suggests a marriage of Bladerunner and Barbarians at the Gate.

For Us, the Living: A Comedy of Customs


Robert A. Heinlein - 2003
    

Conan and the Amazon


John Maddox Roberts - 1995
    Together they set out to uncover the riches of the long-lost Janagar, a mighty city that stood tall for five thousand years. It was abandoned by its people, who fled on one strange night, never to return. Treasure hunters beware! Deadly horrors are waiting for Conan and Achilea deep in the bowels of Janagar.

Celtika


Robert Holdstock - 2001
    During his journeys, he encounters Jason, and joins in his search for the Golden Fleece.Hundred of years later, Merlin hears of a screaming ship in a northern lake, and divines that is the Argo . . . that Jason still screams our for his sons, stolen by the enchantress Medea and thought dead. But death is not the end, and Merlin's trek to the North leads to the revival of both man and ship, with new companions and a new quest-to find Jason's sons.Roving from the frozen north to the blighted island that will become Arthur's realm, from the deep forests of ancient Britain to the sun-washed shores of ancient Greece, Merlin's journey is an epic tale of mystery and enchantment.

The Songs of Distant Earth


Arthur C. Clarke - 1986
    And suddenly uncertainty and change had come to the placid paradise that was Thalassa.

Lord of the Isles


David Drake - 1997
    She has survived the cataclysm that destroyed the powerful empire of the Isles in her time. She finds herself in a small town far from the new centers of power, but among a small group who, all unknowing, will become the focus of a new struggle for dominance and magical power that will shake this world, and others. For The Hooded One, the most powerful sorcerer of all time, has also survived the ancient catastrophe he created. The peace of the small village is destroyed in an instant, and the young principles must set out on a quest to meet their destiny.

Brokedown Palace


Steven Brust - 1985
    And then…

The Fall of Neskaya


Marion Zimmer Bradley - 2001
    Set in the tumultuous era of The Hundred Kingdoms, a terrible time of strife and war, this unique fantasy world is divided into a mutlitude of small belligerent domains vying for power and land. One ambitious and corrupt tyrant will stop at nothing to control Darkover-even wield the terrifying weapons of the matrix.