A horde of beasts known only as the scourge has ravaged the land, leaving only the village of Terreas to survive. Hemmed in on all sides by the scourge, the denizens of Terreas eke out a lonely existence, trying to survive in a land that is all but dead. Jasen Rabinn is a teenage boy trapped in Terreas but with a mind rooted outside the boundaries of his village. He longs for adventure, and when the mysterious Baraghosa – a sorcerer of a sort not native to Luukessia – comes to Terreas, a chain of events is set in motion that will carry Jasen beyond his simple town. To adventure. To danger. To his destiny.

    It is thus embarrassing when he is run over by a bus. It is even more embarrassing when he, and atheist, realises there is an afterlife…Resurrected on a huge flat plain, he is forced to play a deadly game. Moved as a pawn to the whim of the Gods in a fight to the death with warriors from all ages of earth’s history. Killed again and again only to be resurrected.The General, the Grim Reaper and Anubis are some of the strange beings who direct this grisly entertainment. Is it real or only in his decaying mind. Who is the Clown? It there anywhere to escape to?To retain his sanity, he must believe there is an end; an escape; a purpose. A thought-provoking story leading to an action filled climax that challenges our accepted beliefs…

    They take walks in the park together, visit county fairs, museums, and zoos, and eat together overlooking the lake. Some might say the father is a little too accommodating given the lack of discipline when the child loses his temper in public. Some might say he spoils his son by allowing him to set his own bedtimes and eat candy whenever he wants. Some might say that such leniency is starting to take its toll on the father, given how his health has declined.What no one knows is that Phil is a prisoner, and that up until a few weeks ago and a chance encounter at a grocery store, he had never seen the child before in his life.

    His latest, a novella-length tale of startling originality, beautifully embodies these qualities, reaffirming Simmons's position as one of the finest storytellers of our time.Muse of Fire takes place in a remote future age in which the human enterprise has all but ground to a halt. Earth, drained of its oceans and populated largely by the dead, is little more than a distant memory. The scattered human remnants occupy the lowest rung of a Gnostic hierarchy that dominates both their secular and spiritual lives. Against this backdrop, Simmons introduces the Earth's Men, a wandering troupe of players dedicated to presenting the works of Shakespeare to every accessible corner of the settled universe.The story begins on the planet known as 25-25-261B, a regular stop on the players' interstellar tour. A routine performance of Much Ado About Nothing is in progress when an unprecedented event occurs. A band of Archons—members of the usually invisible ruling caste—enter the makeshift theater and join the audience. In doing so, they change the course of human—and non-human—history.What follows is an intellectual adventure story of astonishing richness and depth in which disparate species face each other across an insurmountable divide, their only point of contact the indelible language of William Shakespeare, the story's true muse. Skillfully deploying the elements of traditional science fiction—advanced technologies, alien encounters, strange new worlds—Muse of Fire entertains and illuminates while celebrating the best, most durable elements of our cultural legacy. It is a work of wit, erudition, and tightly compressed grandeur that only Dan Simmons could have written.

    Two classic Robert A. Heinlein novels in one volume: The Man Who Sold the Moon and Orphans of the Sky. Journeys into space, one taking humans to space by hook or by crook, the other the classic first-time tale of a generation vessel with passengers who do not realize they are in a spaceship.Two classic Robert A. Heinlein novels in one volume, with an all-new introduction by Mark L. Van Name, author of the Jon and Lobo military SF series. The Man Who Sold the Moon: D. D. Harriman is a billionaire with a dream: the dream of space for all mankind. The method? Anything that works.  Maybe, in fact, Harriman goes too far.  But he will give us the stars… Orphans of the Sky: Hugh had been taught that, according to the ancient sacred writings, the Ship was on a voyage to faraway Centaurus.  But he also understood that this must be allegory for a voyage to spiritual perfection.  After all, the real world was only metal corridors and nothing else, right?  And then Hugh begins to suspect the truth. . . Two all-time classics from seven-time Hugo winner and Dean of Science Fiction, Robert A. Heinlein. About Robert A. Heinlein: “Not only America's premier writer of speculative fiction, but the greatest writer of such fiction in the world.” –Stephen King. “One of the grand masters of science fiction.” –Wall Street Journal Comprehensive Teacher's Guide available.

    He lives in a near-future California that has gained independence from the economically collapsed United States and where everyone is constantly linked into the web. Almost everyone. Because of injuries sustained during California’s border war, Ted is locked out of the technological culture that surrounds him. But that’s his edge: his business card reads “Strictly Analog,” and he markets himself as a man able to skirt the technological landscape without leaving a trail. It works nicely for him until he gets the most important case of his life. When his daughter Amy is accused of killing her boyfriend, Ted knows he has to do whatever he can to help her. It won’t be easy. The bullet in the boyfriend’s head matches Amy’s gun. To make matters worse, the dead boyfriend was an agent with California’s secret police. Now Ted has to dig himself out of the hole he’s been buried in since the war. Before long, he’s pulled into a shadow world of underground hackers, high-end programmers, and renegade gear-heads, all of whom seem to have a stake in California’s future. The further he digs into the case, the clearer it becomes that it’s about more than one dead agent. Solving it might save his daughter. And it might get him killed. And it just might open the door to secrets that reach back to the attack that almost killed him eighteen years before. At any rate, Ted Lomax will never be the same.

    She changes bodies and fights, again and again. But now the enemy has surrendered. There will be no further deployment. The war is over . . . but not for her.

    Orphaned during World War II, Roger believed that his mother died during the London Blitz, and that his father, an RAF pilot, was killed in combat. But in An Echo in the Bone, Roger discovers that this may not be the whole story. Now, in “A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows,” readers finally learn the truth.

    But what if Nemo was a real man, whose actual life was more fantastic and adventurous than all the fictions it inspired?Here is the tale of Andre Nemo, the man behind the myth. The free-spirited and inventive son of a French shipbuilder, Nemo goes to sea as a cabin boy, faces marauding pirates and bloodthirsty sharks, is marooned for years on a mysterious island, battles prehistoric monsters long believed extinct, journeys to the center of the Earth, balloons across Africa, escapes from Arab slavers, discovers the fabled city of Timbuktu, endures a plague of locusts, survives the Charge of the Light Brigade, tends to the wounded with Florence Nightingale, is pressed into service by the ruthless Robert the Conqueror, and, ultimately, wages war on War itself as the captain of his greatest creation: the legendary underwater vessel known as the Nautilus.Captain Nemo is also the story of Nemo’s childhood friend, Jules Verne, who would bestow immortality upon the captain’s exploits, and of the remarkable woman they both loved to the very end.

    Tony Rossi yawned, stirred a little, then opened his black eyes and sat up quickly. With one motion he tossed the covers back and slid to the warm metal floor. He clicked off his alarm clock and hurried to the closet.It looked like a nice day. The landscape outside was motionless, undisturbed by winds or dust-shift. The boy's heart pounded excitedly. He pulled his trousers on, zipped up the reinforced mesh, struggled into his heavy canvas shirt, and then sat down on the edge of the cot to tug on his boots. He closed the seams around their tops and then did the same with his gloves. Next he adjusted the pressure on his pump unit and strapped it between his shoulder blades. He grabbed his helmet from the dresser, and he was ready for the day.In the dining-compartment his mother and father had finished breakfast. Their voices drifted to him as he clattered down the ramp. A disturbed murmur; he paused to listen. What were they talking about? Had he done something wrong, again?

    She escaped the MEPHISTO lab where she was raised as a psychic supersoldier, which left her with terrifying capabilities, a fierce sense of independence, a deficit of trust and an experimental pet named Seven. She’s spent her life on the run, but the boogeymen from her past are catching up with her. An encounter with a bounty hunter has left her hanging helpless in a dying spaceship, dependent on the mercy of strangers.Penned in on all sides, Mariam chases rumors to find the one who sold her out. To discover the truth and defeat her pursuers, she’ll have to stare into the abyss and find the secrets of her past, her future, and her terrifying potential.

    This epic science fiction series chronicles humanity's first interstellar confederation, torn apart by religious strife and extremism.BATTLE FOR PROXIMAIn this latest book of the Star Crusades Uprising series the Confederacy is on its knees. Months of war have lost them most of the populated colonies and more will surely follow. Spartan, now a Lieutenant in the Marine Corps has been given his own special platoon, the Vanguards. Using the best weapons and armour in the Confederate arsenal, his unit is thrown back to the Bone Mill to locate information that could change the war.FALL OF TERRA NOVAThe action shifts to Terra Nova, the shining beacon of humanity and the single most important planet in the Confederacy. Guarding access to this isolated planet is the Anomaly. This mysterious location is the gateway to Terra Nova and the rest of the Confederacy. When the Echidna Union begins moving scores of ships to the Anomaly, Admiral Jarvis must make a critical decision that could win or lose the war. Either she continues Operation Perdition and reclaims the lost colonies of Proxima Centauri, or she sends the fleet to take control of the Anomaly and the route to Terra Nova in one final apocalyptical battle.SLAVES OF HYPERIONThe newly founded Alliance rises from the ruins of the old Confederacy. Scattered groups of the enemy remain, but organised resistance has been crushed. Amnesty has been granted to those still at large and peace has returned to the war torn colonies. Or has it? This expanding saga includes the Star Crusades Uprising and new Star Crusades Nexus series that follows the story of the Centauri Alliance seventeen years after the end of the Uprising.

    But the journey was not an easy one.Featuring narrow escapes, thrilling boat races and at least one deadly volcanic wasteland.

    But he will not find it unguarded - the Ardent Reef, an encircling ring of gun bastions and asteroid bases, is but one amongst many such lines of defence. Captain Arcadese of the Ultramarines finds himself in command of a host of his battle-brothers, as the renegade Warmaster's fleet launches its final assault on the Throneworld. Will he hold the line even in the face of almost certain death, or will his own loyalty waver in those final moments?ABOUT THE BOOKPublished for the first time in English, this Horus Heresy short story has previously appeared in the French Games Day Chapbook 2012.

    This controversial piece of literature spread across the voyant underworld like a plague, revolutionising the syndicate but also creating discord in the form of brutal gang wars between the newly-divided categories, the scars of which can still be seen today.Revelatory and subversive, On the Merits of Unnaturalness is a must-read for any reader with a desire to further immerse themselves in the incredible world of Samantha Shannon's The Bone Season.