Search Results for: death-into-life

One star-chained evening in a Manhattan bathroom, Carl Schirmer spontaneously combusts! His body transforms into light, mysteriously snatched from his banal life by an alien intelligence 130 billion years in the future. There, all spacetime is collapsing into a cosmic black hole, the Big Crunch – and a bold, cosmic destiny awaits Carl. Rebuilt from the remnants of his light by extraterrestrials for a cryptic purpose, he awakens in time’s last world, the strangest of all – the Werld.

At the edge of infinity, Carl discovers the Foke, nomadic humans who travel among the floating islands of the Werld. The Foke teach him how to live – and love – at the end of time, and he loses his heart to his plucky guide, the beautiful Evoë. Their life together in this blissful kingdom that knows no aging or disease brings them to rapture – until Evoë falls prey to the zotl, a spidery intelligence who hunt the Foke and eat the chemical by-products of their pain. In order to save his beloved from a gruesome death, Carl must return to Earth – 130 billion years earlier – where he is shocked to discover that the Earth he’s come back to is not the one he left.

Can he meet the harsh demands of his task before the zotl find him and begin ravishing the Earth?

Author’s Note: The volumes of this series can each be read independently of the others. The feature that unifies them is their individual observations of science fiction’s sub-genre: “space opera,” which the editors David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer define as “colorful, dramatic, large-scale science fiction adventure, competently and sometimes beautifully written, usually focused on a sympathetic, heroic central character and plot action, and usually set in the relatively distant future, and in space or on other worlds, characteristically optimistic in tone. It often deals with war, piracy, military virtues, and very large-scale action, large stakes.”

Nick Lewis certainly has no liking for his TV historian brother, Laurence. Aside from anything else Nick blames him for the death of their mother, the beautiful actress Claudia Martin. And so, is it possible the off-handedly childish trick played by Nick on Laurence really does cast some kind of curse? Bizarre and unpleasant things begin to happen, without a doubt. And Nick himself is hardly immune. As the pattern of his secure yet eccentric life starts to come undone, he finds himself without remedies. Where has Laurence vanished to? What is the creepy Mr Pond’s part in it all? And who is the apparently sinister Kitty Price? Can repressed hatred cause such disruption, danger, even death? Or has the object caused it, as Nick pretended it could: that little ivory counter from a stolen drawer… This is probably not a supernatural story. It might be less unsettling if it was.

1934…

Starving to death somewhere in Europe, Anna meets Raoul.
She is ready to sell herself for a meal, but he has other plans. He takes her to England, to a summer of torrential rain, and the dubious mansion of his arrogant and unsavoury relatives, the Basultes.

It seems Anna is also to ‘enjoy’ the godly Basulte life. But the mounds of stodgy food, the genuflecting servants, the mindless cruelty of class, (the endless rain), affront her. Besides, she is becoming aware of the family, Raoul included, is playing with her a macabre and silly game.

Anna is a survivor – she has had to be – practiced at acting out the impossible. Both the aristocratic malignities, and the Hogarthian orgies of the servants, can be accommodated, if they must. For did they but know, Anna has a past as savage and explicit as anything seen in the Basulte house.

The past, that was Preguna, where Anna loved Arpad, during a European summer of soft heat. Until love ended in the darkness that now hangs on every moment of her life, reducing all other things, however murderous, to nothing.

Among the less-traveled mountains and plains of Central Europe, a little east of Austria perhaps and north of Slovenia, lies the old kingdom of Orsinia. A land of forests and quiet farmlands and towns, with its capital city Krasnoy on the broad Molsen River, Orsinia has always found itself, like all the countries of Europe, subject to forces beyond its borders. Yet, cast as they are in the shadow of tyrannies both Western and Eastern, the lives and dreams of its free people are no less important than the great arguments of Europe’s emperors and dictators.

Here then are those lives: in tales of romance and blood-lust, hope and fear, freedom and tyranny, passion and despair. Tales of love, of life and of death. This is Orsinia and these are her stories.

Sally McQuire worked for an unusual organisation. She was an undercover agent for the I.P.F., but her friends knew her only as a scatter-brained night club dancer. Then came the Thing. At first there were just off paragraphs in provincial papers. A cow disappeared. Fish stopped biting. Finally Jon Vardo, a shepherd, vanished without a trace. The I.P.F. put Sally on the track. She discovered a strange common denominator linking the events. There was a mathematical and geographical sequence. Sally arranged to be at the next danger zone, and then she too vanished. This is a story of humanity at its best, locked in a life and death struggle with a cruel, cold culture of Beings from the Beyond. This is a story of humanity fighting against incredible odds and fantastic weapons. Can the mind of man hold its own against deadly, sinister Intelligence from beyond the stars?

The engines died first, then the ship. Hope died. Men lived on. Then men died one by one… Accidents… quarrels… illness… age. One man remained. One man sat in the quietness of the drifting ship and wondered why Death didn’t want him.
The Others found the incredible derelict and approached her cautiously. The last spaceman watched them come and went to greet them. He was too old and tired to have any emotions left. Then they went to work on him. One by one his feelings came to life again. He took an interest in the New World on which he found himself. There was something strangely worrying about the planet. Things looked vaguely reminiscent of other things from long ago… A mountain range reminded him of Earth. A vast stretch of water looked like an ocean he had once crossed. Could the impossible have happened?
Could the incredible be reality?

The romantic legend of the Holy Grail is almost without parallel in the stories of chivalry. It has about it a quality of inspiration and a standard of purity that transcends everyday life. It shines like a star through the darkness of the Dark Ages. But what if Satan has his own counterpart? What if – just as the Black Mass of the witches and wizards, is an abominable reversal of the Holy Communion Service of the Christian – what if, then, there is an Unholy grail? A sinister thing of death and terror. A glittering, golden chalice forged in the nethermost chasms of Hell, wrought by the hands of unholy craftsmen. Gilded by demons, decked with gems by jewellers who life with the Prince of Darkness.

A thing that originated below the dark hills where trolls dwell…

That, too, would be the object of many a quest. There would be dedicated heroes searching to destroy it. There would be unscrupulous men who wanted to employ its dark power for their own ends. There would be weak men unable to resist its call. There would be strong men whose wills clashed with the almost irresistible power of the Golden Goblet.

From The SF Gateway, the most comprehensive digital library of classic SFF titles ever assembled, comes an ideal sample introduction to the incredible career of Jack Williamson, whose career spanned over seventy years.

Jack Williamson published his first SF story, ‘The Metal Man’, in 1928 and continued to write high quality SF until his death in 2006, along the way coining many of the terms the genre now takes for granted, such as ‘terraforming’ and ‘genetic engineering’. He was the second writer (after Heinlein) to be named a SFWA Grand Master and was the oldest recipient of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. This volume contains The Legion of Space, the first volume in the eponymous series; The Humanoids; John W. Campbell Award-winning Terraforming Earth and his Hugo Award-winning autobiography Wonder’s Child: My Life in Science Fiction.

The world of theatre is a graveyard of hopes and dreams – but someone is adding corpses to the list…

Classic, golden age crime from ‘The masters of misdirection’ NEW YORK TIMES

‘Delicious … an enormously engaging old-school mystery’ BOOKLIST, starred review

Life is far from quiet for Mr and Mrs North. Despite Mr North’s attempts to live a peaceful life, Mrs North’s constant efforts as an amateur detective give them more than enough excitement – and not a little danger.

So when the wealthy backer of a play is found dead in the seats of a New York theatre, the Norths aren’t far behind, led by Mrs North’s customary flair for eccentric murders. Alongside Lieutenant William Weigand of the New York Police Department, they’ll employ illogical logic and bizarrely tangential suggestions to draw the curtains on a killer.

Mycroft has turned detective…

A masterclass of classic crime – ‘A triumph of ingenuity and horrific simplicity’ Boris Karloff

‘A very clever thriller’ Raymond Chandler


In an English country village, a recluse and a beekeeper team up to catch a cunning villain.

Far from the noise of Victorian London, Sydney Silchester’s two passions are privacy and honey. But when his honey supplier is found stung to death by her hive, the search for a new beekeeper takes Sydney to Mr. Mycroft, a brilliant man who has retired to Sussex to take up precisely this occupation, and who shares many traits with the great detective, Sherlock Holmes.

Mycroft, himself no stranger to crime-solving, immediately senses the bloody hand of murder. But what villain would have the mad intelligence to train an army of killer bees? And will Mycroft risk his own life to find the killer?

A series of horrifying murders rips through a sanatorium – and only the patients can stop the killings.

‘Baffling crimes, brilliant writing’ SATURDAY REVIEW

‘Quentin is a craftsman of the first class’ TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

Peter Duluth turned to drink after his wife’s untimely death; now, two years later and desperate to dry out, he enters a sanitorium, hoping to turn his life around. But he doesn’t quite get the calm relaxation he expected. Strange, malevolent occurrences plague the hospital – and Peter hears his own voice crying out the warning ‘There will be murder.’

With a murderer is on the loose, and the staff every bit as erratic as the idiosyncratic patients, everyone is a suspect – including Peter, who is desperate to clear his name before the killer strikes again.

A childhood haven becomes a house of death.

‘Rinehart’s literary distinction lies in the combination of love, humour and murder that she wove into her tales … She helped the mystery story grow up’ New York Times


Sunset House has been Marcia’s summer home for her entire life. Both of her parents died there, and she and her brother spent their youth exploring its rambling hallways and seaside grounds.

They love the old house, but Marcia’s sister-in-law has never taken to it. Juliette loathes the sea, and soon comes to loathe her husband, filing for divorce – and demanding alimony that could only be paid by the sale of Sunset House. A few days later Juliette disappears. And a week after that, her body is discovered.

Marcia must work quickly to keep her beloved childhood home from being forever spoiled. Whilst somewhere in Sunset House a murderer plans the next move…

Charles Rathlyn has everything – a benefactress, a rich wife and a comfortable country life. But while riding to hounds one day he takes a terrible spill, and, on reviving, finds himself looking into a pair of beautiful brown eyes. He knows he has fallen once again . . . in love.

But are his fall and those soft brown eyes linked to another fall – the fatal plunge his wife, Kate takes over the banister to the parquet floor below, supposedly while sleepwalking?

Did she fall or was she pushed? Kate Rathlyn’s death begins an investigation into blackmail and murder among the sporting set.

The small Hebridean island of Alsaig is facing a crisis. It is famous for its only export, a particularly fine malt whisky, upon which most of the islanders depend for their livelihood. But the distillery is threatened with a takeover by an American firm, which would not only make many of the workforce redundant but also adulterate the product.

But owner Alisdair Matheson is refusing to sell, despite threats of sabotage and an attempt on his life. The situation is complicated further by an actual murder on the island, which the locals believe to have been committed by American Mike MacDonald. Tension mounts as storms lash the island, isolating it from the outside world and locking the killer in with the islanders.

When the valet of a German baron visiting Paris is stabbed to death, the murder is not allowed to interfere with the glittering social life of the Belle Epoque.

Inspector Gautier has scarcely begun to investigate the murder when he is instructed to make secret enquiries into a case of espionage involving the Minister for War. The minister has been wildly indiscreet, and Gautier’s enquiries uncover a murderous conspiracy, which is brought to a denouement during a spectacular historical pageant under the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.

When a homemade bomb explodes on a houseboat moored on the Seine, following two brutal stabbings in Pigalle, the Paris police receive a list of targets for assassination that includes the President of the Republic himself. Each murder will be announced beforehand by the arrival of a playing card.

Inspector Jean-Paul Gautier believes the choice of cards, their suit and value, are significant in some way, and must follow the threads of a riddle that unfolds against the colourful backdrop of life in Belle Époque Paris and climaxes in a spectacular bal masqué.

Who killed Gilbert Worth? The official verdict was suicide, but those that knew him best thought he was not the type to take his own life. Furthermore, before his death, a missing gun, a half-written letter and two ‘accidents’ had convinced Worth that someone was trying to kill him.

Worth’s family and mistress all had motives and opportunity, and those close to him have their own ideas as to how he was murdered. And one occupant of the house in particular has a good reason for wanting to identify the killer . . .

One-way ticket to death . . .?

‘Hughes is the master we keep turning to’ Sara Paretsky

‘The tension and terror of Dread Journey are such that few will be able to lay the book down unfinished’ New York Times

‘Cornell Woolrich meets Agatha Christie’ Publishers Weekly

‘Superbly done’ Washington Post

In the four years since she arrived in Los Angeles, Kitten Agnew has become a star. Not all by herself, of course; though beautiful and talented, Kitten would be lost without her director, the acclaimed and powerful Vivien Spender.

But Spender is a dangerous man. Kit knows that, and has heard all the stories – of discarded stars that have ended up in a chorus line, or a sanatorium, or worse.

Spender knows that Kit knows, and wouldn’t dare destroy her glittering career. But he may be willing to kill her . . .

On a train from LA to Chicago, Kit makes a discovery that could have her fighting not just for her career, but for her life.

Charlie Baxter has never been a success. Yes, he’s popular with women, but he’s not exactly a party guy. A cheerful loser, that’s Charlie.

He has even made a hash of his ‘death’. For, having almost exhausted a legacy left to him by a rich aunt, he has planned to insure his life and then ‘die’. But he has failed to foresee the ramifications of his sinister scheme. And he has reckoned without people cleverer than him – the insurance company, for one.

Then there’s his wife, Vera, who is playing along for her own benefit …

In a lovely English village of flowers, Tudor cottages and cobbled streets, Joan Brook works as companion to Lady d’Arcy, living in at the huge mansion with its surrounding park. And the village is not too small for Joan to have found a man whom she can love.

Suddenly the peaceful surface of life is shattered as a poisonous letter is received by the town’s most saintly citizen. It is followed by others; no one is safe from the anonymous letter writer. With the letters comes death. In the anguished days that follow, Joan realises that she too is in danger.

For to receive one of these letters could mean the end of her love … and her life.

Robert Kinsolving is healthy, wealthy and forty-one, and has asked Jesse Falkenstein to draw up a will leaving everything to his sister, just in case. However, before signing, Kinsolving is found dead in an apparent suicide. Jesse is far from convinced, and discovers that Robert was actually not a Kinsolving at all, and anyone who may have benefited from his death is now seriously short-changed.

It now becomes Jesse’s job to track down Robert’s birth mother, and the mystery turns from a whodunit to a where-is-she.

‘My favourite American crime-writer’ New York Herald Tribune

‘A touch of Margaret Millar . . . worth watching’ Sunday Telegraph

San Francisco artist Roxanne Gautier’s startling paintings of male prostitutes has sent shock waves throughout the art world – and in her personal life. When Taylor Adams, her favourite model, commits suicide – or so it appears – her husband is frightened she may be connected with the death and asks ex-policeman Kevin Bryce to investigate.
Taylor’s fellow prostitutes, including the beautiful and dangerous Angel, and the revealing pages of Roxanne’s diary take Bryce into a psychosexual nightmare world of corruption, blackmail and moral decay.

The second book in the New York Times bestselling Longmire series, featuring Sheriff Walt Longmire.

When Mari Baroja is found poisoned at the Durant Home for Assisted Living, Sheriff Longmire is drawn into an investigation that reaches fifty years into the mysterious woman’s past. Her connections to Wyoming’s Basque community, the lucrative coal-bed methane industry, and the personal life of the previous sheriff, Lucian Connally, lead to a complex web of half-truths and assumed alliances.

Aided by his friend Henry Standing Bear, Deputy Victoria Moretti and newcomer Santiago Saizarbitoria, Sheriff Longmire must connect the present with the spectre of the past to find the killer.

Irish-Italian detective Nick O’Hara, grandson of a Mafia don, knows who is responsible for his son’s death, but his hands are tied. Abandoned by his wife, he grows increasingly desperate, going into a tailspin from which he can see only one escape: revenge.

As Nick’s life goes into freefall, he must choose between duty, family loyalty and his desperate need for justice.