Search Results for: matter

Donal Graeme set out to re-shape the galaxy, but first he must tear it apart.

Donal Graeme, Dorsai of the Dorsai, was the final link in a long genetic train, the ultimate soldier, whose breadth of vision made him a master of space war and strategy – and something even greater. He was the focus of centuries of evolution, the culmination of planned development, and through him a new force made itself felt.

Dorsai were renowned throughout the galaxy as the finest soldiers ever born, trained from birth to fight and win, no matter what the odds. With Donal at their head they embarked upon the final, impossible venture: they set out to unify the splintered worlds of Mankind.

Aejole Ehomba has led his companions through jungle, veldt, and desert. Now to reach the fabled port of Hamacassar, the simple herdsman must trek through deadly “civilized” lands where flowers wage war, dogs herd lightning, demons govern the darkness, and Time itself can be held captive.

In this new world, the tribesman must rely upon his friends, wondrous weapons, and the magic of memories so potent they can raise the dead or bring the sea to dry land. But no matter where he goes, every seer and sage Ehomba mets offes the same prophecy: his quest will end in failure …and death.

Otto McGavin is peaceful and idealistic by nature, an Anglo-Buddhist, who seeks employment with the Confederación because he believes in it and its mission to protect the rights of humans and nonhumans. The only problem is that the Confederación needs him as a Prime Operator for its secret service, the TBII, and the TBII wants Otto as a spy, a thief and an assassin.

It’s not, of course, a problem for the Confederación, which simply uses immersion therapy and hypnosis for Otto’s training, and then sends him out in deep cover on a variety of dangerous missions on a number of bizarre worlds.

But for Otto, it’s a different matter: what he has to witness and what he is forced to do take a terrible toll on him . . .

Christie Opara, the only woman on the DA’s Special Investigation Squad, is assigned by her boss to shadow his daughter to a civil rights demonstration. An ugly group of hecklers soon turns the demonstration into a riot and someone gets shot. A cop with a bewildered look on his face stands over the body with a revolver in his hand.

The crowd and the public cry for the cop’s blood in the days to come. Only Christie, who was standing next to the cop, saw another person pull the trigger. Now she must find the real murderer before matters get totally out of hand . . .

‘Detective Opara is going to become one of fiction’s most popular police people’ Sunday Mirror

30 Day Wonder is about a reporter-a good one-who’s an average guy with a sense of humor and reasonable views about the rights of his fellow man. Maybe that’s why the Monolithians picked him to head up their public-relations program. After all, they had to reach a lot of average people and even though they were invulnerable, they couldn’t afford to take chances. Because they had a message, and EVERYBODY had to be convinced. So he didn’t have any choice in the matter. That’s where the system went wrong . . . no choice.

Act peaceful. Love thy neighbor. Obey the law.

Why, people could go mad living that way.

And many would.

The galaxy is at war, a war between the oxygen-breathing Terran Federation of worlds and the Ginzoes, chlorine-breathing aliens. Neither side dare attack the others’ habitable worlds for fear of reprisals: the war has become a matter of spaceships firing on each other as they emerge from hyperspace.
An Earth ship is captured in battle by the Ginzoes, and its surviving crew learn that the aliens have gained possession of a newly-developed catalyst. If dropped into the oceans of oxygen planets the catalyst can liberate the chlorine from the sea and convert them to chlorine worlds suitable for the Ginzoes. The catalyst will be used unless the Terran Federation declares peace within fifty days. Fifty days to save Mankind . . . or fifty days to doom!

“When Kinsolving’s Planet crosses your path, beware!”

Commodore John Grimes would have done well to heed this warning. But the evil magic of Kinsolving draws him on, pulling him on a journey through the universes. Is Grimes a swiftly facing literary ghost, doomed to disappearance for the inadvertent theft of a meerschaum pipe? Or, is he a flesh and blood Commodore, sailing the spaceways from world to world, enjoying dangerous voyages to momentary safe ports?

It does not matter what role is the “true” John Grimes for none can protect him from the grasp of Kinsolving’s Planet, an abandoned colony which reaches out for man, for the target, John Grimes, who is inexorably sucked toward his final destiny …

When Kate forsakes London to join her husband in the North of Scotland, it is more than a journey to an unfamiliar land. The spirit of the Highland village, invested with ancient clan warfare, works its magic on her; and the foundations of her matter-of-fact marriage, and of her being, shift eerily.

Kate soon finds herself enmeshed in the tangle of desires, jealousies and darker emotions that run riot beneath the deceptively calm surface of the ingrown little town. Passions rise in the hills; guilty secrets are laid bare in the valleys; and a lonely and ironic death on a mountainside rights old wrongs.

‘One of the most haunting, with a marvellously romantic Highland setting … eminently satisfying and inevitable’ Publishers Weekly

The final contact made by the Daedalus Mission begins badly, even before the ship makes a hard landing in the middle of nowhere. The situation of the colony doesn’t seem to make any sense, and neither does the situation of the indigenous aliens–the Sets–that have helped the colony survive and thrive. Alex Alexander doesn’t take long to work out a hypothesis that might explain the mystery–a hypothesis that the people on the ground have already worked out for themselves–and he’s fortunate enough to fall in with a colonist who’s obsessively determined to prove the hypothesis. Unfortunately, the quest seems likely to become so dangerous that both of them might die trying–and there’s too much at stake not to take it to the very limit of possibility, no matter what the cost.

In the marvel-adventure sagas of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Otis Adelbert Kline, and John Norman, has there ever been a situation such as befell the Earthling who found his way to the world under the Green Star? For while his real body lay crippled and silent under the sun of old Earth, his mind occupied the vigorous body of a young primitive on that alien planet of mighty trees, floating cities, and unmapped limits. And in that guise he had found incredible friends, a royal love, and inhuman and superhuman enemies. But no matter what predicament he was in – and as this book starts he is alone, abandoned on an uncharted sea – his courage never flagged though the greatest of risks would confront him as the Green Star rises.

Be glad you’re human . . .

Not that it wouldn’t be fun to be one of Richard Wilson’s visitors from outer space. But the trouble is, no matter how mentally superior, or how gorgeous, or how horrible – you’d never win . . . not against the wacky, witless, illogical, neurotic, inebriated and (happily) fallible denizens of Earth.

A collection of ten short science fiction stories by Richard Wilson, containing:

Those Idiots from Earth (1957)
The Inhabited (1953)
The Hoaxters (1952)
Lonely Road (1956)
Love (1952)
Honor (1956)
88 Beats 266 (1957) (a.k.a. “Succes Story”)
Don’t Fence Me In (1956)
Press Conference (1953) (a.k.a. “Visitor from the Void”)
It’s Cold Outside (1956)

Presenting acclaimed essays from one of contemporary science fiction’s most imaginative wordsmiths, this collection shows that Robert Silverberg’s nonfiction is as witty and original as his fiction and full of acute observations and matter-of-fact insights. Whether he is discussing science fiction, history, cultural effects, science, or writing, Silverberg is always exploring new territories. As in his fiction, no cultural icon escapes his scrutiny, including fellow writers such as Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, H. P. Lovecraft, and Isaac Asimov. Delightfully wicked commentaries on the concepts of thoughtcrimes, space exploration, the ancient Antikythera Computer, and the universal translator in science fiction fill these essays, many of which were originally published as columns in Asimov Science Fiction magazine.

Morrow unabashedly delves into matters both sacred and secular in this collection of short stories buoyed by his deliciously irreverent wit. Among the dozen selections is the Nebula Award-winning “Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge.”


Contents:
Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge (1988)
Daughter Earth (1991)
Known but to God and Wilbur Hines (1991)
Bible Stories for Adults, No. 20: The Tower (1994)
Spelling God with the Wrong Blocks (1987)
The Assemblage of Kristin (1984)
Bible Stories for Adults, No. 31: The Covenant (1989)
Abe Lincoln in McDonald’s (1989)
The Confessions of Ebenezer Scrooge (1989)
Bible Stories for Adults No. 46: The Soap Opera (1994)
Diary of a Mad Deity (1988)
Arms and the Woman (1991)

Chris Godfrey, the famous astronaut, is on holiday in Majorca with his friends Morrey, Serge and Tony. They visit the fabulous underground Caves of Drachm and there they encounter Ebenezer Yates, an elderly and wealthy American who is greatly distressed because his grandson Ian has just disappeared. There is one cavern to which no one is admitted; armed soldiers guard its entrance, but Mr Yates knows that Ian was fascinated by this forbidden cave and he is sure that the boy has slipped in while the lights were switched off. The cavern is regarded with such terror that no one will talk about it, but Mr Yates finally discovers that before it was kept guarded a number of people had entered and none had ever returned. Nonetheless, the astronauts are determined to find Ian no matter what the danger…

In a peaceful, residential section of Queens, Kitty Keeler’s young sons have gone missing. Both she and her husband say they have no idea where the children are. Then New York Police Department cop Joe Peters gets the call he’s been dreading. The bodies of two blond, blue-eyed boys have been found.
As Joe launches an investigation, he becomes dangerously drawn to the exquisite Kitty. With the evidence against her mounting and the world calling her a heartless killer, Joe vows to uncover the truth, no matter what the cost. But as violence begets violence, and his obsession with Kitty grows, Joe knows he’ll never rest until he finds the answer to the burning question: Did Kitty Keeler murder her own children?

That first visit to Mars had been a mistake. A miraculous journey out through the myriad miles of space and back, back through the millennia to a time before Man existed, it had been the chance result of a small-scale malfunction in an experimental matter transfer machine.
But Michael Kane’s first great adventure in a world where great mythic armies battled, where hugely bizarre creatures roamed and deeds of high heroism and dark treachery resounded, was but the start. For as he learned to control and use the machinery, he was to return to Mars again and again.
The second volume of the Martian adventures of Michael Kane, of the proud Princess Shizala, her warrior brother and the darkly beautiful but evil Horguhl, as book two of the Warrior of Mars series is available in ebook for the first time!

Everyone thought Mike Hammer was dead, shot in a drugs war battle on the docks of New York. But now he’s back from a stay in Florida, and in deeper trouble than ever before. He has the slaying of Marcus Dooley, an old army buddy, to pay back with interest – and two generations of a powerful Mafia family to beat at their own bloody games. Plus, just before he died Dooley revealed to Hammer that there’s a missing cache of $89 billion to find – before the bad guys get their hands on it, and their sights on Hammer.

And to really complicate matters, the Feds have dealt themselves into the action, eager to beat everybody to the loot.

With two rock-hard fists, a well-oiled .45, his beautiful secretary, Velda, and a miracle, Hammer might just make it out of this one alive …

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

When the body of a young Vietnamese woman is found alongside the interstate in Absaroka County, Sheriff Walt Longmire is determined to discover the identity of the victim and is forced to confront the horrible similarities of this murder to that of his first homicide case as a Marine investigator in Vietnam. To complicate matters, Virgil White Buffalo, a Crow Indian, is found living in a nearby culvert and in possession of the young woman’s purse.
There are only two problems with what appears to be an open-and-shut case. One, the sheriff doesn’t think Virgil White Buffalo – a Vietnam vet with a troubling past – is a murderer. And two, the photo that is found in the woman’s purse looks hauntingly familiar to Walt.

‘A rising star’ Los Angeles Times

She always felt different – and now she knows why.

‘An outstanding novel which confirms Glaister’s command of the domestic and the bizarre’ Independent on Sunday

‘Enormously enjoyable’ Nick Hornby

Jennifer is about to turn thirteen and is suffering more than the usual teenage confusion. She’s lonely and her parents are unfashionably strange, so she lives in her imagination, dreaming of acceptance, to be popular and normal.

Then Jennifer learns that her supposed parents are really her grandparents, and that her mother deserted her years ago. So when Bronwyn, the new girl at school, and the sinister Johnny crash into her life, adventures with them – no matter how dangerous – seem immediately more attractive.

‘Glaister’s rounded gift is to show life as it really is’ Independent on Sunday

Nick Jenkins works with a group of engineers on asteroid Freedonia, attempting to build the first CT reactor. A contraterrene matter (CT, or antimatter) reactor will provide enough power for the entire solar system, freeing people from the tyranny of limited fission power monopoly controlled by the Interplanet corporation. A surprise attack on Freedonia by unknown attackers results disables the entire staff save for Nick Jenkins. The entire staff, including Jenkins, is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation. They will all die within two weeks.
Now it up to Nick Jenkins to track down the attackers, prevent the outbreak of a CT war, and finish the CT reactor in order to provide free power to the solar system. And he must do so before he dies of radiation sickness.

The fate of the Earth Empire hung in the balance – and Security Commissioner Spangler knew it was up to him to find the monster, the Rithian Terror, as some called it. Seven Rithians had landed on Earth. Six had been disposed of. One was loose.

Surely, Spangler reasoned, the stereoptic fluoroscope would flush it out. ‘That’s one test the Rithian can’t meet, no matter how good his human disguise may be.’ Spangler explained to Pembun, the strange, little Colonial who had been sent to help find the monster.

But Pembun didn’t agree. ‘The trouble,’ he said, ‘is that the Rithi have no bones. Which would be indication enough under a fluoroscope, if it weren’t for the fact that it can easily swallow a skeleton.’

Spangler shuddered.

It’s a good thing Flinx is no stranger to rouble, because he’s swimming in it. After surviving an attack by a new gang of assailants, Flinx is spirited away and enlisted in a battle against an extra-galactic threat. Hidden behind the Great Emptiness, in a place where it seems matter and energy have never been, there is only evil. Pure evil that is approaching him, accelerating.

This terrifying, high-stakes adventure through perilous new realms will rocket Flinx into the very heart of danger – and into the arms of the only woman he’s ever loved. As he and Pip bravely travel to a place where no man or mini-drag has gone before, Flinx discovers he has a few more friends than he thought – and far more enemies than he ever imagined.

A chance sighting in a café in Amsterdam gives solicitor Rosa Epton an unwelcome shock. At a nearby table sits an ex-client who should be behind bars, having recently been sentenced to five years in prison. So what is Eddie Ruding doing in Amsterdam a few weeks later?

On her return to England, Rosa makes a few discreet enquiries, only to draw a blank. But just as she has decided to try to put the matter out of her mind, a newspaper report shocks her into action. Eddie Ruding has been found dead, his crumpled body lying at the foot of the walls of Wandsworth Prison.

Rosa, however, is not the only person on the dead man’s trail. Everyone from inquisitive journalists to MI5 appears to be taking an interest – and none so much as the dead man’s mother, a cockney matriarch with a score to settle.

The novel that inspired the headline-grabbing ITV series starring John Lynch, Kenneth Cranham, and Christine Kavanagh. A terrifyingly plausible journey into the disturbing nerve-centers of medical science where our secret future is formed today.
When Peter Carson is invited to the pioneering Jenner Clinic by one of the lab assistants, he’s naturally intrigued. But when he arrives at the remote site in the Cumbrian fells to find police roadblocks and official silence, he realises that he’s stumbled onto a story that will do him no good at all.
Dr Jenner’s work matters to the government. Enough to warrant unlimited funding, high security, and the best technicians in the country. But something has gone badly wrong. The project that has no room for mistakes has produced a result so terrible that it must never see the light of day. And now the evidence must be destroyed, whatever the cost.