Code Name Isaac was sent to find Level P. He doesn't know why or what his is supposed to do when he gets there. Isaac just hopes that he can find someone to give him the right directions.We're ending the year strong with a surprisingly wide variety of story types. But they all center around some significant, and usually life-changing realizations about life, no matter how fantastical it is. And that's why we love science fiction and fantasy: Even though the narrative elements aren't real in our lives, the sentiments, interactions, and life lessons are. It gives us a window in to the human soul, even when the window is decidedly non-human.Fiction Vortex publishes science fiction and fantasy stories every month. Check out FictionVortex.com for more great stories.

A short Poem of the last good bye! Really nice rhythm. Smooth and easy to read.Bismillah“Well, remember, the children’s show will be in the afternoon. You know, the Christmas story, some fun and games and of course lots of prezzies and foodies. Kimberly will attend to all that.”She smacks her lips.“My performance will however only be in the evening. The night light suits me best.”She gives herself a last look in the glass.Straightens her spaghetti top and gets ready to leave.“Really ahwesome chatting to you, again. I hope to see you at the show.”As Allah wills

A dystopian, rock'n'roll, speculative space operatic NOVEL. Call it what you will. Chasing Oranges is about survival and struggle and a shrinking apartment. Space pirates, and fart-propelled rocket launchers. It's time travel, jazz, and the blues. Explosions and corruption. It's hope, death and love. A piano, a nutty professor and an eagle-headed individual.Chasing Oranges is a quasi comical depiction of a self inflicted, rational madness which is doomed, according to some, to inevitable take over this beautiful place we call earth. It’s the story of a few desperate and at times inspirational characters trying to carve an existence. It’s the young writer, Jack Landan, trying to make sense of this thing called life. It’s the tale of a few intergalactic pirates and their escapades. It’s the untold story of the unexpected, faceless leader of the resistance. A vicious cancer that fights for the people. The forgotten masses, that live beneath it all, the sewers and riches. It’s the chase for the OrAngE. A drug so potent that all but a few, wise, clear minded individuals seek for its sexual mind release. With it of course, come the nerve-racketing side effects of any respectable drug of choice. Dragged into it all, Jack Landan is forced to adapt or die as his flat starts to shrink around him, and his flirt with the resistance could end up costing him more than he bargained for.

Blessed Creation: A Christian Poetry Collection includes forty outstanding creation-themed poems by various authors. This anthology seeks to remind us that all of creation is a remarkable gift from God.Blessed Creation: A Christian Poetry Collection includes forty outstanding creation-themed poems by various authors. This anthology seeks to remind us that all of creation is a remarkable gift from God. Poetry authors include Bear Jack Gebhardt, Cheryl Hoffman, Christine V. Mitchell, Connie Marcum Wong, Daniel Turner, Danny P. Barbare, David Subacchi, E.A. Francis, Eve Roper, Funom Makama, Gordon McConnell, Jeffrey Lyndon Lee, Jenean McBrearty, Joanna Daniel, Judy K. Haught, Kim Merryman, Kim Rodrigues, Laura Urbaniak, Matt Adams, Mercy Susanna, Molly ~ wound dresser, Mr. Ben, Nicholas Froumis, Norm Hutcherson, Patricia Callan, Penny Peyser, Phyllis McKinley, Preston Graham, Rachel Lausier, Ramelle T. Lee, Robert B. Moreland, PhD, Ruth Asch, Sally Clark, Sandra L. Hickman, Sandra M. Haight, Sandy Loam, Sara Chansarkar, Simon Cockle, Vince Suzadail, Jr., and Wanda J. Burnside.

Lilith needs Our Hero's help to hunt down and recapture the Bound Nine, nine souls that were deemed too dangerous to pass on. Along the way, an old friend joins the fray.Bob is a Process Server, a functionary. Worse, he's a "Smith," lowest on society's rung in 2253. Well, almost: the poor bastards on Earth have it worse than anyone, addicted to the immersive MultiNet and doomed to pointless lives working for the Big Six Corps. Now Bob's been given a job, to deliver a summons to a bureaucrat halfway across the Galaxy - but death, deception and adventure await...The Process Server is a dystopian sci-fi adventure that deals with themes of belief, loyalty and social conflict as Process Server Bob Smith crosses three galaxies to solve a murder mystery. From epic space battles to the cyberpunk world that exists on Old Earth, it's the adventure of three lifetimes.

The word up is that Owner has a new role to fulfil, and two new helpers talking her through it. Percy and George have their work cut out and Owner's summer reunion with the fab three proves tricky. Losing friends or making them, Wonka is keen to remain chief adviser. Follow her latest demise and spiralling fortunes! With love XIn time for the back end of the year, and the march towards that season of goodwill, we bring you part seven in the conversations series. Owner has reinvented herself as an invigilator and has two new advisors, Percy and George, with the imaginary Jung chipping away at his rocks elsewhere. Wonka is also chipping in, with his usual cutthroat straight from the hip advice. Just get on with it! A summer holiday with old friends is squashed into Owner's busy life - ah! What could go wrong?! Do enjoy the latest story, brought to you as ever with big love X

Anthony Burgess, author of *A Clockwork Orange,* is regarded as one of the most original and daring writers in the English language. His work is illuminated by a dazzling imagination, by a gift for character and plot, by a talent for surprise. In *Earthly Powers* Burgess created his masterpiece. At its center are two twentieth-century men who represent different kinds of power—Kenneth Toomey, eminent novelist, a man who has outlived his contemporaries to survive into honored, bitter, luxurious old age as a celebrity of dubious notoriety; and Don Carlo Campanati, a man of God, eventually beloved Pope, who rises through the Vatican as a shrewd manipulator to become the architect of church revolution and a candidate for sainthood. Through the lives of these two modern men Burgess explores the very essence of power. As each pursues his career—one to sainthood, one to wealthy exile—their relationship becomes the heart of a narrative that incorporates almost everyone of fame and distinction in the social, literary, and political life of America and Europe. This astonishing company is joined together by the art of a great novelist into an explosive and entertaining tour de force that will captivate fans of sweeping historic fiction.

Charleston beauty Natalie Hargrove has been dreaming for years of being crowned senior class prom queen. When her ex threatens to ruin her flawless plan, Natalie sets into motion a chain of events meant to regain control. But she's made one fatal mistake . . . Published shortly before Lauren Kate's international bestseller *Fallen*, *The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove* is her memorable debut - reissued now for the first time with a dazzling new cover look! A contemporary story based on the enduring classic Macbeth, this grounded, realistic novel has what it takes to backlist forever.

From Michael Cunningham, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours, comes this widely praised novel of two boyhood friends: Jonathan, lonely, introspective, and unsure of himself; and Bobby, hip, dark, and inarticulate. In New York after college, Bobby moves in with Jonathan and his roommate, Clare, a veteran of the city's erotic wars. Bobby and Clare fall in love, scuttling the plans of Jonathan, who is gay, to father Clare's child. Then, when Clare and Bobby have a baby, the three move to a small house upstate to raise "their" child together and, with an odd friend, Alice, create a new kind of family. A Home at the End of the World masterfully depicts the charged, fragile relationships of urban life today.

Rebekkah Barrow never forgot the tender attention her grandmother, Maylene, bestowed upon the dead of Claysville. While growing up, Rebekkah watched as Maylene performed the same unusual ritual at every funeral: three sips from a small silver flask followed by the words, "Sleep well, and stay where I put you." Now Maylene is gone and Bek must return to the hometown—and the man—she abandoned a decade ago, only to discover that Maylene's death was not natural . . . and there was good reason for her odd traditions. In Claysville, the worlds of the living and the dead are dangerously connected—and beneath the town lies a shadowy, lawless land ruled by the enigmatic Charles, aka Mr. D. From this dark place the deceased will return if their graves are not properly minded. And only the Graveminder, a Barrow woman, and the current Undertaker, Byron, can set things to right once the dead begin to walk.

You’ve met Ben Shaw. Now meet Braydon Kincaid, the devil-may-care male model who nearly stole the show in Working It by New York Times bestselling author Kendall Ryan. As one of the world’s most sought-after male models, Braydon is no stranger to the finer pleasures in life. The last thing he wants to do is limit himself, especially when it comes to women. His best friend, Ben, might’ve settled down, but Braydon doesn’t want to waste his youth on the messy complications of commitment. He wants fun. He wants easy. Ellie isn’t looking for a casual relationship, but her tough and sassy personality instantly attracts Braydon, who proposes a “friends with benefits” arrangement. Unable to resist the powerful pull of the charming bad boy, Ellie eventually relents, though she longs for all-consuming love. As the two spend more time together, Ellie soon realizes that Braydon’s posing skills extend off the runway. His carefully crafted façade masks a secret hurt that he’s reluctant to share with Ellie, even as they embark on a passionate affair that sends them hurtling toward a fate neither expected. Can Ellie risk her heart while she waits for Braydon to let her in, or will she be forced to demand all or nothing?

Butch O'Neal is a fighter by nature. A hard-living ex-homicide cop, he's the only human ever to be allowed in the inner circle of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. And he wants to go even deeper into the vampire world—to engage in the turf war with the lessers. He's got nothing to lose. His heart belongs to a female vampire, an aristocratic beauty who's way out of his league. If he can't have Marissa, then at least he can fight side by side with the Brothers... Fate curses him with the very thing he wants. When Butch sacrifices himself to save a civilian vampire from the slayers, he falls prey to the darkest force in the war. Left for dead, he's found by a miracle, and the Brotherhood calls on Marissa to bring him back. But even her love may not be enough to save him...

Baghdad falls . . . and armed men are seen looting the city zoo. Amid a hail of bullets, a concealed underground lab is ransacked--and something horrific is set loose upon the world. Seven years later, Louisiana state veterinarian Lorna Polk investigates an abandoned shipwrecked fishing trawler carrying exotic caged animals, part of a black market smuggling ring. But there is something disturbingly wrong with these beasts--each an unsettling mutation of the natural order, all sharing one uncanny trait: incredibly heightened intelligence. Joining forces with U.S. Border Patrol Agent Jack Menard--a man who shares with her a dark and bloody past--Lorna sets out to uncover the truth about this strange cargo and the terrorist threat it poses. Because a beast escaped the shipwreck and is running amok--and what is about to be born upon the altar of Eden could threaten not only the future of the world but the very foundation of what it means to be human.

No reader, regardless of age, will fail to be captivated by this charming story of a legendary dog, in Louis de Bernières’ Canadian publishing debut. *“In early 1998 I went to Perth in Western Australia in order to attend the literature festival, and part of the arrangement was that I should go to Karratha to do their first ever literary dinner. Karratha is a mining town a long way farther north. The landscape is extraordinary, being composed of vast heaps of dark red earth and rock poking out of the never-ending bush. I imagine that Mars must have a similar feel to it. “I went exploring and discovered the bronze statue to Red Dog outside the town of Dampier. I felt straight away that I had to find out more about this splendid dog. “A few months later I returned to Western Australia and spent two glorious weeks driving around collecting Red Dog stories and visiting the places that he knew, writing up the text as I went along. I hope my cat never finds out that I have written a story to celebrate the life of a dog.” – Louis de Bernières* From the Hardcover edition.

Here is how things stand at the beginning of newly-licensed driver Ruby Oliver's junior year at Tate Prep: Kim: Not speaking. Far away in Tokyo. Cricket: Not speaking. Nora: Speaking--sort of. Chatted a couple times this summer when they bumped into each other outside of school--once shopping in the U District, and once in the Elliot Bay Bookstore. But she hadn't called Ruby, or anything. Noel: Didn't care what anyone thinks. Meghan: Didn't have any other friends. Dr. Z: Speaking. And Jackson. The big one. Not speaking. But, by Winter Break, a new job, an unlikely but satisfying friend combo, additional entries to The Boy Book and many difficult decisions help Ruby to see that there is, indeed, life outside the Tate Universe.

In the thirty years since S. T. Joshi prepared revised editions of H. P. Lovecraft's stories for Arkham House, Joshi has continued to do research on the textual accuracy of Lovecraft's stories, and this comprehensive new edition is the result. For the first time, students and scholars of Lovecraft can see at a glance all the textual variants in all relevant appearances of a story-manuscript, first publication in magazines, and first book publications. The result is an illuminating record of the textual history of the tales, along with how Lovecraft significantly revised his stories after initial publication. The result is the definitive text of Lovecraft's fiction-an edition that supersedes all those that preceded it and should endure as the standard text of Lovecraft's stories for many years. In this first volume, Lovecraft's earliest stories are printed in chronological order by date of writing. Included are such early triumphs as -Dagon- and -The Outsider, - along with the many tales Lovecraft wrote under the inspiration of Lord Dunsany. The celebrated -Herbert West-Reanimator- and -The Rats in the Walls- show Lovecraft experimenting with longer narratives-a tendency that will culminate in the novelettes and novellas of his final decade of writing.

You can buy a lot of things with enough money, but you can’t buy the truth After Val skips one Sunday dinner with her cousin Michelle’s family, everything changes. Val and Michelle’s fathers aren’t getting along, and she just wanted to avoid the tension that she knew would be on the menu. Val’s mom died of cancer two years ago, and now her father’s love and her mother’s memory are all she has. But Michelle can’t let it go, and in her anger she drops a bombshell: “You’re not really family. You don’t really count.” Is it true? How come no one—not her teachers, not her classmates, not their parents—seems surprised? Other kids at school are adopted; it’s not a secret. So why hasn’t anyone told Val? Slowly Val starts to see that things are different for her. Other kids don’t have bodyguards or a dad who gives them whatever they want with his piles of money. Up till now, Val has repaid her father’s love by being the obedient daughter he expects, but now she needs something else: She needs the truth.

Jerzy Kosinski's best-selling novel Pinball, which he wrote for George Harrison, is a rock 'n' roll mystery centered on a superstar named Goddard who has, despite his success, managed to keep his identity a secret, even from his closest friends. But a beautiful young woman, obsessed with finding Goddard, stalks him relentlessly, driven by a secret goal that justifies all means. Ricocheting with humor and bursting with erotic intensity, Pinball is a game as intricate, unpredictable, suspenseful, and complex as life.

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory. Life couldn’t be better…until Andrew begins to pick up on the fact that: (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces (2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed. Not surprisingly, a great deal of energy below decks is expended on avoiding, at all costs, being assigned to an Away Mission. Then Andrew stumbles on information that completely transforms his and his colleagues’ understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is…and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives.

For the past two months, Kitty Doe's life has been a lie. Forced to impersonate the Prime Minister's niece, her frustration grows as her trust in her fake fiancé cracks, her real boyfriend is forbidden and the Blackcoats keep her in the dark more than ever. But in the midst of discovering that her role in the Hart family may not be as coincidental as she thought, she's accused of treason and is forced to face her greatest fear: Elsewhere. A prison where no one can escape. As one shocking revelation leads to the next, Kitty learns the hard way that she can trust no one, not even the people she thought were on her side. With her back against the wall, Kitty wants to believe she'll do whatever it takes to support the rebellion she believes in—but is she prepared to pay the ultimate price?

"The publication of Creatures of a Day is reason to celebrate." --Steven Pinker In this stunning collection of stories, renowned psychiatrist Irvin D. Yalom describes his patients' struggles--as well as his own--to come to terms with the two great challenges of existence: how to have a meaningful life yet reckon with its inevitable end. We meet a nurse who must stifle the pain of losing her son in order to comfort her patients' pains, a newly minted psychologist whose studies damage her treasured memories of a lost friend, and a man whose rejection of psychological inquiry forces even Yalom himself into a crisis of confidence. Creatures of a Day is a radically honest statement about the difficulties of human life, but also a celebration of some of the finest fruits--love, family, friendship--it can offer. Marcus Aurelius has written that "we are all creatures of a day." With Yalom as our guide, we will find the means to make our own day not only bearable, but also meaningful and joyful.