In the Shadow of Mountains: The Lost Girls

      David George Richards
     In the Shadow of Mountains: The Lost Girls

The Lost Girls is a dark fantasy with feuding medieval Knights, lost ancient technology, equally lost contemporary teenagers, and yes, a very nasty but ever so hungry and talky dragon of the fiercest kind.Anne Jenkins is a PE teacher with a girl’s hockey team in her charge. How she ends up in a forest on the planet of Ellerkan pursued by Knights in armour with nets and swords she cannot imagine. Knocked out, the next time she wakes up she finds herself in a castle dungeon with the Crown Prince of Halafalon and only half of her girls.Prince Carl was as arrogant as he was charming. But he had a particular habit that many said would kill him one day, and this might just be the day. Prince Harold had planned a pleasant afternoon on a picnic, now he was despatched by his father, the King, to search for his missing elder brother. It would be another futile venture, ending with Carl being discovered in a tavern, or in the arms of some wench.Lord William L’Roth should have been King. He knew it, and everyone else knew it. Now, when the artifact was complete, he would make it so. Sir Henry L’Crief shared Lord L’Roth’s cause, and at one time he would have feared the consequences of his treason against the King. But with his wife at his side and the artifact to call upon, he now feared nothing, not even L’Roth himself.Sir Henry’s wife was not his real wife, but she was an unusual lover. Concubine, mistress, some even called her his pet. It was an apt description. She was large, malevolent and ever hungry. She was called Gil-Yan, and she was a dragon.Five years before, Rolf L’Epine had been on a hunt with the Crown Prince. What he saw that day so horrified him that it changed his life forever. Since then, his life had been peaceful. Now that was set to change.Ancient technology, a war that spanned the galaxy and the consequences of a barbaric tradition returned to haunt them all, and even threatened to eat them...The Lost Girls is a dark Science-Fiction Fantasy with feuding medieval Knights, lost ancient technology, equally lost contemporary teenagers, and yes, a dragon of the fiercest kind.

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    Skybreaker

      Kenneth Oppel
     Skybreaker

A legendary ghost ship. An incredible treasure. A death-defying adventure. Forty years ago, the airship Hyperion vanished with untold riches in its hold. Now, accompanied by heiress Kate de Vries and a mysterious gypsy, Matt Cruse is determined to recover the ship and its treasures. But 20,000 feet above the Earth's surface, pursued by those who have hunted the Hyperion since its disappearance, and surrounded by deadly high-altitude life forms, Matt and his companions soon find themselves fighting not only for the Hyperion—but for their very lives.

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    The Argument of Constants

      Mikael Aizen
     The Argument of Constants

Douglas Adams meets Roger Zelazny. This novelette mixes absurd humor, parallel universes, and romantic drama while managing to ask life's ultimate question: What is a koala doing in a boot?The Argument of Constants won the 2010 Writers of the Future Contest Honorable Mention.The problem with Traveling is that to change the past, you have to know something. Something that changed your mind, convinced you. Was important enough to Travel for. If you could go back in time and make that thing that happened not happen...then you would have never known or cared in the first place. You would never have Traveled.This is The Traveler’s Hypocrisy. More accurately named “The License” because for Travelers, the Hypocrisy is License for depravity. A way to cheat morality and never be caught. License to murder, steal, destroy. Life without consequence. The Hypocrisy means that what is done is done--the past is written…
 The Hypocrisy is a lie.When we travel, we change the past--and the future with it.

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    Time Leap

      Steve Howrie
     Time Leap

How many of us have wished for the ability to travel through time? With such a power we could save loved ones from personal tragedy, prevent major World disasters and catch a glimpse of what the future holds in store for us. Joe Cooper has found such a power – and uses it. Together with his partner Niki Ling and Russian hit-man Smirnoff they embark on a series of mind-boggling adventures.How many of us have wished for the ability to travel through time? With such a power we could avert past wrongs, save loved ones from personal tragedy, prevent major World disasters and catch a glimpse of what the future holds in store for us. Joe Cooper has found such a power – and uses it. Together with his partner Niki Ling and Russian hit-man Smirnoff they embark on a series of adventures in an attempt to change the world for the better. But, as they soon discover, altering events in one reality can have alarming effects in another.Whilst waiting to board his plane to New York from London Heathrow, Joe discovers that the mobile phone his Chinese wife Niki gave him for his birthday has one function that other phones just don’t have: the ability to travel through time. Confused by finding himself in the year 2001, and astonished at becoming a real-life time traveller, he attempts to use the situation to stop the 9/11 World Trade Centre attack, which is due to happen that day.Returning to his London home in the present time, he discovers that his actions have had a far greater affect than he could ever have imagined. Not only events, but his wife’s memories have been changed to in order to accommodate the new future he has engineered. He attempts to prove to her that he can travel though time, and eventually Niki has to believe him. This prompts the two to embark on a series of time travelling adventures in an attempt to change the past, and thereby affect the future. Their travels inevitably bring them into contact with other versions of themselves in past and future time zones, with mind-boggling consequences.Finding the need to assassinate an evil dictator in order to avert World War Three, they employ the services of a Russian hit-man called Smirnoff, recommended by Niki’s Chinese uncle. Smirnoff also helps prevent the death of Diana, Princess of Wales – though again with consequences they had never envisioned. At other times, they use their amazing gift to become time tourists for a while, visiting ancient China (where they narrowly escape with their lives) and a civilisation predating the ancient Egyptians - the Boskops. Curiosity finally drives them to find out what the World will look like in two thousand years’ time. Again, they take Smirnoff with them - only this time he steals the phone from Simon, preventing the time-travelling duo from returning to the present and condemning them to live in a disaster-hit Scotland in the year 4,200 CE. Or so they think.

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    The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane

      Robert E. Howard
     The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane

With Conan the Cimmerian, Robert E. Howard created more than the greatest action hero of the twentieth century—he also launched a genre that came to be known as sword and sorcery. But Conan wasn’t the first archetypal adventurer to spring from Howard’s fertile imagination. *“He was . . . a strange blending of Puritan and Cavalier, with a touch of the ancient philosopher, and more than a touch of the pagan. . . . A hunger in his soul drove him on and on, an urge to right all wrongs, protect all weaker things. . . . Wayward and restless as the wind, he was consistent in only one respect—he was true to his ideals of justice and right. Such was Solomon Kane.” *Collected in this volume, lavishly illustrated by award-winning artist Gary Gianni, are all of the stories and poems that make up the thrilling saga of the dour and deadly Puritan, Solomon Kane. Together they constitute a sprawling epic of weird fantasy adventure that stretches from sixteenth-century England to remote African jungles where no white man has set foot. Here are shudder-inducing tales of vengeful ghosts and bloodthirsty demons, of dark sorceries wielded by evil men and women, all opposed by a grim avenger armed with a fanatic’s faith and a warrior’s savage heart. This edition also features exclusive story fragments, a biography of Howard by scholar Rusty Burke, and “In Memoriam,” H. P. Lovecraft’s moving tribute to his friend and fellow literary genius. From the Trade Paperback edition.

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    Cloudstar's Journey

      Erin Hunter
     Cloudstar's Journey

In this original Warriors novella, Cloudstar, leader of SkyClan, has watched over his Clanmates at the edge of the forest for many long seasons. But Twolegs are encroaching on SkyClan's land and SkyClan is in danger of being driven away. Cloudstar is forced to turn to the other Clans for help—but will they be willing to come to SkyClan's rescue?

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    The Doomsday Key

      James Rollins
     The Doomsday Key

James Rollins, the "New York Times" bestselling master of nail-biting suspense and historical mystery, combines cutting-edge biotechnology with a centuries-old secret in an apocalyptic story that reveals where humankind is truly headed "The Doomsday Key" At Princeton University, a famed geneticist dies inside a biohazard lab. In Rome, a Vatican archaeologist is found dead in St. Peter's Basilica. In Africa, a U.S. senator's son is slain outside a Red Cross camp. The three murders on three continents bear a horrifying connection: all the victims are marked by a Druidic pagan cross burned into their flesh. The bizarre murders thrust Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma Force into a race against time to solve a riddle going back centuries, to a ghastly crime against humanity hidden within a cryptic medieval codex. The first clue is discovered inside a mummified corpse buried in an English peat bog -- a gruesome secret that threatens America and the world. Aided by two women from his past -- one his exlover, the other his new partner -- Gray must piece together the horrifying truth. But the revelations come at a high cost, and to save the future, Gray will have to sacrifice one of the women at his side. That alone might not be enough, as the true path to salvation is revealed in a dark prophecy of doom. Sigma Force confronts humankind's greatest threat in an adventure that races from the Roman Coliseum to the icy peaks of Norway, from the ruins of medieval abbeys to the lost tombs of Celtic kings. The ultimate nightmare is locked within a talisman buried by a dead saint -- an ancient artifact known as the Doomsday Key.

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    NERDS: National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society

      Michael Buckley
     NERDS: National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society

A group of unpopular students are part of a spy network inside their school. With the help of cutting-edge science, their nerdy qualities are enhanced and transformed into incredible abilities. They battle the Hyena, a former junior beauty pageant contestant turned assassin, and an array of James Bond–style villains, each with an evil plan more diabolical and more ridiculous than the last.

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    The Killing

      Robert Muchamore
     The Killing

When a small-time crook suddenly has big money on his hands, it's only natural that the police want to know where it came from. James' latest CHERUB mission looks routine: make friends with the bad guy's children, infiltrate his home and dig up some leads for the cops to investigate. But the plot James begins to unravel isn't what anyone expected. And it seems like the only person who might know the truth is a reclusive eighteen-year-old boy. There's just one problem. The boy fell from a rooftop and died more than a year earlier.

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    Flashman's Lady

      George MacDonald Fraser
     Flashman's Lady

Flashy, that lustful libertine, takes a round-the-world adventure that would shock Don Juan and make swingers of today green with envy. In an English mansion, he's not just doodling in the drawing room with a blue blood's red-hot-blooded mistress; in Africa, he's forced to serve a sultry queen who kills low-endurance lovers. The irresistable antihero heads to China, where he gets between a pair of Chinese beauties who'll do anything to improve East-West relations; en route, he takes cover on warship under fire with an explosive Malay maiden. "A romp that will have lucky readers chortling with delight." (Publishers Weekly)

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    Game of Flames

      Robin Wasserman
     Game of Flames

The action is on the page, on your device, and out of this world! This multiplatform series is part sci-fi, all action-adventure. And you don't have long to wait -- 6 books are coming all in one year!  Earth is in danger! The only thing that can save our planet are six essential elements  scattered throughout the galaxy. It is up to the Voyagers—a team of four kids (plus one stowaway) —to gather them all and return to Earth. Failure is not an option. The Alpha team knows that the second element is hidden on Meta Prime, a planet filled with metal mazes, catapults of fire, and warring alien robots. But what they don’t know is that another spaceship is following hot on their trail. . . . Do you have what it takes to be a Voyager? Find out at VoyagersHQ.com. From the Hardcover edition.

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    The World Is My Home: A Memoir

      James A. Michener
     The World Is My Home: A Memoir

Literary legend James A. Michener was “a Renaissance man, adventurous, inquisitive, unpretentious and unassuming, with an encyclopedic mind and a generous heart” (The New York Times Book Review). In this exceptional memoir, the man himself tells the story of his remarkable life and describes the people, events, and ideas that shaped it. Moving backward and forward across time, he writes about the many strands of his experience: his passion for travel; his lifelong infatuation with literature, music, and painting; his adventures in politics; and the hard work, headaches, and rewards of the writing life. Here at last is the real James Michener: plainspoken, wise, and enormously sympathetic, a man who could truly say, “The world is my home.” BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from James A. Michener's Hawaii. Praise for *The World Is My Home  * “Michener’s own life makes one of his most engaging tales—a classic American success story.”—Entertainment Weekly  * “The Michener saga is as full of twists as any of his monumental works. . . . His output, his political interests, his patriotic service, his diligence, and the breadth of his readership are matched only by the great nineteenth-century writers whose works he devoured as he grew up—Dickens, Balzac, Mark Twain.”—Chicago Tribune “There are splendid yarns about [Michener’s] wartime doings in the South Pacific. There are hilarious cautionary tales about his service on government commissions. There are wonderful inside stories from the publishing business. And always there is Michener himself—analyzing his own character, assessing himself as a writer, chronicling his intellectual life, giving advice to young writers.”—The Plain Dealer “A sweepingly interesting life . . . Whether he’s having an epiphany over a campout in New Guinea with head-hunting cannibals or getting politically charged by the melodrama of great opera, James A. Michener’s world is a place and a time worth reading about.”—The Christian Science Monitor***

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    Letters From London

      Julian Barnes
     Letters From London

With brilliant wit, idiosyncratic intelligence, and a bold grasp of intricate political realities, the celebrated author of Flaubert's Parrot turns his satiric glance homeward to England, in a sparkling collection of essays that illustrates the infinite variety of contemporary London life. From the Trade Paperback edition.

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