'Twas the night (okay, more like the week) before Christmas, and all through the tiny community of Pine Cove, California, people are busy buying, wrapping, packing, and generally getting into the holiday spirit.But not everybody is feeling the joy. Little Joshua Barker is in desperate need of a holiday miracle. No, he's not on his deathbed; no, his dog hasn't run away from home. But Josh is sure that he saw Santa take a shovel to the head, and now the seven-year-old has only one prayer: Please, Santa, come back from the dead.But hold on! There's an angel waiting in the wings. (Wings, get it?) It's none other than the Archangel Raziel come to Earth seeking a small child with a wish that needs granting. Unfortunately, our angel's not sporting the brightest halo in the bunch, and before you can say "Kris Kringle," he's botched his sacred mission and sent the residents of Pine Cove headlong into Christmas chaos, culminating in the most hilarious and horrifying holiday party the town has ever seen.Move over, Charles Dickens -- it's Christopher Moore time.

It has been nearly ten years since the starship Phoenix returned to Alpha, the station orbiting the world of the atevi, which had been abandoned following a rift between a faction of the station's inhabitants and the spacers' Pilot's Guild. The unexpected return of the Phoenix has forever changed the lives of both atevi and Mospheirans, for over the ensuing decade, the captains of the Phoenix have brought both species into space. Their motivation seemed simple: Reunion Station, a human station in another sector of space, had been destroyed by aliens. But on his deathbed, the senior captain of the Phoenix admits that he lied to the crew—that Reunion was merely damaged, not destroyed, and many people may have survived. At this disclosure, the crew rebels and forces the Phoenix to undertake a rescue mission to Reunion. Onboard the rescue mission are Bren Cameron, brilliant human paidhi representing the atevi...

Toey and three friends arrive in Bangkok, a city engulfed by the choking miasma of a zombie plague. As their Airbus lands they witness another of the mass turnings. The Bangkok airport is an arena of death playing host to lifers, infected, the dead and the newly-undead. As new convulsions wrack the city they realize they're in the opening skirmishes of an undead global war. The struggle begins.From zombie plague ... to an undead world.In a bleary-eyed state of shock Toey Cholwasa and three friends arrive back in Bangkok, a city engulfed by a zombie plague, a choking miasma of flesh rotting in the tropical heat. As their Airbus lands Toey witnesses another in a rolling series of mass turnings. A freshly-risen horde throws itself at the still-moving plane, and gets plowed under … leaving a blood-trail of body parts in the plane’s wake. It would have been a mercy if the plague had merely killed its victims. Zombie death would be the least of its effects. As a researcher in consciousness and trance states Toey is one of the few equipped to piece together what the zombie rules of engagement will have to be. Failing this, the fallout from such a fight won’t bear thinking of. The new airport they pass through is a morning-after war zone, an arena of death playing host to lifers (survivors), infected, the dead, and the newly-undead. Later, the silent city they pass through echoes with the screams of the infected who died there only hours earlier. Most of those have not yet turned. But as new convulsions wrack the city they realize they’re in the opening skirmishes of an undead global war. The struggle begins.

Every Life Has A Price™ One of the fiercest soldiers the Phrixians have ever produced, Maris Sulle has been an outsider from the moment he was born different from the rest of his royal military family. And once his deadly secret was exposed, it cost him everything—his birthright, his family, and his stellar military career. Ture Xans spent his entire life hiding from everyone around him—his family, his friends, and anyone who wanted to get close to him—while trying desperately to fit in and keep his head low. Badly hurt by everyone he’s ever known, he trusts no one except his own best friend. But honestly, he can’t understand why he trusts her. Nor can he believe her when she describes a loyalty between the League allies the likes of which he’s never seen. Yet when Ture is captured by the League in a coup he wanted no part of, his life is saved by a hero he thought only existed in fables. A man who is every bit as scarred and mistrusting as he is. One who has no interest in being dragged into another war for any reason. Having spent his life as a living study of doomed relationships, Maris is well aware of the fiasco that invariably follows. Still, there is something about Ture he can’t resist. Something that won’t let him walk away when he knows he should. But when old enemies return to threaten them both, they either have to stand together or die alone.

From Isaac Asimov, the writer whose name is synonymous with robots and the science of robotics, here are five decades of robot visions--thirty-four landmark stories and essays, including three rare tales--gathered together in one volume. Meet all of Asimov's most famous creations: Robbie, the very first robot that his imagination brought to life; Susan Calvin, the original robot psychologist; Stephen Byerley, the humanoid robot; and the famous human-robot detective team of Lije Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw, who have appeared in such bestselling novesl as The Robots of Dawn and Robots and Empire. Let the master himself guide you through the key moments in the fictional history of robot-human relations--from the most primitive computers and movile machines to the first robot to become a man. (Description from back cover)

Greener Than You Think is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Ward Moore is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Ward Moore then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.

In the wake of unexpected planetary peace and the disappearance of the Dendarii payroll, mercenary captain Miles Naismith attempts to discover the link between the insufferable Captain Galeni and the Komarran rebel expatriates. Reissue. AB.

Earth: expensive, elite graveyard to the galaxy. Ravaged 10,000 years earlier by war, Earth was reclaimed by its space-dwelling offspring as a planet of landscaping and tombstones. None of them fully human, Fletcher, Cynthia, and Elmer journey through this dead world, discovering human traits and undertaking a quest to rebuild a human world on Earth.

A few years after rebel Tally Youngblood takes down the Specials regime, a cultural renaissance sweeps the world. “Tech-heads” flaunt their latest gadgets, “kickers” spread gossip and trends, and “surge monkeys” are hooked on extreme plastic surgery. Popularity rules, and everyone craves fame. Fifteen-year-old Aya Fuse is no exception. But Aya’s face rank is so low, she’s a total nobody. An extra. Her only chance at stardom is to kick a wild and unexpected story. Then she stumbles upon a big secret. Aya knows she is on the cusp of celebrity. But the information she is about to disclose will change both her fate…and that of the brave new world

Deep in the Kalahari Desert, a Corpus lab protects a dangerous secret… But what happens when that secret takes on a life of its own? When an educational safari goes wrong, five teens find themselves stranded in the Kalahari Desert without a guide. It’s up to Sarah, the daughter of zoologists, to keep them alive and lead them to safety, calling on survival know-how from years of growing up in remote and exotic locales. Battling dehydration, starvation and the pangs of first love, she does her best to hold it together, even as their circumstances grow increasingly desperate. But soon a terrifying encounter makes Sarah question everything she’s ever known about the natural world. A silver lion, as though made of mercury, makes a vicious, unprovoked attack on the group. After a narrow escape, they uncover the chilling truth behind the lion’s silver sheen: a highly contagious and deadly virus that threatens to ravage the entire area—and eliminate life as they know it. In this breathtaking new novel by the acclaimed author of Origin and Vitro, Sarah and the others must not only outrun the virus, but its creators, who will stop at nothing to wipe every trace of it.

Nine hundred thousand years ago, something annihilated the Amarantin civilization just as it was on the verge of discovering space flight. Now one scientist, Dan Sylveste, will stop at nothing to solve the Amarantin riddle before ancient history repeats itself. With no other resources at his disposal, Sylveste forges a dangerous alliance with the cyborg crew of the starship Nostalgia for Infinity. But as he closes in on the secret, a killer closes in on him. Because the Amarantin were destroyed for a reason — and if that reason is uncovered, the universe—and reality itself — could be irrecoverably altered….

Furnace Prison ... Where death is the least of your worries. Escape is just the beginning ... We thought we’d made it, we thought we were free. But we should have known there was no way out of Furnace. All we did was slip deeper into the guts of the prison: into solitary confinement, where the real nightmares live - the warden, the Wheezers, and something much, much worse. The clock’s ticking. Because if we don’t escape soon they will turn us into freaks - like them. For ever. In the darkness of the hole your worst nightmares come to life.

AT LAST! The much-longed-for final part of the stupendous ARMAGEDDON trilogy. And so it came to pass that on 27 July 2061 in the land of Eden, the money-free Utopia, Rex Mundi did toil mightily in his back garden. And he did excavate a cesspit like unto the one which his wife Christeen - the daughter of God and the twin sister of Christ - had been giving him GBH of the earholes regarding the need for therewith. And verily in the midst of his labours did Rex's spade strike a buried object of not inconsiderable size. And lo. It were a marble statue of Elvis Presley. Oh yes siree! For Elvis looms large here, much to Rex's discomfort, which is further increased when he discovers that the walls of Jericho fell to the strains of 'It's Now or Never' and that David slew the dwarf Goliath wearing blue suede shoes. When Rex is confronted with The Singular Case of the Purloined Presliana, and the Luminous Order of the Sacred Sprout, he realises things are getting out of control...

AJ Flynn has just failed all but one of his GCSEs, and his future is looking far from rosy. So when he is offered a junior position at a London law firm he hopes his life is about to change - but he could never have imagined by how much. Tidying up the archive one day, AJ finds an old key, mysteriously labelled with his name and date of birth - and he becomes determined to find the door that fits the key. And so begins an amazing journey to a very real and tangible past - 1830, to be precise - where the streets of modern Clerkenwell are replaced with cobbles and carts, and the law can be twisted to suit a villain's means. Although life in 1830 is cheap, AJ and his friends quickly find that their own lives have much more value. They've gone from sad youth statistics to young men with purpose - and at the heart of everything lies a crime that only they can solve. But with enemies all around, can they unravel the mysteries of the past, before it unravels them? A fast-paced mystery novel by one of the country's finest writers, THE DOOR THAT LED TO WHERE will delight, surprise and mesmerise all those who read it.

*30th Anniversary Edition * *Cover note: Each copy of the anniversary edition of The Blind Watchmaker* features a unique biomorph. No two covers are exactly alike. Acclaimed as the most influential work on evolution written in the last hundred years, The Blind Watchmaker offers an inspiring and accessible introduction to one of the most important scientific discoveries of all time. A brilliant and controversial book which demonstrates that evolution by natural selection - the unconscious, automatic, blind yet essentially non-random process discovered by Darwin - is the only answer to the biggest question of all: why do we exist?