The Sudden Appearance of Hope

      Claire North
     The Sudden Appearance of Hope

Listen. All the world forgets me. First my face, then my voice, then the consequences of my deeds. So listen. Remember me. My name is Hope Arden, and you won't know who I am. We've met before - a thousand times. But I am the girl the world forgets. It started when I was sixteen years old. A slow declining, an isolation, one piece at a time. A father forgetting to drive me to school. A mother setting the table for three, not four. A teacher who forgets to chase my missing homework. A friend who looks straight through me and sees a stranger. No matter what I do, the words I say, the people I hurt, the crimes I commit - you will never remember who I am. That makes my life tricky. But it also makes me dangerous . . . The Sudden Appearance of Hope is the tale of the girl no one remembers. But this gripping story – of love and loss, of hope and despair, of living in the moment and dying to leave a mark – is novel that will stay with you for ever.

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    Purity

      Evangeline Anderson
     Purity

K is a fourth level Paladin and a servant of Purity—the holy nothingness she has been taught to revere and aspire to from childhood. Born on a sexless world from an artificial womb, K was fitted with a black mesh skinsuit at the tender age of nine. The suit nourishes and defends her from enemies and serves as her main weapon in the holy war her people have declared on the rest of the universe. It also eradicates even the slightest traces of emotion. Leading her purge squad in a never-ending mission to rid the universe of the Impure, K is accustomed to killing or enslaving everyone she meets. That is, until she meets Boone. Boone is a doctor and geneticist from Colossus—a heavy G world which has rendered the people who inhabited it larger and stronger than regular humans. He’s more than happy to stay on his own planet and do research—until his little sister is taken by Purists and delivered to the pshalite mines. Frantic to rescue her, he hatches a desperate plot—capture a Paladin and use the enemy pawn to gain access to where his sister is being held. K falls into his net—but not without a fight. When she is wounded in the battle, Boone is forced to cut off her skinsuit in order to save her life. Now, removed from her comforting routine and separated from the parasitic suit, K is beginning to change. Her body is blossoming and her mind is opening. For the first time in her life she can feel…whether she wants to or not. In order to survive in her new environment she has to cooperate with Boone. However, she soon finds that it isn’t just her body he holds prisoner… but also her heart.

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    Fairuza Blue

      Shawn O'Toole
     Fairuza Blue

A science officer uncovers a secret in the ruins of an ancient civilization. Her expedition suffers the terrible consequences.The Concubines of the Great Seen Unseen are an order of nuns cloned from one woman and endowed with her formative memories. Their Virgin Army scours the galaxy for knowledge and resources. Their science officer Fairuza Blue the Audacious uncovers a secret of the ancients... and unleashes a horror.

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    Agent Q, or the Smell of Danger!

      M. T. Anderson
     Agent Q, or the Smell of Danger!

It's time for Lily, Katie, and Jasper to head home from their exciting Delaware adventure, but the Awful Autarch's spies and goons are everywhere, and it's clear that they have other plans for our three intrepid heroes. Chock full of ups, downs, twists, turns, and even a band of sentient lobsters fighting on the side of Good, this fourth installment of the Pals in Peril series is every bit as wild, wacky, and wonderfully outrageous as the first three.

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    Qualify

      Vera Nazarian
     Qualify

In 2047 an asteroid is hurtling toward Earth, and the descendants of ancient Atlantis have returned from the stars to offer humanity help. But they can only save a tiny percent of Earth’s population. To be chosen, you must Qualify, or you die. Sixteen-year-old Gwen Lark is a klutzy nerd but determined to Qualify and rescue her entire family by competing in the brutal Games of the Atlantis Grail.You have two options. You die, or you Qualify.The year is 2047. An extinction-level asteroid is hurtling toward Earth, and the descendants of ancient Atlantis have returned from the stars in their silver ships to offer humanity help.But there's a catch.They can only take a tiny percent of the Earth's population back to the colony planet Atlantis. And in order to be chosen, you must be a teen, you must be bright, talented, and athletic, and you must Qualify.Sixteen-year-old Gwenevere Lark is determined not only to Qualify but to rescue her entire family.Because there's a loophole.If you are good enough to Qualify, you are eligible to compete in the brutal games of the Atlantis Grail, which grants all winners the laurels, high tech luxuries, and full privileges of Atlantis Citizenship. And if you are in the Top Ten, then all your wildest wishes are granted... Such as curing your mother's cancer.There is only one problem.Gwen Lark is known as a klutz and a nerd. While she's a hotshot in classics, history, science, and languages, the closest she's come to sports is a backyard pool and a skateboard.This time she is in over her head, and in for a fight of her life, against impossible odds and world-class competition--including Logan Sangre, the most amazing guy in her school, the one she's been crushing on, and who doesn't seem to know she exists.Because every other teen on Earth has the same idea.You Qualify or you die.

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    Blood Purple (Blood Series)

      Ashley Nemer
     Blood Purple (Blood Series)

Book One of the Blood Series, Zayn and Nikole, Algula Vampires from Lebanon will bring you into their world and show you that what you thought you knew about reality is really fiction, and fiction is now reality.In a world we think we know, live other races entirely hidden from the mortal perspective. Creatures of legend, of fable and myth, their very history and nature have allowed them to walk side by side with humans since time immemorial. They are warriors, they are hunters, and they are Algula. Vampire. And in their own midst, a battle is brewing for supremacy, for dominance, that can and will affect all around them. Old hatred never dies and vengeance is a fiery sword that cuts a bloody swath.

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    Children of God

      Mary Doria Russell
     Children of God

Mary Doria Russell's debut novel, The Sparrow, took us on a journey to a distant planet and into the center of the human soul. A critically acclaimed bestseller, The Sparrow was chosen as one of Entertainment Weekly's Ten Best Books of the Year, a finalist for the Book-of-the-Month Club's First Fiction Prize and the winner of the James M. Tiptree Memorial Award. Now, in Children of God, Russell further establishes herself as one of the most innovative, entertaining and philosophically provocative novelists writing today. The only member of the original mission to the planet Rakhat to return to Earth, Father Emilio Sandoz has barely begun to recover from his ordeal when the Society of Jesus calls upon him for help in preparing for another mission to Alpha Centauri. Despite his objections and fear, he cannot escape his past or the future. Old friends, new discoveries and difficult questions await Emilio as he struggles for inner peace and understanding in a moral...

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    Burning Kingdoms

      Lauren DeStefano
     Burning Kingdoms

Danger descends in the second book of The Internment Chronicles, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Chemical Garden trilogy. After escaping Internment, Morgan and her fellow fugitives land on the ground to finally learn about the world beneath their floating island home. The ground is a strange place where water falls from the sky as snow, and people watch moving pictures and visit speakeasies. A place where families can have as many children as they want, their dead are buried in vast gardens of bodies, and Internment is the feature of an amusement park. It is also a land at war. Everyone who fled Internment had their own reasons to escape their corrupt haven, but now they’re caught under the watchful eye of another king who wants to dominate his world. They may have made it to the ground, but have they dragged Internment with them?

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    A Fire Upon the Deep

      Vernor Vinge
     A Fire Upon the Deep

*Alternate Cover Edition can be found here. * A Fire upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale. Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these "regions of thought," but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence. Fleeing the threat, a family of scientists, including two children, are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle. A rescue mission, not entirely composed of humans, must rescue the children-and a secret that may save the rest of interstellar civilization.

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    Children of Refuge

      Margaret Peterson Haddix
     Children of Refuge

After Edwy is smuggled off to Refuge City to stay with his brother and sister, Rosi, Bobo, and Cana are stuck alone—and in danger—in Cursed Town in the thrilling follow-up to Children of Exile from New York Times bestselling author, Margaret Peterson Haddix. It’s been barely a day since Edwy left Fredtown to be with his parents and, already, he is being sent away. He’s smuggled off to boarding school in Refuge City, where he will be with his brother and sister, who don’t even like him very much. The boarding school is nothing like the school that he knew, there’s no one around looking up to him now, and he’s still not allowed to ask questions! Alone and confused, Edwy seeks out other children brought back from Fredtown and soon discovers that Rosi and the others—still stuck in the Cursed Town—might be in danger. Can Edwy find his way back to his friends before it’s too late?

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    Snare

      Katharine Kerr
     Snare

The author of the beloved Deverry series (Dragonspell, Darkspell, and The Red Wyvern) turns her hand to a new kind of tale. On the planet known as Snare, the descendants of Islamic fundamentalist emigrants have created beautiful enclaves, where they can sit on a patio enjoying green grass and "true-roses," but the nomadic tribes live in a much harsher landscape. Where the grass is purple, the trees are orange, and the huge and dangerous sentient Cha'Meech lizards roam the landscape. Idres Warkannan and his companions seek to find the only man who can redeem their Islamic civilization from its despotic ruler and restore justice to the population. Zayn Hassan, refugee from the despot's service, finds himself living among the tribes of the "comnee," where Healer and Spirit Rider Ammadin, seeing the dangers all around her, is beginning to doubt the gods who are her only protection. To save herself and her people, Ammadin journeys eastward into war, intrigue, and adventure - and finds more than she bargained for on all counts.

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    Bad Medicine

      Robert Sheckley
     Bad Medicine

Elwood is a homicidal maniac with a gun who seeks help from a robot psychiatrist. Only problem is, this one is designed to treat...Martians. Based on a story by Robert Sheckley, this episode of X Minus One originally aired on July 10, 1956. X Minus One premiered in April 1955 on NBC and ran until January 1958. Like its predecessor series, Dimension X, X Minus One featured stories by the greatest names in modern science fiction: Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Clifford Simak, Robert Bloch, and many more.

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    Planet Urth (Book 1)

      Jennifer and Christopher Martucci
     Planet Urth (Book 1)

than two hundred years into the future, human beings are an endangered species. The planet has been battered by war, its inhabitants plagued by disease and death. Few survived and remained unaffected. Seventeen year-old Avery is alive and unchanged. She has lived on the run for much of her life, in terror. Forced to hide deep in the forest, Avery and her sister are constantly hunted.The world has changed. It’s dangerous, deadly. Inhuman creatures rule the planet. Animals have mutated. The land is hostile. But it’s all I’ve ever known. Hunger. Fear. Panic. Those emotions are my reality. They are my every day. I am Avery, and I am seventeen. My father died a year ago. Since then I’ve been responsible for my eight-year-old sister, June. I worry we are the only humans left.Humans have been hunted for centuries, to the brink of extinction. I must fight each day to protect my sister. It is the reason I wake, the reason I breathe. But how long can I go on fighting? How long will it be before they find us? More than two hundred years into the future, human beings are an endangered species. The planet has been battered by war, its inhabitants plagued by disease and death. Few humans survived and remained unaffected. Most changed dramatically and evolved into something else entirely. Irrevocable alterations caused by chemical warfare have created a new species. North America is in ruins and has been overtaken. Humanity has fallen at the hands of mutants known as Urthmen. Seventeen year-old Avery is alive and unchanged. But she has not been immune to the harshness of the new world. She has lived on the run for much of her life, in terror. After losing her father, Avery is the sole guardian of her eight-year-old sister, June. Avery is now charged with June’s safety as well as her own, a nearly impossible task.Forced to hide deep in the forest and away from the cities overrun by Urthmen, Avery and her sister are constantly hunted. Danger awaits them at every turn. They fear they are the only human beings left, that they are the last of their kind. But are they truly alone?Find out in this raw and riveting first installment of the Planet Urth series.

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    Lonely Out in Space: A Collection of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Short Stories

      M. R. Holman
     Lonely Out in Space: A Collection of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Short Stories

A collection of twelve exciting and unpredictable short stories that highlight the banality of human interaction in stark relief with the more base forms of mankind's nature, all in extraordinarily exotic settings and scenarios. Some are hilarious and some are dark, but all of them will keep you turning the page and reflecting on the innately relatable flaws and triumphs of the human spirit.What if? What if a note that arrived at your feet every two hours and eleven minutes was all that separated you from utter madness as you floated through the vast recesses of space? What if all that kept you safe from a pride of lions and their murderous tamers was your own wit and will to live? What if your freedom depended on your performance in a motorcycle race? Lonely Out in Space, alternately known as LOiS, is a collection of twelve science fiction and fantasy stories which examine these scenarios, and many more. From colonies on Mars to starship captains trying to solve the mystery of their own horrific past, from pineapple soda to ping pong, from a deep space public radio show to a fight for the last habitable planet, from romance to repulsion, from Titans to Death itself, and from snakes in the grass to lions in a bank, this collection of sci-fi and fantasy short stories is guaranteed to be a unique experience that will keep you guessing what could possibly happen next. Lonely Out in Space shows that no matter how advanced a society or a being may be (or think they are), they'll never fully lose the one thing we all have in common today: our humanity. These twelve stories will thrill you, make you laugh, make you think, and hopefully make you stop, slow down, and appreciate the beauty of the world and the people on our very own planet. Don't take this all for granted. As you'll see in the stories, things could be very different...

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    From the Earth to the Moon

      Jules Verne
     From the Earth to the Moon

Written almost a century before the daring flights of the astronauts, Jules Verne’s prophetic novel of man’s race to the stars is a classic adventure tale enlivened by broad satire and scientific acumen. When the members of the elite Baltimore Gun Club find themselves lacking any urgent assignments at the close of the Civil War, their president, Impey Barbicane, proposes that they build a gun big enough to launch a rocket to the moon. But when Barbicane’s adversary places a huge wager that the project will fail and a daring volunteer elevates the mission to a “manned” flight, one man’s dream turns into an international space race. A story of rip-roaring action, humor, and wild imagination, From the Earth to the Moon is as uncanny in its accuracy and as filled with authentic detail and startling immediacy as Verne’s timeless masterpieces 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in Eighty Days. * From the Paperback edition.

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