Deathbird Stories

      Harlan Ellison
     Deathbird Stories

Harlan Ellison's masterwork of myth and terror as he seduces all innocence on a mind-freezing odyssey into the darkest reaches of mortal terror and the most dazzling heights of Olympian hell in his finest collection. Deathbird Stories is a collection of 19 of Harlan Ellison's best stories, including Edgar and Hugo winners, originally published between 1960 and 1974. The collection contains some of Ellison's best stories from earlier collections and is judged by some to be his most consistently high quality collection of short fiction. The theme of the collection can be loosely defined as God, or Gods. Sometimes they're dead or dying, some of them are as brand-new as today's technology. Unlike some of Ellison's collections, the introductory notes to each story can be as short as a phrase and rarely run more than a sentence or two. One story took a Locus Poll Award, the two final ones both garnered Hugo Awards and Locus Poll awards, and the final one also received a Jupiter Award from the Instructors of Science Fiction in Higher Education (discontinued in 1979). When the collection was published in Britain, it won the 1979 British Science Fiction Award for Short Fiction. His stories will rivet you to the floor and change your heartbeat...as unforgettable a chamber of horror, fantasy and reality as you'll ever experience. -Gallery "Brutally and flamboyantly shocking, frequently brilliant, and always irresistibly mesmerizing." -Richmond Times-Dispatch

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    Halo: The Thursday War

      Karen Traviss
     Halo: The Thursday War

Welcome to humanity’s new war: silent, high stakes, and unseen. This is a life-or-death mission for ONI’s black-ops team, Kilo-Five, which is tasked with preventing the ruthless Elites, once the military leaders of the Covenant, from regrouping and threatening humankind again. What began as a routine dirty-tricks operation?keeping the Elites busy with their own insurrection?turns into a desperate bid to extract one member of Kilo-Five from the seething heart of an alien civil war. But troubles never come singly for Kilo-Five. Colonial terrorism is once again surfacing on one of the worlds that survived the war against the Covenant, and the man behind it is much more than just a name to Spartan-010. Meanwhile, the treasure trove of Forerunner technology recovered from the shield world of Onyx is being put to work while a kidnapped Elite plots vengeance on the humans he fears will bring his people to the brink of destruction.

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    Creatures of Vibration

      Harl Vincent
     Creatures of Vibration

INTO THE INCANDESCENT FOLDS OF THE FLAPPING FIRE-GOD Their sacrifice was imminent! The crew of the spaceship Nomad had traveled to Titan, a moon of Jupiter. They were called the Vagabonds of Space. Carr Parker, his beautiful new wife Ora, her scientist father Detis -- and Car's best friend, the Martian called Mado. They had come to Titan to explore -- but sinister and strange vibrations from the rings of Saturn had turned its civilized peoples into utter savages. And the savages captured the Vagabonds of Space, and meant to kill him along with Nazu, a Titan who'd somehow remained sane. Their only hope? A dead man! EXCITING INTERPLANETARY SPACE ADVENTURE FROM THE GOLDEN AGE OF SCIENCE FICTION! --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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    Ultraviolet

      R. J. Anderson
     Ultraviolet

Ultraviolet is genre-bending paranormal YA about a 17-year-old girl named Alison whois a synesthete (she hears color, sees sound, etc), a tetrachromat (she can see into the ultraviolet part of the spectrum), and possibly a murderer. Her only hope is a fraud, a liar, and maybe an alien. Or so she says.

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    The Hertzog Effect

      T J Kinsella
     The Hertzog Effect

After the crash of his ship, 'The Kolibri', Captain Gillitzer's luck seemed to be changing for the better. When his new craft becomes the first to travel beyond the fabled 'Minute Zero', he and his crew seize the chance to complete their ultimate mission, and restore his battered reputation. However, they soon find themselves battling the forces of fate, when they encounter the 'Hertzog Effect'...Sequel to 'The Bergmann Protocol'.After the crash of his ship, 'The Kolibri', Captain Gillitzer's luck seemed to be changing for the better. When his new craft becomes the first to travel beyond the fabled 'Minute Zero', he and his crew seize the opportunity to complete their ultimate mission, and restore his battered reputation. However, they soon find themselves locked in a life and death struggle against the forces of fate, when they encounter the 'Hertzog Effect’...Follow the misadventures of the unluckiest time-travellers in history...before they change it!

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    The Gate to Women's Country

      Sheri S. Tepper
     The Gate to Women's Country

Tepper's finest novel to date is set in a post-holocaust feminist dystopia that offers only two political alternatives: a repressive polygamist sect that is slowly self-destructing through inbreeding and the matriarchal dictatorship called Women's Country. Here, in a desperate effort to prevent another world war, the women have segregated most men into closed military garrisons and have taken on themselves every other function of government, industry, agriculture, science and learning. The resulting manifold responsibilities are seen through the life of Stavia, from a dreaming 10-year-old to maturity as doctor, mother and member of the Marthatown Women's Council. As in Tepper's Awakeners series books, the rigid social systems are tempered by the voices of individual experience and, here, by an imaginative reworking of The Trojan Woman that runs through the text. A rewarding and challenging novel that is to be valued for its provocative ideas.

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    Warehouse 13: A Touch of Fever

      Greg Cox
     Warehouse 13: A Touch of Fever

THE UNKNOWN HAS AN ADDRESS. . . . Hidden away in the Badlands of South Dakota, Warehouse 13 is a top-secret repository for historical artifacts imbued with dangerous supernatural properties. Secret Service agents Pete Lattimer and Myka Bering are ever on the lookout for loose artifacts threatening to ruin the world’s day. Their mission:“Snag it, bag it, tag it.” Reports of a genuine psychic healer, along with a simultaneous epidemic of mysterious illnesses, lead Myka and Pete on a hazardous investigation that stretches from a carnival sideshow back to the bloody history of the Civil War. But when Pete is infected with a deadly disease, Myka and the rest of the team, including Artie Nielsen and Claudia Donovan, must track down a pair of cursed gloves—before a madman unleashes a virulent plague upon America!

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    Welcome the Night

      Shaun Allan
     Welcome the Night

He was different. His one, lidless eye could see in, through, past.It drove him insane.But then, he couldn't see anything... And that was so much worse.He was different. His one, lidless eye could see in, through, past.It drove him insane.But then, he fell, injuring himself badly. He couldn't see anything... And that was so much worse.

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    End Game

      John Stevenson
     End Game

The battle is over, and the prophecy has come to pass, but is Nicholas prepared for what is to follow?This book of short verse and haiku was inspired by nature. Many of the poems reference the river and were written after visits to the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. The book is dedicated to Columbia Bottoms Conservation Area in Spanish Lake, Missouri. Read, relax, enjoy!

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    A Taste For Death Queens

      Tara Loughead
     A Taste For Death Queens

The Death Queen of Neptune and the Head of the Ministry know the danger is growing. The Secret Defenders of the Solar System need both help and a bond if they are going to prevail against an unknown alien threat. The High House Htapele can provide this, with a five-way royal ritual of blood and sex.A series planetary romance.Bulays and Ghaavn #16.Santa’s Ninja Elves: two short stories depicting elite elves whose missions are to protect Santa against all enemies using an assortment of cinna-bombs, candy cane bullets, tinsel traps and throwing bells and intelligence from the fortune-telling Mrs. Clause. After years of dedicated service, Santa decides to reward them by helping them find love on Christmas.Past retirement, Natasha is sent from the North Pole to Ohio on a final mission to identify a threat to Santa. Natasha runs the lead to ground, only to find Santa sent her there for an entirely different mission. She’s been set up with a handsome stranger, a final gift from Santa to his favorite Ninja Elf.Hunter gets drunk on eggnog one day and beheads an innocent snowman. His punishment: he’s banished from the North Pole to work at a mall in Arizona, managing a fake Santa’s long line of kids. When the fake Santa sheds the fat suit to reveal a beautiful woman, Hunter falls fast for the woman who makes him feel the thrill Christmas Eve with one look.

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    Perihelion, Episode One: The Convolution

      John Pirillo
     Perihelion, Episode One: The Convolution

Three scientists open up a doorway to pocket universes for exploration, but also start what could be the beginning of the end for all life.The first of a six episode Serial Novel. 16 pagesThree scientists have discovered a theory that could possibly unify all forces, much as Einstein had wanted to do.They put their theory to the test and create aportal called a "Convolution," which opens them to pocket universes where reality takes on as many forms as there are concepts of it.Richard, the first one to explore the Convolution, barely makes it back alive from his first foray into the unknown. Soon afterwards Richard, his girlfriend, Nancy and the Professor, his mentor and best friend find themselves thrust into a scenario where they could quite possibly have triggered the end of our world.This is a Serial Novel, a series of six episodes that unfolds to a conclusion through cliff hanger endings, much in the vein of the old Republic Serials like Flash Gordon, Batman, Superman and many other golden tales of early Hollywood. On the edge of your seat, nail biting action that just doesn't quit!

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    Twice As Nice

      Nobo13
     Twice As Nice

A flash fiction about what you'd endure for love: "Meetings are coincidences, right? Just something that has happened at random, without any real direction. The people that come in and out of your lives, they just happened to be there. Meetings are coincidences, right?"A flash fiction about what you'd endure for love: "Meetings are coincidences, right? Just something that has happened at random, without any real direction. The people that come in and out of your lives, they just happened to be there. They just happened to be born around the same time as you. They just happened to live near you. They just happened to know someone you know. Meetings are coincidences, right?"

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    Mind Over Matter

      Michael D. Britton
     Mind Over Matter

Warning: this ebook file may be malicious. Or not. "Malicious" is such a value-laden word. At least give it a chance to explain itself, and you can decide for yourself...Twenty poems by Bill Yarrow:1. Playing for Keeps2. Burying the Hatchet3. Staring at Waves4. Searching for the Word5. Looking at Waffles (8 Different Ways)6. Drinking an Orange Julius While Listening to Pink Floyd7. Crossing the Center Line 8. Getting Home Alive9. Annulling the Future10. Theorizing Salsa11. Playing Pinochle in Your Snout12. The Knitting Needle13. The Learning Curve14. The Sticking Point15. Not Drowning16. Just Foundering17. Disappearing Ink18. Ash Coming on Second Wednesday19. Here's Looking at Euclid20. Villon, Stop Following Me Around!

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    The Foundlings of Nirvana, Book Two, And the Sea Sings

      Louann Carroll
     The Foundlings of Nirvana, Book Two, And the Sea Sings

Under Earth's two suns the sea is a warm soup, a gelatinous mass if you prefer. Jenny wants to join in its resurrection, but she knows her time is short.Under Earth's two suns the sea is an incubator, fed by the dead and welcoming the living. Jenny wants to join in its resurrection, but knows her time is short. Even without the remembrances, she knows the sea is not her home. Yet something niggles at corner of her mind, telling her that while the sea is not where she belongs, it is possible the ocean will guide her way home.

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    Existence

      James Frey
     Existence

This third thrilling digital prequel novella to Endgame: The Calling follows the lives of four of the twelve Players before they were chosen as the one to save their ancient bloodline—and win Endgame.Before the Calling . . . Twelve Players-in-training are tested to the very edge of their physical and mental abilities. Endgame: The Training Diaries Volume 3: Existence follows Sarah, Jago, An, and Hilal, as they prepare for the apocalyptic game that may or may not occur.They must shed their normal lives and transform into the Players they were meant to be.They must train, learn, prepare.To Play, survive, and solve.To kill or be killed.Endgame is real.Endgame is coming. And only one can win.

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