Altered Carbon

      Richard K. Morgan
     Altered Carbon

In the twenty-fifth century, humankind has spread throughout the galaxy, monitored by the watchful eye of the U.N. While divisions in race, religion, and class still exist, advances in technology have redefined life itself. Now, assuming one can afford the expensive procedure, a person’s consciousness can be stored in a cortical stack at the base of the brain and easily downloaded into a new body (or “sleeve”) making death nothing more than a minor blip on a screen. Ex-U.N. envoy Takeshi Kovacs has been killed before, but his last death was particularly painful. Dispatched one hundred eighty light-years from home, re-sleeved into a body in Bay City (formerly San Francisco, now with a rusted, dilapidated Golden Gate Bridge), Kovacs is thrown into the dark heart of a shady, far-reaching conspiracy that is vicious even by the standards of a society that treats “existence” as something that can be bought and sold. For Kovacs, the shell that blew a hole in his chest was only the beginning. . . . From the Trade Paperback edition.

Read online

  • 1 146

    Lord of the Spiders or Blades of Mars

      Michael Moorcock
     Lord of the Spiders or Blades of Mars

Once more into the matter transmitter for an unforgettable journey to ancient Mars! Pulled back to earth on the eve of his marriage to the beautiful Princess Shizala, brilliant physicist Michael Kane must once again journey to the Red Planet to reclaim a life of swordplay and high adventure in the tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs! Kane finds himself on a different Mars, a place of blue giants and red revolution that ultimately leads to a ruined obsidian city inhabited by savage spider-men. Cover Illustration and Frontispiece: Richard Hescox

Read online

  • 1 146

    Up the Line

      Robert Silverberg
     Up the Line

Being a Time Courier was one of the best jobs Judson Daniel Elliott III ever had. It was tricky, though, taking group after group of tourists back to the same historic event without meeting yoruself coming or going. Trickier still was avoiding the temptation to become intimately involved with the past and interfere with events to come. The deterrents for any such actions were frighteningly effective. So Judson Daniel Elliott played by the book. Then he met a lusty Greek in Byzantium who showed him how rules were made to be broken... and set him on a family-history-go-round that would change his past and his future forever!

Read online

  • 1 146

    A Natural History of Love

      Diane Ackerman
     A Natural History of Love

The bestselling author of A Natural History of the Senses now explores the allure of adultery, the appeal of aphrodisiacs, and the cult of the kiss. Enchantingly written and stunningly informed, this "audaciously brilliant romp through the world of romantic love" (Washington Post Book World) is the next best thing to love itself. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Read online

  • 1 145

    The Companions

      Sheri S. Tepper
     The Companions

Humankind has arrived on Moss to discover if any intelligent native life exists there, and to assess the planet, recently discovered by the Derac, a nomadic space-faring race, for development - and profit. Multi-coloured shapes of dancing light have been spotted; strange sounds are heard in the night; the researchers name them the Mossen and send for a linquist to ascertain if it is evidence of intelligent life. Jewel Delis has accompanied her half-brother Paul to this verdant paradise. Her task is to help Paul decipher the strange language of the Mossen - but she has a secret mission too. A new law on Earth means the imminent massacre of all beasts great and small, so Jewel must discover if Moss holds the promise of sanctuary for the doomed animals - once humankind's beloved companions. Time is running out for Jewel's creatures, but it might be running out for Humanity too: the Planet Moss, itself a living entity, is not sure it cares for any of the species currently living on its surface.

Read online

  • 1 145

    Godlike Machines

      Alastair Reynolds
     Godlike Machines

In science fiction, nothing says sensawunda like a Big Dumb Object—a colossal, extremely powerful machine of unknown purpose and origin. It's that feeling that editor Jonathan Strahan was after when he asked six of today's finest authors to write for Godlike Machines. And they succeed brilliantly! • "Troika" Alastair Reynolds unlocks the secrets inside an alien spaceship—secrets that could change the world…if only a repressive regime would believe its last surviving explorer.• Stephen Baxter "Return to Titan" sends wormhole builders to Titan, but what they discover there may fuel their wildest dreams…or destroy them.• Cory Doctorow "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" turns the idea of godlike machines on its head with replicating machines that turn cities back into wilderness.• Sean Williams "A Glimpse of the Marvelous Structure" leads a spacer agent through a subterranean Structure…and into space-time itself.• Robert Reed—in "Alone " a story about the ancient, Jupiter-sized Great Ship—looks at a strange passenger who has been onboard far longer than seems possible.• Greg Egan "Hot Rock" gives us an alien technology only he could imagine—a wandering world that's inexplicably warm enough to support life.Made from the pure stuff of SF, these unique, all-new adventures are nothing less than awesome!

Read online

  • 1 145

    Generation One LLR

      Pittacus Lore
     Generation One LLR

The first book in a pulse-pounding new series that's set in the world of the #1 New York Times bestselling I Am Number Four series. The war may be over—but for the next generation, the battle has just begun! It has been over a year since the invasion of Earth was thwarted in Pittacus Lore's United as One. But in order to win, our alien allies known as the Garde unleashed their Loric energy that spread throughout the globe. Now human teenagers have begun to develop incredible powers of their own, known as Legacies. To help these incredible and potentially dangerous individuals—and put the world at ease—the Garde have created an academy where they can train this new generation to control their powers and hopefully one day help mankind. But not everyone thinks that's the best use of their talents. And the teens may need to use their Legacies sooner than they ever imagined. Perfect for fans of Marvel's X-Men and Rick Yancey's The 5th Wave, this epic new series follows a diverse cast of teens as they struggle to hone their abilities and decide what, if anything, they should do with them. As a spin-off of the bestselling I Am Number Four series, those familiar with the original books and newcomers alike will devour this fast-paced, action-packed sci-fi adventure.

Read online

  • 1 144

    The Alexander Inheritance

      Eric Flint
     The Alexander Inheritance

NEW TIME TRAVEL ALT. HISTORY FROM A MASTER: Flint's Ring of Fire and Boundary series have proved him to be a master of time travel alternate history. Here then, a new tale of persons displaced in time, fighting for their lives. Twice before, mysterious cosmic catastrophes have sent portions of the Earth across space and back in time first, with the Grantville Disaster in West Virginia, and then again with a maximum security prison in southern Illinois. Now, the planet is struck with yet another such cataclysm, whose direct impact falls upon the Queen of the Sea, a cruise ship in the Caribbean. When the convulsions subside, the crew and passengers of the ship discover that they have arrived in a new and frightening world. They are in the Mediterranean now, not the Caribbean. Still worse, they discover that the disaster has sent them more than two thousand years back in time. Following the advice of an historian among the passengers, Marie Easley, they sail to Egypt or, at least, where they hope Egypt will be. Sure enough, Egypt is there ruled over by Ptolemy, the founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty and one of Alexander the Great s chief generals. Alexander the Great, it turns outs, died just two years ago. The western world has just entered what would become known as the Hellenistic Period of history, during which time Greek civilization would spread around the Mediterranean and beyond. But the first fifty years of the Hellenistic Period was the Age of Diadochi the Time of the Successors when Alexander s empire would collapse into chaos. By the time the Successors finished their strife, every single member of Alexander s dynasty would be murdered and only three of the generals who began that civil war would still be alive. That is the new world in which the Queen of the Sea finds itself. Can Marie Easley and Captain Lars Flodden guide the crew and passengers through this cataclysm? Fortunately, they have some help: a young Norwegian ship s officer who forms an attachment to Alexander s widow; a French officer who is a champion pistol marksman; a canny Congressman from Utah and, most of all, many people of the time who are drawn to a vision of the better world of the future. About Eric Flint s Ring of Fire series: This alternate history series is a landmark Booklist [Eric] Flint's1632universe seems to be inspiring a whole new crop of gifted alternate historians. Booklist reads like a technothriller set in the age of the Medicis Publishers Weekly"

Read online

  • 1 144

    Beyond the Gate of Worlds

      Robert Silverberg
     Beyond the Gate of Worlds

Here are three short novels from three masters of science fiction--all set in the universe of one of Silverberg's most successful novels, Gate of Worlds. Imagine an alternate Earth where the Black Plague killed not 30 percent of Europe's population, but 80 percent, leaving it prey to the incursions of the Moslems; and where the New World was spared the ravages of the Europeans.

Read online

  • 1 144

    Snaring the Huntress

      Sylvia Day
     Snaring the Huntress

This e-book can be downloaded from author's website here - Snaring the Huntress Star is an Interstellar Council judge. Her position requires her to pass sentence, hunt down the offenders, and administer punishments. She’s considered one of the best, and if she plays her cards right, she just might become the first of the Hunter species to ascend to the Supreme Court–her life’s goal. When she’s ordered to hunt down a rogue Jacian ambassador in heat, the precedent is death. Sympathetic, but following the law she holds so dear, she pursues him with the intent to kill. Roark has entered his mating cycle. By Council law, he should be locked in a room with his pre-assigned partner for a week of non-stop sex that will get him through his heat. But he doesn’t want his pre-assigned. He wants Star, the luscious blonde judge whose compassion and intelligence has won his regard. The penalty for going rogue while in heat is death, but that’s a small price to pay for a week of sensual pleasure with the woman he desires more than anything. Now the huntress is the prey, and when she’s snared by a man in heat, it’s passion that rules, not the law. Or does it? Roark still has his sentence, and his lover Star is judge, jury… and executioner.

Read online

  • 1 143

    The Family Tree

      Sheri S. Tepper
     The Family Tree

THE ONCE FERTILE EARTH OF DORA HENRY'S CHILDHOOD HAS BEEN UNDERVALUED AND OVERDEVELOPED. NOW NATURE, APPARENTLY, HAS DECIDED TO FIGHT BACK. Police officer Dora Henry is investigating the bizarre murders of three geneticists. Meanwhile, strange things are happening everywhere she turns. Weeds are becoming trees; trees are becoming forests. Overnight, a city is being transformed into a wild and verdant place. And, strangest of all, Dora can somehow communicate with the rampaging flora. A potential civilization-ending catastrophe is in the making. The nearer Dora gets to a murderer--and to the truth--the more seemingly disparate events begin to entwine. And the answers she seeks today to the salvation of humankind may lie in afar distant future. . .one which is suddenly much closer than anyone imagines. An exhilarating and enchanting novel that deftly combines fantastic invention with insight and a social conscience, from one of the most lyrical and important voices in contemporary speculative fiction.

Read online

  • 1 143

    The Horse In The Mirror

      Lisa Maxwell
     The Horse In The Mirror

Isadora trains war horses for the Alliance until she steals a stallion to save his life. Hunted by government troopers and rogue berserkers she befriends a mute man who seems crazy. Yet he holds the key to the survival of the last free living people, a tribe of nomadic horse herders. John must use the Mirror to regain his speech, Is might be the only one who can help him survive that encounter.Isadora Drey, a citizen of the Alliance, a corrupt, totalitarian state, has been raised to do only one job— train the war horses to be ridden into battle by genetically engineered men, called berserkers. Horse and rider never return from these battles. Unable to face losing another one of her beloved horses, Isadora steals her favorite stallion and flees into a wilderness area, the Boundary. Hunted by government Troopers and rogue berserkers called Blueskins, she falls in with a mute man who seems crazy, yet he holds the key to the survival of the last free living people on the planet. But first he must regain his speech. To do that, he must face the Mirror, an Alliance-made monstrosity designed to kill any human or horse who approaches. Isadora, on her stolen war horse, might help John survive his encounter with the Mirror where everyone else has failed.

Read online

  • 1 142

    Dreamers of the Day

      Mary Doria Russell
     Dreamers of the Day

"I suppose I ought to warn you at the outset that my present circumstances are puzzling, even to me. Nevertheless, I am sure of this much: My little story has become your history. You won't really understand your times until you understand mine." So begins the account of Agnes Shanklin, the charmingly diffident narrator of Mary Doria Russell’s compelling new novel, Dreamers of the Day. And what is Miss Shanklin's "little story?" Nothing less than the creation of the modern Middle East at the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference, where Winston Churchill, T. E. Lawrence, and Lady Gertrude Bell met to decide the fate of the Arab world-and of our own. A forty-year-old schoolteacher from Ohio still reeling from the tragedies of the Great War and the influenza epidemic, Agnes has come into a modest inheritance that allows her to take the trip of a lifetime to Egypt and the Holy Land. Arriving at the Semiramis Hotel just as the Peace Conference convenes, Agnes, with her plainspoken American opinions - and a small, noisy dachshund named Rosie – enters into the company of the historic luminaries who will, in the space of a few days at a hotel in Cairo, invent the nations of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan. Neither a pawn nor a participant at the conference, Agnes is ostensibly insignificant, and that makes her a welcome sounding board for Churchill, Lawrence, and Bell. It also makes her unexpectedly attractive to the charismatic German spy Karl Weilbacher. As Agnes observes the tumultuous inner workings of nation-building, she is drawn more and more deeply into geopolitical intrigue and toward a personal awakening. With prose as graceful and effortless as a seductive float down the Nile, Mary Doria Russell illuminates the long, rich history of the Middle East with a story that brilliantly elucidates today's headlines. As enlightening as it is entertaining, Dreamers of the Day is a memorable, passionate, gorgeously written novel.

Read online

  • 1 142