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Mysterium
by Robert Charles WilsonIn the early hours before dawn, a small Michigan town vanishes from the face of the earth. That morning the men and women of Two Rivers wake up in a world strangely different from their own - a world of curfews, food rationing and secret police.Something has gone terribly wrong in Two Rivers, something that has to do with the mysterious government facility on the outskirts of the town. For schoolteacher Dexter Graham, who has lost his family and has nothing left he values . . . for twelve-year-old Clifford Stockton, driven by a child's curiosity and courage . . . for Evelyn Woodward, torn between obedience to the state and loyalty to her friends . . . and for physicist Howard Poole, haunted by the memory of his brilliant, enigmatic uncle, the only way to escape the nightmare is to journey deeper into fear.
The Perseids and Other Stories
by Robert Charles WilsonIn his first story collection, Robert Charles Wilson, one of the most distinguished SF authors of his generation, weaves a tapestry of tales set in and around the city of Toronto - a haunted, numinous Toronto of past, present and future, buzzing with strangeness.In "The Fields of Abraham", one of three stories written especially for this collection, an impoverished immigrant boy is trained in strange disciplines by a bookseller who is more than he seems. In "The Perseids", winner of Canada's national SF award, love and amateur astronomy weave in and out of a terrifying tale of forced human evolution. In "The Observers", an awkward young Canadian girl who sees extra-human presences has an extraordinary encounter in 1950s California with Edwin Hubble. In "Plato's Mirror", a professional New Age charlatan has a genuine and terrible encounter with the extraordinary. And in the Hugo-nominated "Divide by Infinity", an aging Toronto book-lover finds himself becoming, literally, increasingly unlikely.Throughout are showcased Wilson's suppleness and storytelling strength: bravura ideas, scientific rigor and living, breathing human beings facing choices that matter in a universe stranger than we can imagine.
Spin: Roman (Gateway Essentials #1)
by Robert Charles WilsonOne night in October when he was ten years old, Tyler Dupree stood in his back yard and watched the stars go out. They all flared into brilliance at once, then disappeared, replaced by a flat, empty black barrier. He and his best friends, Jason and Diane Lawton, had seen what became known as the Big Blackout. It would shape their lives. The effect is worldwide. The sun is now a featureless disk - a heat source, rather than an astronomical object. The moon is gone, but tides remain. Not only have the world's artificial satellites fallen out of orbit, their recovered remains are pitted and aged, as though they'd been in space far longer than their known lifespans. As Tyler, Jason, and Diane grow up, space probe reveals a bizarre truth: The barrier is artificial, generated by huge alien artifacts. Time is passing faster outside the barrier than inside - more than a hundred million years per day on Earth. At this rate, the death throes of the sun are only about forty years in our future. Jason, now a promising young scientist, devotes his life to working against this slow-moving apocalypse. Diane throws herself into hedonism, marrying a sinister cult leader who's forged a new religion out of the fears of the masses.Earth sends terraforming machines to Mars to let the onrush of time do its work, turning the planet green. Next they send humans...and immediately get back an emissary with thousands of years of stories to tell about the settling of Mars. Then Earth's probes reveal that an identical barrier has appeared around Mars. Jason, desperate, seeds near space with self-replicating machines that will scatter copies of themselves outward from the sun - and report back on what they find. Life on Earth is about to get much, much stranger.
Vortex: Spin, Axis, Vortex (Gateway Essentials #3)
by Robert Charles WilsonSpin ended with the alien Hypotheticals setting a vast Arch over the Indian Ocean. Those who sailed under it found themselves on Equatoria, another planet entirely.In Axis, a secretive Equatorian community of Fourths - humans who've had their lives extended by illegal Martian technology - raised a boy, Isaac Dvali, to communicate with the Hypotheticals. Interstellar clouds of tiny fragmented Hypothetical nanomachines rained down on Equatoria, an some began to grow. Isaac and Turk Findley, a tough bush pilot an former drifter, were absorbed by a vast concatenation of those growths.Now, Turk Findley has awakened ten thousand years later, to be collected by the people of Vox - an Equatorian group that's obsessed with the Hypotheticals. The Vox have been waiting for Turn and Isaac for a very long time. Meanwhile, the story of Turk and Isaac among the people of Vox is being scrawled in notebooks by a disturbed man in a hospital on twenty-first-century Earth, in the years following the Spin . . .
The Testing: Your time is almost up... (PDF)
by Joelle CharbonneauIt's graduation day for sixteen-year-old Malencia Vale, and the entire Five Lakes Colony (the former Great Lakes) is celebrating. All Cia can think about-hope for-is whether she'll be chosen for The Testing, a United Commonwealth program that selects the best and brightest new graduates to become possible leaders of the slowly revitalizing post-war civilization. When Cia is chosen, her father finally tells her about his own nightmarish half-memories of The Testing. Armed with his dire warnings ("Cia, trust no one"), she bravely heads off to Tosu City, far away from friends and family, perhaps forever ...
The Book of Transformations (Legends of the Red Sun #3)
by Mark Charan NewtonCorrupt politics and surprising superheroes, The Book of Transformations is the third book in Mark Charan Newton's Legends of the Red Sun fantasy series.A new and corrupt Emperor seeks to rebuild the ancient structures of Villjamur. But when the stranger Shalev arrives, empowering a militant underground movement, crime and terror become the rule. Emperor Urtica calls upon cultists to help construct a group to eliminate those involved with the uprising, and calm the populace. But there’s more to these Villjamur Knights than just phenomenal skills and abilities - each have a secret that, if exposed, could destroy everything they represent. Investigator Fulcrom of the Villjamur Inquisition is given the unenviable task of managing the Knights’, but his own skills are tested when a mysterious priest, who has travelled from beyond the Empire’s edge, seeks his help. The priest’s existence threatens the church, and his quest promises to unweave the fabric of the world. Then in a distant corner of the Empire, the enigmatic cultist Dartun Súr steps back into this world, having witnessed horrors beyond his imagination. Broken, altered, he and the remnants of his cultist order are heading back to Villjamur. All eyes turn to the Sanctuary City, for Villjamur’s ancient legends are about to be shattered.
The Broken Isles: Legends Of The Red Sun: Book Four (Legends of the Red Sun #4)
by Mark Charan NewtonFleeing refugees and enigmatic heroes, The Broken Isles is the fourth book in Mark Charan Newton's Legends of the Red Sun fantasy series. War spills into the Boreal Archipelago, as two rival cultures bring their eternal battle into this adjacent realm. Fresh from a military victory, Commander Brynd Lathraea plans to rebuild the city of Villiren, where he is confronted with a dilemma. There are friendly forces who have no other choice but to live alongside his own people, and their numbers will be required to fight in the looming conflict. The commander turns politician as he seeks to build bridges and embrace mysterious new technologies to further his ambitions. However, many in Villiren are sceptical of aliens coming to their city, tensions run high, and even the dream of a peaceful future brings with it inevitable clashes of beliefs. Meanwhile, Villjamur has been destroyed. A vast swathe of refugees from the legendary city are now on the run from an immense alien presence in the sky. Villages are being cleared and people are dying en masse. And Inquisitor Fulcrom finds himself at the helm of an operation to aid the refugee exodus to the coast, but it's a race against time before this threatened genocide is complete. Ancient civilisations line up on the field of battle. Exotic creatures and a possible god walk alongside citizens of the Empire. As the Legends of the Red Sun series draws to a close, there will be one final and immense conflict to decide the fate of multiple cultures forever.
City of Ruin: Legends of the Red Sun: Book Two (Legends of the Red Sun #2)
by Mark Charan NewtonCity of Ruin is the second book in Mark Charan Newton's Legends of the Red Sun fantasy series.Villiren is a city of sin that's being torn apart from the inside. Hybrid creatures shamble through shadows and barely human gangs fight turf wars for control of the streets. Amidst this chaos, Commander Brynd Lathraea, commander of the Night Guard, must plan the defence of Viliren against a race that has broken through from another realm and already slaughtered hundreds of thousands of the Empire’s people. When a Night Guard soldier goes missing, Brynd needs help. Investigator Jeryd discovers this is not the only disappearance from the streets of Villiren. It seems that a serial killer of the most horrific kind is on the loose, taking hundreds of people from their own homes. A killer that cannot possibly be human. The entire population of Villiren must unite to face an impossible surge of violent and unnatural enemies or the city will fall. But how can you save a city that's already a ruin?
Drakenfeld (Drakenfeld #1)
by Mark Charan NewtonInspired by the classical world of Ancient Rome and authors such as C J Sansom, Drakenfeld marks the start of the thrilling fantasy crime series by Mark Charan Newton.They'll kill to hide the truth. He'll kill to find it.The monarchies of the Royal Vispasian Union have been bound together for two hundred years by laws maintained and enforced by the powerful Sun Chamber. Nations have flourished as a result, but corruption, deprivation and murder will always find a way . . .Following his father's death, Sun Chamber Officer Lucan Drakenfeld is recalled home to the ancient city of Tryum and rapidly embroiled in a mystifying case. The King's sister has been found brutally murdered - her beaten and bloody body discovered in a locked temple. With rumours of dark spirits and political assassination, Drakenfeld has his work cut out to separate superstition from certainty. His determination to find the killer quickly makes him a target, as the underworld gangs of Tryum focus on this new threat to their power.Embarking on the biggest and most complex investigation of his career, Drakenfeld soon realizes the evidence is leading him towards a motive that could ultimately bring darkness to the whole continent. The fate of the nations is in his hands.
The Messenger
by Mark Charan NewtonEnjoy reading The Messenger, a standalone Lucan Drakenfeld 9,000 word short story that will appeal to fans of C J Sansom.As an Officer of the Sun Chamber, Lucan Drakenfeld must uphold the two-hundred-year-old laws of the Vispasian Royal Union, whatever the cost. While stationed in the ancient city of Venyn, a metropolis notorious for its lawless nature, Drakenfeld receives a series of mysterious letters, written in blood, that warn of an imminent assassination attempt on the life of the city's young Prince Bassim. Supported by his fiery colleague Leana, Drakenfeld's investigation leads him down the city's corridors of power. But nothing is as it seems. Who is behind the conspiracy that threatens the young prince, and will the duo be able to unearth the perpetrator before the prince's time is up?Delve even deeper into Mark Charan Newton's fantasy ancient world with Drakenfeld and Retribution.
Nights of Villjamur (Legends of the Red Sun #1)
by Mark Charan NewtonA dark epic, Nights of Villjamur is the first book in Mark Charan Newton's Legends of the Red Sun fantasy series.An ice age strikes a chain of islands, and thousands come to seek sanctuary at the gates of Villjamur. It’s a city of ancient spires and bridges, a place where banshees wail and cultists use forgotten technology. And beyond the now besieged walls, the dead have been seen walking across the tundra. When the Emperor commits suicide, his heir, Rika, is brought home to lead the Jamur Empire. But the corrupt Chancellor has his own designs on the throne. Meanwhile, a senior investigator in the city inquisition must solve the savage murder of a city politician, and a charming rogue manipulates his way into the imperial residence with a hidden agenda. Then one crime leads to another and a plot is uncovered that could mean genocide for thousands of citizens. It seems that, in this land under a red sun, the long winter is bringing more than just snow . . .
The Reef
by Mark Charan NewtonHas-jahn: a continent of exotic cultures, cities and long-forgotten technology. Two members of a race once thought extinct wash up on the shores near the city of Escha. In their possession is a call for help from a human living on the little-known tropical island of Arya, where their race is being murdered. A crew of freelance explorers, led by the charismatic Santiago DeBrelt, travels to discover the mystery behind the killings. However, Santiago's controversial nature leads to him being accompanied by government agents — who wish to explore Arya and find out why Eschan naval vessels have disappeared in the seas surrounding it. Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Rhoam, a city in central Has-jahn, a band of terrorists are embarking upon an epic journey to the very same waters. Still angry from an old war with Escha, they've gathered explosives and weapons, and will allow nothing to interfere with their quest for a phenomenal revenge. But secret pasts are revealed and soon all eyes turn to the coral reef off the coast of Arya. With echoes of Joseph Conrad and China Miéville, Mark Charan Newton's first book The Reef is a modern fantasy journey with original creatures and peoples, a story of relationships foundering on tropical sands and in dark waters.
Retribution (Drakenfeld #2)
by Mark Charan NewtonInspired by the classical ancient world and authors such as C J Sansom, Retribution is the second Drakenfeld novel, in Mark Charan Newton's thrilling fantasy crime series.When justice fails, revenge follows . . .Having just solved a difficult case in his home city of Tryum, Sun Chamber Officer Lucan Drakenfeld and his associate Leana are ordered to journey to the exotic city of Kuvash in Koton, where a revered priest has gone missing. When they arrive, they discover the priest has already been found - or at least parts of him have. But investigating the unusual death isn't a priority for the legislature of Kuvash; there's a kingdom to run, a census to create and a dictatorial Queen to placate. Soon Drakenfeld finds that he is suddenly in charge of an investigation in a strange city, whose customs and politics are as complex as they are dangerous.Kuvash is a city of contradictions; wealth and poverty exist uneasily side-by-side and behind the rich façades of gilded streets and buildings, all levels of depravity and decadence are practised.When several more bodies are discovered mutilated and dumped in a public place, Drakenfeld realizes there's a killer at work who seems to delight in torture and pain. With no motive, no leads and no suspects, he feels like he's running out of options. And in a city where nothing is as it seems, seeking the truth is likely to get him killed . . .
Alien Invasion (EDGE: You Choose If You Live or Die #1)
by Simon ChapmanStrange objects have been appearing across the Earth, and then people start disappearing. The aliens are coming, and they don't want to make peace. They're here to kill us all!This book isn't like others you may have read - inside you make the choices. Can you help to stop the alien invasion? Can you save the human race? Only you can decide if you live or die inside!This title is published by Franklin Watts EDGE, which produces a range of books to get children reading with confidence. EDGE - for books kids can't put down.
Alien Invasion (EDGE: You Choose If You Live or Die #1)
by Simon ChapmanStrange objects have been appearing across the Earth, and then people start disappearing. The aliens are coming, and they don't want to make peace. They're here to kill us all!This book isn't like others you may have read - inside you make the choices. Can you help to stop the alien invasion? Can you save the human race? Only you can decide if you live or die inside!This title is published by Franklin Watts EDGE, which produces a range of books to get children reading with confidence. EDGE - for books kids can't put down.
Virus Outbreak (EDGE: You Choose If You Live or Die #2)
by Simon ChapmanA deadly virus is sweeping across the country that could make all humans extinct. The government is collapsing. People are dying. Are you infected? Whatever else happens, you must survive! You've been pushed into a car by your parents - you've got to escape! But now the driver is looking ill... This book isn't like others you may have read - inside you make the choices. Can you survive the Virus Outbreak? Only you can decide if you live or die.This title is published by Franklin Watts EDGE, which produces a range of books to get children reading with confidence. We believe this title will be of interest to readers aged 8+ and to older readers who struggle with reading. EDGE - for books kids can't put down.
Virus Outbreak (EDGE: You Choose If You Live or Die #4)
by Simon ChapmanA deadly virus is sweeping across the country that could make all humans extinct. The government is collapsing. People are dying. Are you infected? Whatever else happens, you must survive! You've been pushed into a car by your parents - you've got to escape! But now the driver is looking ill... This book isn't like others you may have read - inside you make the choices. Can you survive the Virus Outbreak? Only you can decide if you live or die.This title is published by Franklin Watts EDGE, which produces a range of books to get children reading with confidence. We believe this title will be of interest to readers aged 8+ and to older readers who struggle with reading. EDGE - for books kids can't put down.
The Bat Sprites (Sophie and the Shadow Woods #6)
by Linda Chapman Lee WeatherlyThe sixth action-packed quest in an exciting new six book character-led series for 7+ girls who love fantasy, adventure, and high-kicking heroines!
The Fog Boggarts (Sophie and the Shadow Woods #4)
by Linda Chapman Lee WeatherlyThe fourth action-packed quest in an exciting six book character-led series for 7+ girls who love fantasy, adventure, and high-kicking heroines!
The Goblin King: The Goblin King/the Swamp Boggles/the Spider Gnomes (Sophie and the Shadow Woods #1)
by Linda Chapman Lee WeatherlyExciting 6 book character-led series for 7+ girls who love adventure!
The Icicle Imps (Sophie and the Shadow Woods #5)
by Linda Chapman Lee WeatherlyThe fifth action-packed quest in an exciting new six book character-led series for 7+ girls who love fantasy, adventure, and high-kicking heroines!
The Spider Gnomes: The Goblin King/the Swamp Boggles/the Spider Gnomes (Sophie and the Shadow Woods #3)
by Linda Chapman Lee WeatherlyThe third action-packed quest in an exciting new six book character-led series for 7+ girls who love fantasy, adventure, and high-kicking heroines!
The Swamp Boggles: The Goblin King/the Swamp Boggles/the Spider Gnomes (Sophie and the Shadow Woods #2)
by Linda Chapman Lee WeatherlyThe second action-packed quest in an exciting new six book character-led series for 7+ girls who love fantasy, adventure, and high-kicking heroines! This time, Sophie has to call upon all her strength and skills to defeat her most gruesome foe yet… THE SWAMP BOGGLES!
My Secret Unicorn: A Winter Wish (My Secret Unicorn Ser.)
by Linda Chapman Biz HullIt all started when Lauren first moved to the countryside from the city and discovered that her ordinary little pony was anything but ordinary, for when she recited a secret spell, Twilight turned into a unicorn with magical powers! From that moment on, Lauren and Twilight learned how to use magic to help their friends solve their problems. And now Lauren and Twilight are back in a magical new and exciting wintertime adventure.