books

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Department
Fiction
Fiction
Indigo
Graham Joyce 2001
It is a color the human eye cannot truly see, a slice of the spectrum imbued with the promise of invisibility. But for Jack Chambers, the son of a scientist renowned as both a genius and a madman, it will lead to places of unknown treachery. As executor of his estranged-father's will, Jack is appointed two ominous tasks: publish Timothy Chambers' bizarre manuscript Invisibility: A Manual of Light, and track down an unknown woman who stands to inherit the substantial estate. Jack's mission leads him to reunite with his half-sister, Louise, now grown into a stunning woman. Bound by a tense attraction, Jack and Louise head to Rome, where a cultlike group pursues the intoxicating secrets of the elusive indigo -- and where Jack perceives its horrid danger only when it's too late.
L'Adversaire
Emmanuel Carrère 2011
"Le 9 janvier 1993, Jean-Claude Romand a tué sa femme, ses enfants, ses parents, puis tenté, mais en vain, de se tuer lui-même. L’enquête a révélé qu’il n’était pas médecin comme il le prétendait et, chose plus difficile encore à croire, qu’il n’était rien d’autre. Il mentait depuis dix-huit ans, et ce mensonge ne recouvrait rien. Près d’être découvert, il a préféré supprimer ceux dont il ne pouvait supporter le regard. Il a été condamné à la réclusion criminelle à perpétuité. Je suis entré en relation avec lui, j’ai assisté à son procès. J’ai essayé de raconter précisément, jour après jour, cette vie de solitude, d’imposture et d’absence. D’imaginer ce qui tournait dans sa tête au long des heures vides, sans projet ni témoin, qu’il était supposé passer à son travail et passait en réalité sur des parkings d’autoroute ou dans les forêts du Jura. De comprendre, enfin, ce qui dans une expérience humaine aussi extrême m’a touché de si près et touche, je crois, chacun d’entre nous."
Lady of Mazes
Karl Schroeder 2006
Author and professional futurist Karl Schroeder, whose novels Ventus and Permanence have established him as a groundbreaking visionary in hard science fiction, extends his imagination into Larry Niven territory, returning to the same distant future in which Ventus was set, but employing a broader canvas, to tell the story of Teven Coronal, a ringworld with a huge multiplicity of human civilizations. Brilliant but troubled Livia Kodaly is Teven's only hope against invaders both human and superhuman who would destroy its fragile ecologies and human diversity. Filled with action, ideas, and intellectual energy, Lady of Mazes is the hard SF novel of the year.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Nazareth Hill
Ramsey Campbell 1998
Ramsey Campbell has been hailed as a master of the psychological novel; his ability to convey the twists and turns of the human mind is unparalleled in modern fiction. Through the struggles, failures, and triumphs of Campbell's characters, we see the best and the worst of the human race. In Nazareth Hill, Campbell focuses on a small, highly dysfunctional family--a teenage girl and her father. The emotional turmoil of the girl's adolescence is matched by her father's midlife crisis, and as the novel unfolds, it becomes clear that this battle is only one stage in a centuries-old war between authority and rebellion, suspicion and innocence."Shocking surprises, alarming horrors, and believable characters--all expertly blended in a fresh, deft shocker." - Kirkus ReviewsAt the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
New Worlds
Michael Moorcock 2004
From its beginnings as a fanzine before World War II, New Worlds struck out on a different path. In the postwar years, under the editorial direction of Michael Moorcock, the magazine published more award-winning stories than any other science fiction publication; it achieved a unique cross-fertilization between sci-fi and mainstream literature and became the vanguard of the "New Wave" writing that stood sci-fi on its head in the 1960s. It was banned, it received grants, and it became the subject of debate in the Houses of Parliament. Moorcock introduced a broad readership to writers whose names would endure, such as Samuel Delany, M. John Harrison, J. G. Ballard, D. M. Thomas, Harlan Ellison, Brian Aldiss, Fritz Leiber, John Brunner, Norman Spinrad and many others.
Orphans of Chaos
John C. Wright 2007
John C. Wright burst onto the SF scene with the Golden Age trilogy. His next project was the ambitious fantasy sequence, The Last Guardians of Everness.Wright's new fantasy is a tale about five orphans raised in a strict British boarding school who begin to discover that they may not be human beings. The students at the school do not age, while the world around them does. The children begin to make sinister discoveries about themselves. Amelia is apparently a fourth-dimensional being; Victor is a synthetic man who can control the molecular arrangement of matter around him; Vanity can find secret passageways through solid walls where none had previously been; Colin is a psychic; Quentin is a warlock. Each power comes from a different paradigm or view of the inexplicable universe: and they should not be able to co-exist under the same laws of nature. Why is it that they can?The orphans have been kidnapped from their true parents, robbed of their powers, and raised in ignorance by super-beings no more human than they are: pagan gods or fairy-queens, Cyclopes, sea-monsters, witches, or things even stranger than this. The children must experiment with, and learn to control, their strange abilities in order to escape their captors.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Pact of the Fathers
Ramsey Campbell 2001
Daniella Logan, daughter of a film impresario, is stunned to see a group of robed men performing a ritual above the newly-turned earth of her father's grave. Daniella's father and his friends--politicians, newspaper magnates, highly-paid actors, top-flight surgeons, high-ranking police officials, and many more--are bound by an unholy blood pact that calls for the sacrifice of their first born children. Now, the more she learns, the more Daniella makes herself a target. But she must not be silenced, for she is not the only firstborn in danger, only the oldest. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Partial Eclipse and Other Stories
Graham Joyce 2003
In this fascinating guide, authors Gerald Jampolsky and Diane Cirincione explain how to apply the 12 principles of 'attitudinal healing' to everyday life, with a view to improving physical health, eliminating fears, and increasing the effectiveness of relationships.The book includes a simple, easy-to-follow 18-week programme to help you completely eliminate the hurt, stress, fear and conflict in every aspect of your life. "Most of us want to change the world, but only a few of us are willing to change our own minds!" Yet there is a shift taking place in the world, where more and more people are recognizing that it is our own thoughts and attitudes that determine how we look at the world and, ultimately, what we see. This book is for people of all ages, religions, and cultures who have a desire and a willingness to change the thoughts in their minds.
Silent Children
Ramsey Campbell 2010
Once upon a time there was a man who loved children. He loved them so much he tried to save them from their imperfect parents. Unfortunately, Hector Woollie didn't work for Child Protective Services . . . and the children he rescued, he murdered.Once upon a time, Leslie had a happy marriage, a happy son, and a happy life. Now divorced, she is trapped in ongoing battles with her ex-husband, Roger, especially over their newly-adolescent son, Ian.When Ian and his young stepsister disappear, Roger insists the boy kidnapped the girl, while Leslie thinks Ian might have run away. She prays that her son is near and will come home soon.Ian is near-right next door, just on the other side of a shared wall. Ian can hear his parents fighting and his mother's desperate weeping, but he can't call for help. Hector Woollie has him and his stepsister, and if either child makes a peep, the madman will slit both their throats. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Silver Screen
Justina Robson 2005
Silver Screen presents an enjoyably different, subversive slant on the science fiction themes of AI and cyberspace. Insecure and overweight heroine Anjuli O’Connell is one of a group of friends who have been hot-housed from an early age to perform in genius-level jobs. But Anjuli worries that her eidetic memory and her friendship with genuine smart boy Roy Croft has been her ticket to success, rather than any real intelligence of her own. She’s put to the test when Roy kills himself in an experiment to upload his mind into cyberspace, seeking that SF dream of bodiless immortality, which doesn’t work as expected. At the same time her boyfriend’s research has led to him harnessing himself to dubious biomechanoid technologies, which pull the user into mental symbiosis, creating hybrid consciousness – a new "I", continuous with the old, but different. "Where does life end and the machine begin?" Meanwhile Anjuli’s grasping multinational employer, OptiNet, the owner of global communications AI, 901, is locked into an increasingly bitter war with the Machine-Greens, who preach AI liberation. As the case for 901’s humanity, or otherwise, comes up before the Strasbourg Court, expert witness Anjuli is targeted by assassins and entangled in the hunt for an algorithm which is the key to machine consciousness, and which may even be the master-code of life itself. This story explores many interfaces between humans and their technologies, between the promises of science and the explanations of faith. It is written in a first-person style that mingles elements of detective story and confessional. Alongside its SF content, the book delves into the complexities of friendship, loyalty, love, and betrayal from an intimate human perspective. This is "grrrl-style" SF: as well as all the favorite "Airfix" features, the protagonists deconstruct personal relationships amidst macrocosmic and deeply philosophical goings-on. The writing is punchy, but with a literary sheen. It delivers complex concepts and a twisting plot with a deceptively light touch.
Smoking Poppy
Graham Joyce 2003
Graham Joyce travels to an enthralling, suspense-charged landscape in this hallucinatory novel of a father's quest to save his daughter -- without destroying himself. Dan Innes has received shattering news from the British Embassy in Bangkok: his daughter, Charlie, whom he hasn't seen or spoken to in two years, has been imprisoned in a Thai jail for drug smuggling. Angry, terrified, seething with reprimands and questions, Dan leaves for Thailand. But the jail at Chiang Mai marks the beginning of his search rather than the end. Following the faintest of trails up into the lawless, dangerous mountain region near Myanmar, where opium grows abundantly, Dan must retrace Charlie's steps -- and brave the same traps that have swallowed her...on a terrifying mission of self-discovery, blind faith, and salvation.
Spares
Michael Marshall Smith 2009
Talking fridges, human clone farms, flying shopping malls – we must be in the Michael Marshall Smith zone. A world all too close to our own... Spares – human clones, the ultimate health insurance. An eye for an eye – but some people are doing all the taking. Spares – the story of Jack Randall: burnt-out, dropped out, and way overdrawn at the luck bank. But as caretaker on a Spares Farm, he still has a choice, and it might make a difference...if he can run fast enough. Spares – a breathless race through strange, disturbing territories in a world all too close to our own. Spares – it’s fiction. But only just...