Нож AFCK фирмы Benchmade выделяется из общей массы «тактических» складников продуманностью конструкции и высоким качеством исполнения. AFCK (Advanced Folding Combat Knife — передовой (как бы сказали сейчас, «продвинутый») складной боевой нож) — один из первых серийных складных ножей, разработанных специально для самообороны, также один из первых ножей, для создания которого был привлечен эксперт в области ближнего боя. Статья опубликована в журнале «Прорез» № 3, 2003 (№ 07)

Wade Whitehouse is an improbable protagonist for a tragedy. A well-digger and policeman in a bleak New Hampshire town, he is a former high-school star gone to beer fat, a loner with a mean streak. It is a mark of Russell Banks' artistry and understanding that Wade comes to loom in one's mind as a blue-collar American Everyman afflicted by the dark secret of the macho tradition. Told by his articulate, equally scarred younger brother, Wade's story becomes as spellbinding and inexorable as a fuse burning its way to the dynamite

Some zombies are raised. Others must be put down. Just ask Anita Blake. Before now, she would have considered them merely off-putting, never dangerous. Before now, she had never heard of any of them causing human beings to perish in agony. But that’s all changed. Micah’s estranged father lies dying, rotting away inside from some strange ailment that has his doctors whispering about “zombie disease.” Anita makes her living off of zombies—but these aren’t the kind she knows so well. These creatures hunt in daylight, and are as fast and strong as vampires. If they bite you, you become just like them. And round and round it goes… Where will it stop? Even Anita Blake doesn’t know

As former ambassador to Moscow, Rodric Braithwaite brings unique insights to the Soviet war in Afghanistan. The story has been distorted not only by Cold War propaganda but also by the myths of the nineteenth century Great Game. It moves from the high politics of the Kremlin to the lonely Russian conscripts in isolated mountain outposts. The parallels with Afghanistan today speak for themselves. ‘A superb achievement of narrative history, sensitive writing and exciting fresh research’: so wrote Simon Sebag Montefiore about Rodric Braithwaite’s bestseller Moscow 1941. But those words, and many others of praise that were given it, could equally apply to his new book

Édith Leblanc passait une existence tranquille dans sa villa cossue de Toulouse, entre sa belle-mère et sa peinture, jusqu'au jour où un couple de jeunes voyous recherchés par la police réussit à s'installer chez elle et fit de sa vie un véritable enfer

Cuando el recién ascendido a capitán de la división de narcóticos del Departamento de Policía y Seguridad de Nueva York Jonah McMasters y su mujer regresan un día antes de sus vacaciones, esperaban con ilusión reencontrarse y pasar más tiempo con su inteligente y vivaz hija de dieciséis años. Pero ni sus peores pesadillas les podían haber preparado para la escena del crimen que les está aguardando. La joven Deena ha sido brutalmente violada y asesinada y las pruebas evidencian un crimen que horrorizaría incluso al policía más experto, y eso incluye a la teniente Eve Dallas, a la que el capitán le ha asignado específicamente la misión de hallar al culpable. A medida que avanzan en la investigación todo parece conducir al pasado de McMasters, y Dallas y su equipo cree estar a punto de arrestar al asesino. Pero lo que no saben es que hay alguien que está tratando de burlarse de ellos y eludir a la justicia usando un sin fin de identidades. Sin embargo, el exceso de confianza puede llevar a cometer errores por descuido. Y precisamente un solo error es todo lo que Eve necesita para dar caza a ese brutal criminal

Riley Crane se despertó completamente vestida, cubierta de sangre y con una pistola bajo la almohada. Pero lo que resultaba más aterrador aún era que no recordaba lo sucedido la noche anterior. En realidad, apenas recordaba las tres semanas anteriores. Riley es un camaleón: ex oficial del ejército y ahora agente federal asignada a la Unidad de Crímenes Especiales, posee el don de la clarividencia y la capacidad de fundirse con su entorno, de ser lo que elija. Especialista de la UCE en lo oculto, ha sido enviada por su jefe, el enigmático Noah Bishop, a una casa en la playa, en Opal Island, para investigar diversas noticias sobre fenómenos misteriosos. Pero eso fue hace tres semanas. Ahora, al despertarse, descubre que no puede fiarse de su memoria, que ha perdido la clarividencia de la que siempre ha dependido para protegerse, y que en su vida hay un nuevo hombre muy atractivo. Para colmo, con los recursos de la UCE recortados al mínimo, Riley se encuentra sin refuerzos. Sola, se ve obligada a enfrentarse a tientas a un juego en el que nadie a su alrededor es quien parecer ser. Y un truculento asesinato es el primer aviso de lo mucho que arriesga. Bishop quiere sacar a Riley del caso. Y también Ash Prescott, el poderoso fiscal del distrito. Pero tanto su ex compañero en el ejército, Gordon Skinner, como el sheriff Jake Ballard creen que Riley puede atrapar a un asesino feroz. Uno de esos cuatro hombres sabe qué está pasando en este pueblecito costero, y Riley necesita desesperadamente esa información. Porque lo que no recuerda basta para costarle la vida. Esta vez, la maldad no está más cerca de lo que cree: está ya aquí

Etiopia nieodległej przyszłości. Trwa wojna domowa, oddziały ONZ usiłują opanować chaos. Na pograniczu z Somalią polski patrol zestrzelił niezidentyfikowany śmigłowiec. Jeden z żołnierzy został ranny. Z Addis Abeby wylatuje komisja mająca zbadać szczątki maszyny. Na pokładzie sanitarnego śmigłowca znajduje się kapitan-lekarz Jacek Szczebielewicz i pewna czarnoskóra dziewczyna. Nikt nie podejrzewa, że kolejny rutynowy lot zmieni się w masakrę. Kilkudziesięciu osamotnionych żołnierzy musi stoczyć prawdziwą wojnę, najbardziej krwawą i tragiczną, jaką Wojsko Polskie stoczyło od roku 1945

Optimistic About America’s Future? Don’t Be. In his giant New York Times bestseller, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, Mark Steyn predicted collapse for the rest of the Western World. Now, he adds, America has caught up with Europe on the great rush to self-destruction. It’s not just our looming financial collapse; it’s not just a culture that seems on a fast track to perdition, full of hapless, indulgent, childish people who think government has the answer for every problem; it’s not just America’s potential eclipse as a world power because of the drunken sailor policymaking in Washington—no, it’s all this and more that spells one word for America: Armageddon. What will a world without American leadership look like? It won’t be pretty—not for you and not for your children. America’s decline won’t be gradual, like an aging Europe sipping espresso at a café until extinction (and the odd Greek or Islamist riot). No, America’s decline will be a wrenching affair marked by violence and possibly secession. With his trademark wit, Steyn delivers the depressing news with raw and unblinking honesty—but also with the touch of vaudeville stand-up and soft shoe that makes him the most entertaining, yet profound, columnist on the planet. And as an immigrant with nowhere else to go, he offers his own prescription for winning America back from the feckless and arrogant liberal establishment that has done its level best to suffocate the world’s last best hope in a miasma of debt, decay, and debility. You will not read a more important—or more alarming, or even funnier—book all year than After America. “Mark Steyn is a modern day Jeremiah with a quiverful of devastating one-liners, nailing what the liberals have done to our country. He presents an alarming—and frighteningly convincing—prophecy of where we’re headed. The choice is stark—we either listen to Steyn and act on his recommendations or face economic and cultural armageddon.” “Mark Steyn has done it again. In his new book, After America, he clearly defines the dangerous signals which show America is embracing the same doomed path as the failed European economies, and how vital it is to implement and avoid policies right now to prevent us from the same fate.” “Only Mark Steyn can write about the decline of America and leave you laughing.”

A widely acclaimed young writer’s fierce new novel, in which childbirth and new motherhood are as high stakes a proving ground as any combat zone. A year has passed since Ari gave birth to Walker, though it went so badly awry she has trouble calling it “birth” and still she can't locate herself in her altered universe. Amid the strange, disjointed rhythms of her days and nights and another impending winter in upstate New York, Ari is a tree without roots, struggling to keep her branches aloft. When Mina, a one-time cult musician — older, self-contained, alone, and nine-months pregnant — moves to town, Ari sees the possibility of a new friend, despite her unfortunate habit of generally mistrusting women. Soon they become comrades-in-arms, and the previously hostile terrain seems almost navigable. With piercing insight, purifying anger, and outrageous humor, Elisa Albert issues a wake-up call to a culture that turns its new mothers into exiles, and expects them to act like natives. Like Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin and Anne Enright’s The Gathering, this is a daring and resonant novel from one of our most visceral writers

Many strong minded women have headstrong daughters. But this isn't supposed to extend to their cats... Some say your previous cat chooses their successor. If so, what in cat heaven's name was Helen Brown's beloved Cleo thinking when she sent a crazy kitten like Jonah? When Cleo died, Helen Brown swore she'd never get another kitten. But after she was diagnosed with breast cancer an unscheduled visit to a pet shop resulted in the explosive arrival of a feisty kitten called Jonah. Like Cleo, Jonah possessed great energy and charm. But unlike Cleo, he often morphed into a highly strung and capricious escape artist. Still, as Helen recovered from a mastectomy, he also proved to be a healer in his own right. While struggling to deal with her own mortality, Helen helped arrange her son Rob's wedding, completed her international best seller, *Cleo* , and was confronted with her eldest daughter Lydia's determination to abandon university studies to embark on a spiritual life

Life is tough enough these days for Lydia Smith, licensed Para-archaelogist. Seriously stressed-out from a nasty incident in an alien tomb, she is obliged to work part-time in Shrimpton's House of Ancient Horrors, a very low-budget museum. She has a plan to get her career back on track, but it isn't going well. Stuff keeps happening. Take the dead body that she discovered in one of the sarcophagus exhibits. Who needed that? Finding out that her new client, Emmett London, is one of the most dangerous men in the city isn't helping matters either. And that's just today's list of setbacks. Here in the shadows of the Dead City of Old Cadence, things don't really heat up until After Dark

Our last hope lies with our oldest enemies. When we lost the war with the vampires, our world changed. The Old Family overlords trapped us in a few scattered cities and demanded our blood. Then Victor- the first vampire I've ever trusted, ever loved- came to power, and I hoped for peace between our kinds. Only now a new type of monster, Day Walkers, has emerged, and their maniacal leader is threatening to destroy us all, human and vampire alike. The Old Family Council is stubborn and proud, unwilling to acknowledge the danger. But once I claim my birthright as the last living member of the Montgomery line, they will have to listen to me. Neither fully human nor vampire, I am the bridge between both. Even if I'm not sure where I belong anymore, I know that the only way any of us will survive is if we stand together

Beautifully and hauntingly written, After Disasters is told through the eyes of four people in the wake of a life-shattering earthquake in India. An intricate story of love and loss weaves together the emotional and intimate narratives of Ted, a pharmaceutical salesman turned member of the Disaster Assistance Response Team; his colleague Piotr, who still carries with him the scars of the Bosnia conflict; Andy, a young firefighter eager to prove his worth; and Dev, a doctor on the ground racing against time and dwindling resources. Through time and place, hope and tragedy, love and lust, these four men put their lives at risk in a country where danger lurks everywhere. O. Henry Prize — winning author Viet Dinh takes us on a moving and evocative journey through an India set with smoky funeral pyres, winding rivers that hold prayers and the deceased, and the rubble of Gujarat, a crumbling place wavering between life and death. As the four men fight to impose order on an increasingly chaotic city, where looting and threats of violence become more severe, they realize the first lives they save might be their own

Experience the vast tapestry of After Earth in a novelization unlike any other: a thousand-year saga featuring original content from the mind of Peter David, the veteran sci-fi author who helped develop the richly imagined universe. This is the complete, never-before-seen chronicle of the extraordinary family that’s been across the universe and back—from humanity’s last days on Earth through the events of the epic film! RAIGE RUNS IN THE FAMILY General Cypher Raige of the United Ranger Corps is only the latest in a long line of heroes. For a thousand years, ever since the globe was engulfed by environmental apocalypse, the Raiges have been instrumental in humanity’s survival. They led the way as the survivors abandoned Earth, settled an uninhabitable planet called Nova Prime, withstood an onslaught from a mysterious alien force, and carved out a new home in the farthest reaches of the galaxy. Now Cypher has returned to his family after an extended tour of duty. For his thirteen-year-old son, Kitai, tagging along with his famous father is the adventure of a lifetime—and a chance to salvage their relationship. But when an asteroid collides with their craft, they make a crash landing that leaves Cypher seriously—perhaps fatally—wounded. Kitai Raige has always wanted to prove that he has what it takes to live up to his illustrious name. Now, all too soon, he gets his chance. With his father’s life on the line, Kitai must venture out into the strange, hostile terrain of a new world that seems eerily familiar: Earth

Eden Anfield loves puzzles, so when mysterious new boy Ryan Westland shows up at her school she's hooked. On the face of it, he's a typical American teenager. So why doesn't he recognise pizza? And how come he hasn't heard of Hitler? What puzzles Eden the most, however, is the interest he's taking in her. As Eden starts to fall in love with Ryan, she begins to unravel his secret. Her breakthrough comes one rainy afternoon when she stumbles across a book in Ryan's bedroom - a biography of her best friend - written over fifty years in the future. Confronting Ryan, she discovers that he is there with one unbelievably important purpose ... and she might just have destroyed his only chance of success

Life is complicated for Lydia Smith. She's working at that tacky, third-rate museum, Shrimpton's House of Ancient Horrors, trying to salvage her career in para-archaeology—and dating the most dangerous man in town. Just when she thinks she might be getting things under control, she stumbles over a dead body and discovers that her lover has a secret past that could get him killed. Just to top things off, trouble is brewing underground in the eerie, glowing green passageways of the Dead City and that dynamic dust-bunny, Fuzz, has a couple of surprises up his tatty, furry sleeve. Of course, all of those problems pale in comparison to the most pressing issue: Lydia has been invited to the Restoration Ball and she hasn't got a thing to wear

In the future we may be able to erase the past but that won’t stop it from coming…

Richard Jefferies’ “remarkable fantasy novel After London (1885), set in a future in which urban civilization has collapsed after an environmental crisis.” (From Encyclopædia Britannica). This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

After My Fashion has an unusual publishing history. Although it was John Cowper Powys third novel written in 1920, it wasn't published until 1980. It seems that when his US publisher turned it down Powys made no effort to place it elsewhere. Indeed, when Powys had finished a book he tended to be oddly indifferent to its fate. The novel has two other unusual features: its locations (Sussex and Greenwich Village) and Isadora Duncan being the inspiration for Elise, the dancer and mistress of the protagonist, Richard Storm (based quite largely on Powys himself). As one would expect from Powys the writing is vivid, not least in the descriptions of the Sussex landscape and the bohemian milieu of Greenwich Village

After Nature, W. G. Sebald’s first literary work, now translated into English by Michael Hamburger, explores the lives of three men connected by their restless questioning of humankind’s place in the natural world. From the efforts of each, “an order arises, in places beautiful and comforting, though more cruel, too, than the previous state of ignorance.” The first figure is the great German Renaissance painter Matthias Grünewald. The second is the Enlightenment botanist-explorer Georg Steller, who accompanied Bering to the Arctic. The third is the author himself, who describes his wanderings among landscapes scarred by the wrecked certainties of previous ages. After Nature introduces many of the themes that W. G. Sebald explored in his subsequent books. A haunting vision of the waxing and waning tides of birth and devastation that lie behind and before us, it confirms the author’s position as one of the most profound and original writers of our time

In her new collection, Story Prize finalist Maureen F. McHugh delves into the dark heart of contemporary life and life five minutes from now and how easy it is to mix up one with the other. Her stories are post-bird flu, in the middle of medical trials, wondering if our computers are smarter than us, wondering when our jobs are going to be outsourced overseas, wondering if we are who we say we are, and not sure what we’d do to survive the coming zombie plague. Praise for Maureen F. McHugh: “Gorgeously crafted stories.” “Hauntingly beautiful.” “Unpredictable and poetic work.”

One of the hallmarks of French author Patrick Modiano’s writing is a singular ability to revisit particular motifs and episodes, infusing each telling with new detail and emotional nuance. In this evocative novel the internationally acclaimed author takes up one of his most compelling themes: a love affair with a woman who disappears, and a narrator grappling with the mystery of a relationship stopped short. Set in mid-sixties Paris, After the Circus traces the relationship between the narrator, a young man not quite of legal age, and the slightly older, enigmatic woman he first glimpses at a police interrogation. The two lovers make their uncertain way into each other’s hearts, but the narrator soon finds himself in the unsettling, ominous presence of others. Who are these people? Are they real, or simply evoked? Part romance, part detective story, this mesmerizing book fully demonstrates Modiano’s signature use of atmosphere and suggestion as he investigates the perils and the exhilaration of young love

From the swarming, last-redoubt towers of the polar regions, where humanity huddles from the savage heat of Greenhouse Earth, to the dusty refugee camps of a shattered America; from the virtual reality landscape where teenagers seek to repair a wounded planet, to the post-human globe populated by wily transgenic heirs to mankind; and, lastly, across the ideology-splintered ruins of the U.S.A… a cast of dedicated survivors tries to make the best of what’s left behind, picking up the pieces of their lives and arranging them in new patterns of hope and dreaming. Here are six riveting tales of life during the hard-luck times of a post-holocaust planet

Secrets and betrayals, as the saga of Dark Angel continues! In a chaotic world where the lines between good and evil often blur, and violent anarchy and brutal repression become commonplace, secrets can be deadly. So when Max discovers a shattering truth that Logan has kept concealed from her for years, the betrayal threatens the very essence of their trust. Yet when Logan is kidnapped, all questions of truth and loyalty are cast aside. Max’s search will lead her to a familiar, menacing enemy — and back into the shadow of the Snake Cult, which waits for her with chilling anticipation. But the search will also lead her into wholly unexpected territory. Locked in the fight of her life, Max will discover a captive of the cult who can provide her with the one thing that has haunted her ever since she escaped from Manticore

Sidney Sheldon's After the Darkness is a 2010 novel by Tilly Bagshawe. Bagshawe began writing Sidney Sheldon works after the latter's death in 2007. After writing Mistress of the Game, Tilly Bagshawe once again recaptured the late Sidney Sheldon’s way of thriller writing in After the Darkness. The novel echoes the Bernie Madoff scandal in America. The author contends that she “[wrote] and research[ed] as Sidney did. I pretty much read all his work, dreaming it, and thought it to get it right. I tried very consciously to be true to him and sound like his voice. Grace Brookstein lived a luxurious lifestyle despite the economic free fall in the US. Then suddenly her billionaire husband Lenny mysteriously disappears in a tragic sailing accident. Along with Lenny's disappearance, Lenny's hedge fund, the Quorum, which has a $75 billion investment, is also missing and everyone believes that Grace stole the money. Lenny's death was ruled as suicide and Grace was convicted and imprisoned. Grace believed that she was framed. Now alone with no one to turn to, she is determined to find out who is framing her and is desperate for revenge. The book provides a brilliant description of the transformation of the quiet Grace Brookstein from an innocent young woman who had 'never even looked at the price tags of things' to a determined person who fights the world alone, on her own. Once Grace is convicted of money laundering, she is betrayed by her family and friends. She has no one to turn to and tries to commit suicide but she survives. This is when Grace starts to undergo a change. With the help of her cellmates, she flees from prison. The rest of the story deals with the way she reaches the culprit, the further betrayals she suffers and how she deals with the abominable situations she encounters in her way of taking revenge. On her way to truth, she realises that till now she had been living in a fantasy and the reality was something totally disparate

This is an advance reader’s e-proof made from digital files of the uncorrected proofs. Readers are reminded that changes may be made prior to publication, including to the type, design, layout, or content, that are not reflected in this e-proof, and that this e-pub may not reflect the final edition. Any material to be quoted or excerpted in a review should be checked against the final published edition. Dates, prices, and manufacturing details are subject to change or cancellation without notice. She’s searching for answers to her past. They’re hunting her to save their future. World War III has left the world ravaged by nuclear radiation. A lucky few escaped to the Alaskan wilderness. They’ve survived for the last thirty years by living off the land, being one with nature, and hiding from whoever else might still be out there. At least, this is what Juneau has been told her entire life. When Juneau returns from a hunting trip to discover that everyone in her clan has vanished, she sets off to find them. Leaving the boundaries of their land for the very first time, she learns something horrifying: There never was a war. Cities were never destroyed. The world is intact. Everything was a lie. Now Juneau is adrift in a modern-day world she never knew existed. But while she’s trying to find a way to rescue her friends and family, someone else is looking for her. Someone who knows the extraordinary truth about the secrets of her past

Only the Strong Survive. They called it “The Fall”—the total collapse of the United States and the American way of life. Within twelve months, eighty percent of the population is gone. After a time, even the military stops trying to cope and pulls back to the coasts, leaving the interior, from the Alleghenies to the Rockies, on its own. Now, the remnant of Americans left in the depopulated cities and the wilderness that used to be the breadbasket of the world are becoming increasingly desperate, doing anything it takes to survive. In this new America, though, death is always just a heartbeat away. John Trent has survived because he is better at killing than those around him, but he’s getting tired of constantly living on the edge of his wits. As a courier for the army, he’s alway on the move, dodging raiders… and he doesn’t know how much longer he can go on. Then he meets a girl who gives him a reason. But the discovery of a serial killer stalking the forests, killing young women in a horrific and brutal fashion, makes John realize he can’t abandon his skill at the hunt quite yet. Beyond that, a particularly vicious band of raiders is set to descend on a new settlement John has been ordered to protect ahead of a new repopulation effort. Caught in the middle, will he live long enough to enjoy his newfound love, or simply become the latest victim of the anarchy and chaos of the New American Frontier?

There’s a Spanish proverb that says, “From the thorn and the pain, a flower is born.” Naomi Duran never really understood what that meant until she became an archangel. Finally reunited with the love of her life, Naomi thought she had everlasting love and happiness in Heaven. Even with the rebellious Lash by her side, she learns that life as an archangel isn’t easy. When secrets of the past are finally revealed, tempers flare, brother is pitted against brother, and Naomi and Lash face the greatest threat to their relationship: choosing among love, family, or duty. In the end, can this family of broken angels forgive past mistakes, or will they carry the thorn in their hearts forever, ripping their family apart?

2012 Nebula Award Winner 2012 Locus Award Winner 2013 Hugo Nominee 2013 Sturgeon Award Nominee The year is 2035. After ecological disasters nearly destroyed the Earth, 26 survivors—the last of humanity—are trapped by an alien race in a sterile enclosure known as the Shell. Fifteen-year-old Pete is one of the Six—children who were born deformed or sterile and raised in the Shell. As, one by one, the survivors grow sick and die, Pete and the Six struggle to put aside their anger at the alien Tesslies in order to find the means to rebuild the earth together. Their only hope lies within brief time-portals into the recent past, where they bring back children to replenish their disappearing gene pool. Meanwhile, in 2013, brilliant mathematician Julie Kahn works with the FBI to solve a series of inexplicable kidnappings. Suddenly her predictive algorithms begin to reveal more than just criminal activity. As she begins to realize her role in the impending catastrophe, simultaneously affecting the Earth and the Shell, Julie closes in on the truth. She and Pete are converging in time upon the future of humanity—a future which might never unfold. Weaving three consecutive time lines to unravel both the mystery of the Earth’s destruction and the key to its salvation, this taut post-apocalyptic thriller offers a topical plot with a satisfying twist

Fredrik Welin is a seventy-year-old retired doctor. Years ago he retreated to the Swedish archipelago, where he lives alone on an island. He swims in the sea every day, cutting a hole in the ice if necessary. He lives a quiet life. Until he wakes up one night to find his house on fire. Fredrik escapes just in time, wearing two left-footed wellies, as neighbouring islanders arrive to help douse the flames. All that remains in the morning is a stinking ruin and evidence of arson. The house that has been in his family for generations and all his worldly belongings are gone. He cannot think who would do such a thing, or why. Without a suspect, the police begin to think he started the fire himself

Following the breakdown of a turbulent relationship, Frank moves from Canberra to a shack on the east coast once owned by his grandparents. There, among the sugar cane and sand dunes, he struggles to rebuild his life. Forty years earlier, Leon is growing up in Sydney, turning out treacle tarts at his parents' bakery and flirting with one of the local girls. But when he's conscripted as a machine-gunner in Vietnam, he finds himself suddenly confronting the same experiences that haunt his war-veteran father. As these two stories weave around each other — each narrated in a voice as tender as it is fierce — we learn what binds together Frank and Leon, and what may end up keeping them apart

It was all too frighteningly familiar. For the second time in his life, Alex Penn wakes up in an alcoholic daze in a cheap hotel room off Times Square and finds himself lying next to the savagely mutilated body of a young woman. After the first death, he was convicted of murder and imprisoned, then released on a technicality. But this time he has to find out what happened during the blackout and why-before the police do. Lawrence Block weaves his spell in this suspenseful taleof a man haunted by murders he hopes he hasn¹tcommitted… It was all too frighteningly familiar. For the second time in his life, Alex Penn wakes up in an alcoholic daze in a cheap hotel room off Times Square and finds himself lying next to the savagely mutilated body of a young woman. After the first death, he was convicted of murder and imprisoned, then released on a technicality. But this time he has to find out what happened during the blackout and why? before the police do

Can an accountant defeat a supervillain? Celia West, only daughter of the heroic leaders of the superpowered Olympiad, has spent the past few years estranged from her parents and their high-powered lifestyle. She's had enough of masks and heroics, and wants only to live her own quiet life out from under the shadow of West Plaza and her rich and famous parents. Then she is called into her boss' office and told that as the city's top forensic accountant, Celia is the best chance the prosecution has to catch notorious supervillain the Destructor for tax fraud. In the course of the trial, Celia's troubled past comes to light and family secrets are revealed as the rift between Celia and her parents grows deeper. Cut off from friends and family, Celia must come to terms with the fact that she might just be Commerce City's only hope. This all-new and moving story of love, family, and sacrifice is an homage to Golden Age comics that no fan will want to miss

From Library Journal:   A cautionary tale by Stephen R. Donaldson ("Reeve the Just"), a whimsical ad venture in miniature by Dennis L. McKiernan ("The Halfling House"), and a tribute to the art of storytelling by Charles de Lint ("The Conjure Man") il lustrate the variety of this collection of 19 stories written to celebrate the centennial of Tolkien's birth. Although fans of Middle Earth may be disappointed that none of these tales draw directly from Tolkien's world, discerning readers will find the unmistakable stamp of the master concealed in the heart of each story. All in all, this solid collection of fantasy belongs in most libraries. For a new edition of The Lord of the Rings and more on Tolkien, see Classic Returns, LJ 11/15/91. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus Reviews: Yet another Festschrift anthology by Greenberg, who has recently edited or coedited tributes to Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and H.P. Lovecraft, this time to honor the much-imitated author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The difficulty with these projects is that the writers must retain the essential flavor of their own work while evoking somehow the style or subject or tone of the revered predecessor, and here--as in the Asimov, Bradbury, and Lovecraft volumes--the quality of the stories varies tremendously. The book leads off with an exceptionally good story by Stephen R. Donaldson, "Reave the Just", in which a legendary hero saves the day in a most unusual fashion. Emma Bull's "Silver or Gold", Peter S. Beagle's "The Naga", Judith Tarr's "Death and the Lady", and Patricia A. McKillip's "The Fellowship of the Dragon'' likewise evoke something of the spirit of Tolkien while offering wonderful, original tales in their authors' own strong voices. Meanwhile, John Brunner, Barry N. Malzberg, and Gregory Benford provide solid stories, but their connection to Tolkien is slight. Much that's unfortunately mediocre, and a few stories (such as Dennis L. McKiernan's "The Halfling House", egregious at 29 pages) that would have made Tolkien himself wince — but, still, the strongest tales here are among the best short-length fantasy of the year. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved

Hailed as one of the best short story writers of his generation, T.C. Boyle presents sixteen stories-nine of which appeared in The New Yorker-that highlight the evolving excellence of his inventive, modern, and wickedly witty style. In After the Plague, Boyle exhibits his maturing themes through an amazing array of subjects in a range of emotional keys. He taps today's headlines, from air rage ("Friendly Skies") to abortion doctors ("Killing Babies"), and delves into more naturalistic themes of quiet power and passion, from a tale of first love ("The Love of My Life") to a story about confronting old age ("Rust"). Combining joy and humor with the dark, intense scenarios that Boyle's audience has come to love, After the Plague reveals a writer at the top of his form

The six stories in Haruki Murakami’s mesmerizing collection are set at the time of the catastrophic 1995 Kobe earthquake, when Japan became brutally aware of the fragility of its daily existence. But the upheavals that afflict Murakami’s characters are even deeper and more mysterious, emanating from a place where the human meets the inhuman. An electronics salesman who has been abruptly deserted by his wife agrees to deliver an enigmatic package—and is rewarded with a glimpse of his true nature. A man who has been raised to view himself as the son of God pursues a stranger who may or may not be his human father. A mild-mannered collection agent receives a visit from a giant talking frog who enlists his help in saving Tokyo from destruction. As haunting as dreams, as potent as oracles, the stories in After the Quake are further proof that Murakami is one of the most visionary writers at work today. Haruki Murakami, a writer both mystical and hip, is the West’s favorite Japanese novelist. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Murakami lived abroad until 1995. That year, two disasters struck Japan: the lethal earthquake in Kobe and the deadly poison gas attacks in the Tokyo subway. Spurred by these tragic events, Murakami returned home. The stories in After the Quake are set in the months that fell between the earthquake and the subway attack, presenting a world marked by despair, hope, and a kind of human instinct for transformation. A teenage girl and a middle-aged man share a hobby of making beach bonfires; a businesswoman travels to Thailand and, quietly, confronts her own death; three friends act out a modern-day Tokyo version of Jules and Jim. There’s a surreal element running through the collection in the form of unlikely frogs turning up in unlikely places. News of the earthquake hums throughout. The book opens with the dull buzz of disaster-watching: “Five straight days she spent in front of the television, staring at the crumbled banks and hospitals, whole blocks of stores in flames, severed rail lines and expressways.” With language that’s never self-consciously lyrical or show-offy, Murakami constructs stories as tight and beautiful as poems. There’s no turning back for his people; there’s only before and after the quake. —Claire Dederer These six stories, all loosely connected to the disastrous 1995 earthquake in Kobe, are Murakami (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle; Norwegian Wood) at his best. The writer, who returned to live in Japan after the Kobe earthquake, measures his country’s suffering and finds reassurance in the inevitability that love will surmount tragedy, mustering his casually elegant prose and keen sense of the absurd in the service of healing. In “Honey Pie,” Junpei, a gentle, caring man, loses his would-be sweetheart, Sayoko, when his aggressive best friend, Takatsuki, marries her. They have a child, Sala. He remains close friends with them and becomes even closer after they divorce, but still cannot bring himself to declare his love for Sayoko. Sala is traumatized by the quake and Junpei concocts a wonderful allegorical tale to ease her hurt and give himself the courage to reveal his love for Sayoko. In “UFO in Kushiro” the horrors of the quake inspire a woman to leave her perfectly respectable and loving husband, Komura, because “you have nothing inside you that you can give me.” Komura then has a surreal experience that more or less confirms his wife’s assessment. The theme of nothingness is revisited in the powerful “Thailand,” in which a female doctor who is on vacation in Thailand and very bitter after a divorce, encounters a mysterious old woman who tells her “There is a stone inside your body…. You must get rid of the stone. Otherwise, after you die and are cremated, only the stone will remain.” The remaining stories are of equal quality, the characters fully developed and memorable. Murakami has created a series of small masterpieces. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc

The Gulf monarchies (Saudi Arabia and its five smaller neighbours: the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain) have long been governed by highly autocratic and seemingly anachronistic regimes. Yet despite bloody conflicts on their doorsteps, fast-growing populations, and powerful modernising and globalising forces impacting on their largely conservative societies, they have demonstrated remarkable resilience. Obituaries for these traditional monarchies have frequently been penned, but even now these absolutist, almost medieval, entities still appear to pose the same conundrum as before: in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring and the fall of incumbent presidents in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya, the apparently steadfast Gulf monarchies have, at first glance, re-affirmed their status as the Middle East s only real bastions of stability. In this book, however, noted Gulf expert Christopher Davidson contends that the collapse of these kings, emirs, and sultans is going to happen, and was always going to. While the revolutionary movements in North Africa, Syria, and Yemen will undeniably serve as important, if indirect, catalysts for the coming upheaval, many of the same socio-economic pressures that were building up in the Arab republics are now also very much present in the Gulf monarchies. It is now no longer a matter of if but when the West s steadfast allies fall. This is a bold claim to make but Davidson, who accurately forecast the economic turmoil that afflicted Dubai in 2009, has an enviable record in diagnosing social and political changes afoot in the region

What is really going on here? For decades Renata Adler has been asking and answering this question with unmatched urgency. In her essays and long-form journalism, she has captured the cultural zeitgeist, distrusted the accepted wisdom, and written stories that would otherwise go untold. As a staff writer at The New Yorker from 1963 to 2001, Adler reported on civil rights from Selma, Alabama; on the war in Biafra, the Six-Day War, and the Vietnam War; on the Nixon impeachment inquiry and Congress; on cultural life in Cuba. She has also written about cultural matters in the United States, films (as chief film critic for The New York Times), books, politics, television, and pop music. Like many journalists, she has put herself in harm’s way in order to give us the news, not the “news” we have become accustomed to — celebrity journalism, conventional wisdom, received ideas — but the actual story, an account unfettered by ideology or consensus. She has been unafraid to speak up when too many other writers have joined the pack. In this sense, Adler is one of the few independent journalists writing in America today. This collection of Adler’s nonfiction draws on Toward a Radical Middle (a selection of her earliest New Yorker pieces), A Year in the Dark (her film reviews), and Canaries in the Mineshaft (a selection of essays on politics and media), and also includes uncollected work from the past two decades. The more recent pieces are concerned with, in her words, “misrepresentation, coercion, and abuse of public process, and, to a degree, the journalist’s role in it.” With a brilliant literary and legal mind, Adler parses power by analyzing language: the language of courts, of journalists, of political figures, of the man on the street. In doing so, she unravels the tangled narratives that pass for the resolution of scandal and finds the threads that others miss, the ones that explain what really is going on here — from the Watergate scandal, to the “preposterous” Kenneth Starr report submitted to the House during the Clinton impeachment inquiry, to the plagiarism and fabrication scandal of the former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair. And she writes extensively about the Supreme Court and the power of its rulings, including its fateful decision in Bush v. Gore

OVER the course of her five previous novels, Alice McDermott has staked an impressive claim on a subject matter and a turf – Irish-American Catholic families congregated, for the most part, in New York City and its suburbs on Long Island. The Irish have, of course, long been a significant presence in American fiction, appearing well before the mass immigration of the late 19th century (think of "Huckleberry Finn"), and the novels, notably, of William Kennedy attest to the subject's continuing strength. McDermott adds her own luster to this seemingly familiar community through her skill at evoking small, memorable incidents and her willingness to ignore certain narrative conventions. Most fictional family sagas contain a lot of what could be called plain reporting: answers to the questions (who? what? when? where? why?) that are the basic stuff of journalism. But in her family dramas, McDermott has largely refused to provide a helpful framework of dates, genealogies or factual background. Instead, she has focused on the shifting inner lives of her characters, confident that God – or the larger picture – will be found in the details. The opening of her latest novel, "After This," demonstrates McDermott's technique at its most elliptical and effective. On a blustery April day in Midtown Manhattan, Mary (no last name given) leaves a church (almost certainly St. Patrick's Cathedral) after lighting a candle, as she has done throughout the war, even though the fighting is over. (Since the war in question is clearly World War II, the action must take place, at the earliest, in the spring of 1946). Mary has also prayed: "She was 30, with no husband in sight. A good job, an aging father, a bachelor brother, a few nice friends. At least, she had asked – so humbly, so earnestly, so seriously – let me be content." Outside the church, squinting in the sunlight, Mary meets a friend of her brother's, who unexpectedly asks her to dinner. "At a restaurant," he explains, when she seems confused. "The two of us." Mary agrees, they part, and she goes into Schrafft's for what's left of her lunch hour. At the counter she exchanges small talk about the weather with a man seated next to her. "Reminds me of some days we had overseas," he says, standing up to pay his bill. Mary watches him walk away: "And here, of all things, was desire again. (She could have put the palm of her hand to the front of his white shirt.)" Mary returns to her office and later goes home to a walk-up apartment in an unnamed borough to prepare lamb chops for her father and brother before her dinner date, which passes pleasantly and ends with a chaste kiss. The next day, when she returns to Schrafft's, the man she met the day before is waiting outside. Reader, she marries him. This sequence could stand alone as a classic short story in the Joycean, epiphanic mode: an accretion of humdrum moments that gather force and blossom into the transfiguration of a life. Yet such stories seldom cry out for a sequel – does anyone want to know what Gabriel and Gretta Conroy said to each other the morning after "The Dead" concludes? – and McDermott's deft, delicate beginning is a hard act to follow. Mary, so vivid in her first appearance, rapidly fades into careworn motherhood. Fewer than a dozen pages later, she and her husband, John Keane, are taking a rare break from Sunday Mass at a Long Island beach, deserted after the Labor Day weekend, with their three children. John seems stunned by his responsibilities; Mary's pregnancy will only add to them. A hurricane is beginning to churn up the Eastern Seaboard, and the stinging, wind-borne sand drives the family back home. That night, a tree in the Keanes' yard is blown over. The next morning, a neighbor with a chain saw, who also happens to be a registered nurse, appears just in time to help Mary deliver her baby. Once this hectic episode concludes, McDermott's narrative turns episodic and digressive, and "After This" begins to resemble a photo album with many missing snapshots and pages. Here is John serving on the building committee of St. Gabriel's Parish, helping raise money for a new church and gym. Over there are Mary and her daughter standing in line to see Michelangelo's Pietà in the Vatican pavillion at the 1964 World's Fair. (McDermott, characteristically, omits the 1964 part, leaving that for her readers to deduce.) Here we see the neighbor's teenage daughter going into Manhattan for an abortion, accompanied by the older of the two Keane daughters, who reads "A Farewell to Arms" in the waiting room. And up ahead, Pauline, Mary's old friend from her office days and the Keane family's honorary spinster aunt, is injured in a fall. Strangely, Pauline's mishap and its aftereffects receive far more attention than the major tragedy that befalls Mary and John, registered almost subliminally and barely referred to again. Each of the Keane children shines briefly before disappearing. Shy, awkward Jacob drops out of St. John's after a year of poor grades and draws an unlucky lottery number for the Vietnam draft. Michael, charming and irreverent, spends most of his time at his upstate college in a seedy saloon. Annie, the bookish child (inspired by one of Pauline's visits to escape into a Faulkner novel while thinking about "the odor of aging female flesh"), goes to study in England and changes her plans because of a young man she meets on a bus. Clare, devoted youngest child and just as devoted Catholic, nonetheless finds a way to break her parents' hearts. This assembly of splintered stories suggests that McDermott, like Virginia Woolf in "The Waves," has come to care less about her individual characters than about the unseen forces – fate, the zeitgeist, the inexorable progress of time – that shape and trace the patterns of their lives. With no warning or explanation, she provides capsule previews of the deaths of two family members that are jarring not just because they deflate suspense but because they suggest that it's futile to invest much interest in these characters. Late in the novel, Clare Keane, having finally found a boyfriend during the long summer vacation, returns to her Catholic high school displaying new aplomb and self-confidence: "Of course of course, the teachers, even the nuns told each other, indulgent and naïve. Those who had been at the school when Annie was a student said, with a shrug, Life goes on." And that seems to be the burden and the message of "After This." Life does, irrefutably, go on. But if that's all there is to say about the matter, why bother with art and stories, which defy the limits of birth and death by trying to immortalize the interesting things that happen in between? For all its page-by-page brilliance, "After This" leaves that question hanging

Their world was passion, pleasure and secrets. Far too many secrets. But Clay Nichols can't get Julia Bell out of his mind. He's so drawn to her, and to the nights they shared, that he can't focus on work or business. Only her. And she's pissing him off with her hot and cold act. She has her reasons though–she's trying to stay one step ahead of the trouble that's been chasing her for months now, thanks to the criminal world her ex dragged her into. If only she can get out of this mess, then maybe she can invite the man who ignites her back in her life, so she can have him–heart, mind and body. He won't take less than all of her, and the full truth too. When he runs into her again at her sister's wedding, they have a second chance but she'll have to let him all the way in. And they'll learn just how much more there is to the intense sexual chemistry they share, and whether love can carry them well past the danger of her past and into a new future, after this night

It is the far future. Earth is a beautifully planned, efficiently run and happily united. But still it is a world with problems—people have become so lazy, so self-satisfied, that human progress has all but ceased. Addicts of the newly-developed “programmed dreams” are increasing at an enormous rate. Only a few individuals realize that the human race is destroying itself. This book is about what those few people do

If the melt-down, flood, plague, the third World War, new Ice Age, Rapture, alien invasion, clamp-down, meteor, or something else entirely hit today, what would tomorrow look like? Some of the biggest names in YA and adult literature answer that very question in this short story anthology, each story exploring the lives of teen protagonists raised in catastrophe's wake—whether set in the days after the change, or decades far in the future. New York Times bestselling authors Gregory Maguire, Garth Nix, Susan Beth Pfeffer, Carrie Ryan, Beth Revis, and Jane Yolen are among the many popular and award-winning storytellers lending their talents to this original and spellbinding anthology