In the vastness of space, the crimes just get bigger and Slippery Jim diGriz, the Stainless Steel Rat, is the biggest criminal of them all. He can con humans, aliens and any number of robots time after time. Jim is so slippery that all the inter-galactic cops can do is make him one of their own… “The Stainless Steel Rat” is the first book in a series of comic science fiction novels written by Harry Harrison

James Bolivar diGriz, criminal-virtuoso-turned-undercover-agent, had never been one to quail in the face of danger. Therefore, when his lovely, larcenous wife, Angelina, was kidnapped by the cruelest organization in the galaxy—Interstellar Internal and External Revenue (IIER)—he wasted no time in formulating a scheme to free her. Unfortunately, even though he had the aid of his talented sons, James and Bolivar (whom he'd arranged to have graduate a little ahead of time from the Dorsky Military Boarding School and Penitentiary), things didn't go according to plan. The trio broke into IIER's headquarters easily enough, but they set off an alarm in the process—which not only meant 'that Angelina's rescue had to be postponed, but also that the boys had to wipe clean the family's tax records on their own while their father created an appropriate diversion. It was a thoroughly enjoyable escapade for the senior stainless steel rat, and “Slippery Jim's” exhilaration was not diminished when, some time later, he was taken into custody. But the fun stopped there. For instead of hauling him off to prison, diGriz's captors took him to an unfamiliar building across town…where his boss, Harold Inskipp—the hard-nosed, humorless head of the Interplanetary Special Corps—was waiting to hand him a tricky, very possibly suicidal assignment. After grudgingly assuring Jim that Angelina was out of jail, Inskipp outlined the much more serious problem currently facing the Corps. Asatellite base which had been hosting a major meeting of the League Navy chiefs of staff had vanished without a trace, leaving League defenses in a dangerously disorganized state. It was up to diGriz to find out what had happened in the satellite, and who was responsible. The first part of the puzzle wasn't at all difficult for him to solve. A quick jump backward in time revealed that the satellite and its occupants had been swallowed by a huge, toothy something. But when it came to following the something back to its home base, the situation became a bit more hairy…or rather, scaly. Because the attack on the satellite was merely the first move in what was destined to become an all-out intergalactic war—between Mankind and an unholy union of slimy, stalk-eyed, multi-limbed and oozy-tentacled alien races…who had decided that human beings were just too dry and ugly to exist!

A horror writer, Larry Dunbar uncovers the body of a high school girl, who had been sacrificed on the altar of a madman's obsession to rid the Earth of a vampire's curse. A world of horrors was born the day the stake was driven into the girl's heart, and Dunbar wants to pull it out

Craig Thoms is a likeable rogue who is never far from trouble. He is part of a small group of friends that meet regularly to play a stalking game. Follow a stranger, picked randomly from the people walking by on the street and find out as much as you can about them without being discovered. It seemed like harmless fun until Craig witnesses the person he is stalking commit a cold blooded murder. Detectives Nelson and Robards of the Homicide Squad are appointed to investigate the murder of underworld figure, Emilio Fogliani. The evidence trail is strong and within 24 hours Craig is arrested and charged with murder. Everything seems to be against Craig, except maybe the tarnished Det. Nelson who will confront his partner, Police hierarchy and his own past as he searches for the truth about who killed Emilio Fogliani and why

This is a fast paced mystery/thriller. Men who participated in a never solved robbery of an armored truck are being picked off one-by-one 11 years after the crime

In 1978, science fiction writer Spider Robinson wrote a scathing review of The Stand in which he exhorted his readers to grab strangers in bookstores and beg them not to buy it. The Stand is like that. You either love it or hate it, but you can't ignore it. Stephen King's most popular book, according to polls of his fans, is an end-of-the-world scenario: a rapidly mutating flu virus is accidentally released from a U.S. military facility and wipes out 99 and 44/100 percent of the world's population, thus setting the stage for an apocalyptic confrontation between Good and Evil. "I love to burn things up," King says. "It's the werewolf in me, I guess.... The Stand was particularly fulfilling, because there I got a chance to scrub the whole human race, and man, it was fun! ... Much of the compulsive, driven feeling I had while I worked on The Stand came from the vicarious thrill of imagining an entire entrenched social order destroyed in one stroke." There is much to admire in The Stand: the vivid thumbnail sketches with which King populates a whole landscape with dozens of believable characters; the deep sense of nostalgia for things left behind; the way it subverts our sense of reality by showing us a world we find familiar, then flipping it over to reveal the darkness underneath. Anyone who wants to know, or claims to know, the heart of the American experience needs to read this book. –Fiona Webster

After his ward calls off their wedding, Sebastian Santiago decides that since the girls tutor, Maggie Cortez, corrupted her, Maggie should take her place as THE STAND-IN BRIDE. Maggie is torn. While there is a volatile chemistry between her and Sebastian, she is carrying a deep secret about the death of her husband that could tear her new marriage apart if she lets it

Kurzbeschreibung In einem entvölkerten Amerika versucht eine Handvoll Überlebender, die Zivilisation zu retten. Ihr Gegenspieler ist eine mytische Gestalt, die man den Dunklen Mann nennt, die Verkörperung des absolut Bösen. In der Wüste von Nevada kommt es zum Entscheidungskampf um das Schicksal der Menschheit. "The Stand", Stephen Kings Vision vom letzten Gefecht zwischen Gut und Böse, war bislang nur in einer stark gekürzten Version zugänglich.Die hier veröffentlichte Urfassung zeigt die Größe seines apokalyptischen Entwurfs.Manche nennen diesen Roman sein Meisterwerk! Autorenportrait Stephen King wurde 1947 in Portland, Maine, geboren. Er war zunächst als Englischlehrer tätig, bevor ihm 1973 mit seinem ersten Roman 'Carrie' der Durchbruch gelang. Seither hat er mehr als 30 Romane geschrieben und über 100 Kurzgeschichten verfasst und gilt als einer der erfolgreichsten Schriftsteller weltweit

A deadly war of nerves between perfectly matched opponents. The law descends in force as local police officials, Montana State Troopers, National Guard helicopters, a United States Marshals Special Operations Group, and the FBI’s elite Hostage Rescue Team converge on Paradise Ridge. When state-of-the-art surveillance technology fails to prevent the murder of a federal marshal, the FBI recalls from operational exile its ranking veteran crisis manager: a brilliant but unstable negotiator named John T. Banish. As casualties mount on both sides, Paradise Ridge becomes a tinderbox. Banish must pry a heavily armed, ruthlessly cunning criminal out of hiding while, at the foot of the mountain, a massive gathering of Ables’s outraged supporters threatens to turn into a full-scale riot. More than a high-stokes face-off between a lawbreaker and the law, what takes place over the course of nine agonizing days in Montana is a contest of wills and wits as intensely personal as The Fugitive or The Hunt for Red October. One of this year’s most talked-about novels, soon to be a major motion picture, THE STANDOFF grabs you on page one and simply cannot be put down. This is a remarkable fiction debut — a bottle that no one dares win; a tactical and psychological duel more harrowing than anything you have ever experienced

On the planet devastated by a supernova explosion explorers discover a vault with remains of perished civilization…

Earthmen and Aleriona have met in space and neither side can afford to let the other get too strong. The Aleriona have captured the human outpost, New Europe, and claim that all the inhabitants were killed. The World Federation on Earth seems committed to peace at any price, but there are those, and ex-navy Captain Gunnar Heim is one of them, who know that appeasement will only lead to further Alerion encroachment, and he passionately believes that there must be a showdown now, before it is too late. Heim and his crew of volunteers take off from Earth in the Star Fox and start to fit out for their hit-and-run battle. Novelization of three stories originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction: “Marque and Reprisal” (February, 1965), “Arsenal Port” (April, 1965), and “Admiralty” (June, 1965)

First published in 1949, this is the story of John Gordon, a World War II veteran having a hard time adjusting to life in an insurance company. One night, he is telepathically contacted by a man named Zarth Arn, who says that he is calling from 200,000 years in the future. He proposes a temporary mind exchange; Arn will experience life in the primitive distant past, before space travel, and Gordon will see mankind spread throughout the galaxy. Gordon wants adventure; he's about to get it. (A book in the John Gordon series) Warner Books ISBN: 0446301094

World War I is in full swing. Germany has allied itself with the Ottoman empire, persuading the caliphs of Turkey to declare a jihad on the British empire, as President Woodrow Wilson hesitates to enter the fray. War correspondent and American spy Christopher Marlowe Cobb has been tasked to follow a man named Brauer, a German intellectual and possible secret service agent, into perilous waters aboard the ship Lusitania, as the man is believed to hold information vital to the war effort. Aboard the Lusitania on its fateful voyage, Cobb becomes smitten with famed actress Selene Bourgani, who for some reason appears to be working with German Intelligence. Soon Cobb realizes that this simple actress is anything but, as she harbors secrets that could pour gasoline on the already raging conflict. Following the night of the infamous German U-Boat attack on the Lusitania, Cobb must follow Selene and Brauer into the darkest alleyways of London, then on to the powder keg that is Istanbul. He must use all the cunning he possesses to uncover Selene’s true motives, only to realize her hidden agenda could bring down some of the world's most powerful leaders

In 1896, in a pilgrim church in the Alps, an abandoned baby girl is found by a cook and a housemaid. They take her home, and Annika grows up in the servants’ quarters of a house belonging to three eccentric Viennese professors. She is happy there but dreams of the day when her real mother will come to find her. And sure enough, one day a glamorous stranger arrives at the door. After years of guilt and searching, Annika’s mother has come to claim her daughter, who is in fact a Prussian aristocrat and whose true home is a great castle. But at crumbling, spooky Spittal Annika discovers that all is not as it seems in the lives of her new-found family… Eva Ibbotson’s hugely entertaining story is a timeless classic for readers young and old

Richard the Second is losing his hold on the crown and Henry of Bolingbroke, previously exiled by the king, returns to England to claim it. Richard is deposed and dies mysteriously, murdered some say on the orders of Bolingbroke, now King Henry the Fourth. But Henry finds the crown harder to hold onto than it was to win. He is beset by enemies, hampered by disease, and concerned about the rebellious behaviour of his son. Dominating the court and with his eye on the crown is Harry of Monmouth, whose reckless conduct in low-class taverns with his crony Sir John Oldcastle causes scandal.When the king dies, Harry became King Henry the Fifth, and the change is dramatic for both him and Oldcastle. The licentious youth becomes a great king, and Oldcastle, the rake, turns into a religious reformer. Oldcastle dies a martyr and Harry becomes the conquering hero of Agincourt. The Star of Lancaster is in the ascendant. Harry has brought France to her knees and married her princess. It seems that the long war was at an end. But a greater enemy than the French awaits Harry

After their mother can no longer care for them, young Phaedra and her older sister, Dionne, are exiled from Brooklyn to Bird Hill in Barbados to live with their grandmother Hyacinth, a midwife and practitioner of the local spiritual practice of obeah. Dionne spends the summer in search of love, testing her grandmother's limits, and wanting to go home. Phaedra explores Bird Hill, where her family has lived for generations, accompanies her grandmother in her role as a midwife, and investigates their mother's mysterious life. When the father they barely know comes to Bird Hill to reclaim his daughters, and both Phaedra and Dionne must choose between the Brooklyn they once knew and loved or the Barbados of their family

WE DEMAND THAT YOU HAND OVER THE OBJECT. Impossible. Ownership is in the hands of our clients. HUMAN OWNERSHIP OF THE OBJECT IS NOT ADMISSIBLE. STREALL CLAIM IS ABSOLUTE. YOU WILL NOTIFY US OF WHEREABOUTS It is already in transit. WE WILL INTERCEPT. NOTIFY. Your claim must be made through the courts. HUMAN COURTS MEAN NOTHING TO THE STREALL. EITHER YOU COMPLY OR STREALL FLEETS WILL OCCUPY YOUR SYSTEM

Pink scented smog, 3-D TV and earthquake-proof aluminium skyscrapers capable of hurtling themselves and their occupants to a safe Pacific splashdown should tremors exceed desired tolerances. This is the twenty-first century of Ben Bova’s hilarious novel, where the Vitaform Process grants nubile new bodies to the aged and a new 3-D TV series offering the illusion of almost live entertainment in the home is all that Bernard Finger, the cigar-chewing loudmouth mogul of Titanic Productions needs to save his company from the brink of financial disaster. Enter one Bill Oxnard, inventor of the 3-D holographic system, Brenda Impanema, Finger’s sexy lady assistant, Ron Gabriel, hot-tempered hot-shot script writer who hates Finger nearly as much as Finger hates him, and you’ve got the winning formula for a smashing new family series guaranteed to bring 3-D to the heart of the viewing public and make a fortune for Titanic. Or will it? Stay tuned as the whole sick crew of Titanic Productions struggles to bring you the greatest intergalactic show on earth… THE STARCROSSED

The only thing bigger than the world’s first full virtual reality game is the mystery surrounding its origins. Who is behind Ryzonart Games? How was such a huge advance in technology achieved? Taia de Haas loves having her own virtual spaceship, and wants nothing more than to visit every planet in the solar system. But she cannot ignore the question of whether such a magnificent gift comes with strings attached. Is the game a trick, a trap, a subtle invasion? Or an opportunity to step up and fight for her own planet? Caught in a tangle of riddles and lies, Taia can’t resist trying to win answers from Ryzonart’s mysterious administrators. But will finding the truth cost her the Singularity Game?

From the acclaimed author of The Last First Day: a beautiful new period novel — a nineteenth-century story of female empowerment before its time — based on the life of Caroline Herschel, sister of the great astronomer William Herschel and an astronomer in her own right. This exquisitely imagined novel opens as the great astronomer and composer William Herschel rescues his sister Caroline from a life of drudgery in Germany and brings her to England and a world of music-making and stargazing. Lina, as Caroline is known, serves as William’s assistant and the captain of his exhilaratingly busy household. William is generous, wise, and charismatic, an obsessive genius whom Lina adores and serves with the fervency of a beloved wife. When William suddenly announces that he will be married, Lina watches as her world collapses. With her characteristically elegant prose, Brown creates from history a compelling story of familial collaboration and conflict, the sublime beauty of astronomy, and the small but essential place we have within a vast and astonishing cosmos. Through Lina’s trials and successes, we witness the dawning of an early feminist consciousness, of a woman struggling to find her own place among the stars

Set in Nicaragua in 1984, The Stars at Noon is a story of passion, fear, and betrayal told in the voice of an American woman whose mission in Central America is as shadowy as her surroundings. Is she a reporter for an American magazine as she sometimes claims, or a contact person for Eyes of Peace? And who is the rough English businessman with whom she becomes involved? As the two foreigners become entangled in increasingly sinister plots, Denis Johnson masterfully dramatizes a powerful vision of spiritual bereavement and corruption

First published in 1935, The Stars Look Down tells the story of a North Country mining community as its inhabitants make their way through the various social and political challenges of the early 20th century. Digging into workers’ rights, social change, and the relationship between labor and capitalism, the struggles of the novel’s trifecta of protagonists — politically minded miner David Fenwick, ambitious drifter Joe Gowlan, and frustrated yet meek mining-baron’s son Arthur Barras — remain compelling and relevant to readers in the 21st century. The Stars Look Down is one of many tales of the hardships of coal-mining communities during the industrial pre-war, World War I, and interwar periods in Britain, but stands out for its unflinching prose, universal themes, and keen storytelling. The novel was adapted into a 1940 film starring Michael Redgrave as Davey Fenwick, is a New York Times Critics’ Pick, and is included in The New York Times Guide to…

The Stars My Destination (originally called Tiger! Tiger!, from William Blake's poem "The Tyger") is a science fiction novel by Alfred Bester, first published in Galaxy magazine as a 4-part serial, beginning in the October 1956 issue. The Stars My Destination is, in one sense, a science-fiction adaption of Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo. It is the study of a man completely lacking in imagination or ambition, Gulliver Foyle. Fate transforms "Gully" Foyle in an instant; shipwrecked in space, then abandoned by a passing luxury liner, Foyle becomes a monomaniacal and sophisticated monster bent upon revenge. Wearing many masks, learning many skills, this "worthless" man pursues his goals relentlessly; no price is too high to pay

The novel tells the story of Lara Cameron, a successful real estate developer who came from a broken family in Nova Scotia. Lara's mother and her male twin die during their birth and her Scottish father, who collects rents for boarding houses, doesn't want her. Early in life, she learns to fend for herself and how to get her own way in a male-dominated world. After her father's death due to a sudden heart failure, Lara takes up her father's job along with her own kitchen work in the boarding house. She meets a man called Charles Cohn who is much impressed by her. He hands her a contract for building. To acquire a fine piece of land, she makes a deal with the owner of the boarding house to secure her first building in exchange for her body. Thrilled at her success, she moves to Chicago to start her real estate empire. Even though she encounters many problems, she is able to overcome them all and become one of America's most successful businesswomen, and receives the nickname, "Iron Butterfly." She falls in love with a talented pianist, Philip Adler, and marries him. She is on the verge of losing everything she has achieved as well as the one man she loves, but the Iron Butterfly miraculously recovers from all her shattered dreams and gains back all her hopes and the only man whom she ever truly loved

He was afraid—not of the present or the future, but of the past. He was afraid of the thing tagged Reed Kieran, that stiff blind voiceless thing wheeling its slow orbit around the Moon, companion to dead worlds and silent space

Ned Maddstone has it all. He's handsome and talented; he has the love of a beautiful woman and in 1980, he stands at the brink of a glittering future. He rounds off an outstanding public school career with a sailing trip to Scotland, which is where his fortunes enter a terrifying tailspin. Determined to honour the dying wish of his sailing instructor, Ned returns to London, where the schemes of jealous classmates catapult him into a 10-year nightmare. Confined to a solitary Hell, believed dead by all those who loved him, Ned transforms from a terminally nice guy into a creature bent on revenge, a revenge both satisfying and apocalyptic. Few writers can deliver so much in one package, but here Stephen Fry combines a riotous satire of the privileged classes with elements of the darkest thrillers. While the plot bounces from the sublime to the surreal, his characters remain acutely real. Ned's classmates, slow-witted hedonist Rufus Cade, and the Machiavellian climber Ashley Barson-Garland – who is aroused by the sight of straw boaters – are masterful creations. This novel has nothing to do with tennis, and everything to do with the cruel logic of Fate. Game, set and match to Mr Fry. – Matthew Baylis

It was my second day on the ‘Red Planet’. Today I’d better find water. That had been the instructions in the box: learn to walk; find Water; make a weapon; find a nice Martian girl to teach you to speak the language. I figured that finding food would be a good idea too. It wasn’t exactly like I had expected, but how could it be? I had followed an unbelievable path to an unbelievable destination. I had started out with a few expectations, but most of them were very flexible. This wasn’t Mars, but it was Barsoom. On the one hand, I’d expected to find a dead-end and nothing to show but a few boring vacation photos of the Arizona desert. Maybe I’d get an article out of it that I could blog about. On the other hand, I’d hoped to take a one-way ticket journey to a foreign planet that teenage boys of the past century had read about; and knew was just fiction. Reality turned out to be on that ‘other hand’. I got up and started running again. Barsoom, the Red Planet of John Carter. And here I was. Today I’d better find water

It is the touching story of one starwolf. A genetically engineered race designed to help the republic survive. They have been fighting for over 50000 years and have never acheived anything but a stalemate. But the time has come. The union (The starwolves long time enemies) Have realized that humanity is on the decline and that they must make their last stand. They are fighting for the survival of their species. Which race will have what it takes to survive" and "Space opera like no other. This, along with the series to follow, was written in such a distinctive style that my friends and I sometimes refer to clever science fiction as "starwolfish." It begins fifty thousand years into a hopelessly stalemated conflict. The hero is a Starwolf, a nearly-human genetically engineered warrior. These fighters were designed millennia ago to defend Earth and nearby worlds from the oppressive Union, a corrupt collection of trade monopolies. Armed with their wits and a terribly outnumbered fleet of intelligent war, the Starwolves must keep the outer worlds of human civilization from the Union's grip. They are so bound by this cause that they cannot create their own culture, art, and civilization. The hero wants to change that, and give his people a future worth all the bloodshed. Remarkably, his counterparts in the Union are not your classic 'pure evil' cliched space opera villains. They are trying to save the beleaguered human race by giving it a common enemy, uniting to destroy the Starwolves. It is a titanic struggle, and the story is told with wit and humanity. A nice break from all the 'good guy versus bad guy' space opera stories

SUMMARY: General Khrapov, newly appointed Governor-General of Siberia and soon-to-be Minister of the Interior, is murdered in his official saloon carriage on his way from St Petersburg to Moscow.The killer, disguised as Fandorin, leaves a knife thrust up to the hilt in his victim's chest and escapes through the window of the carriage. Can Fandorin escape suspicion?A battle of wills and ideals, revolutionaries and traditionalists and good versus evil

The first ever collection of Iain Banks's short fiction, this volume includes the acclaimed novella, The State of the Art. This is a striking addition to the growing body of Culture lore, and adds definition and scale to the previous works by using the Earth of 1977 as contrast. The other stories in the collection range from science fiction to horror, dark-coated fantasy to morality tale. All bear the indefinable stamp of Iain Banks's staggering talent

From a multiple prize — winning master of the short form: a stunning collection of brand-new, linked stories that perfectly capture the zeitgeist through the voices of vivid and engaging women from adolescence to old age. From a multiple prize — winning master of the short form: a stunning collection of brand-new, linked stories that perfectly capture the zeitgeist through the voices of vivid and engaging women from adolescence to old age. “We build worlds for ourselves wherever we go,” writes Ann Beattie. The State We’re In, her magnificent new collection of linked stories, is about how we live in the places we have chosen — or been chosen by. It’s about the stories we tell our families, our friends, and ourselves, the truths we may or may not see, how our affinities unite or repel us, and where we look for love. Many of these stories are set in Maine, but The State We’re In is about more than geographical location, and certainly is not a picture postcard of the coastal state. Some characters have arrived by accident, others are trying to get out. The collection opens, closes, and is interlaced with stories that focus on Jocelyn, a wryly disaffected teenager living with her aunt and uncle while attending summer school. As in life, the narratives of other characters interrupt Jocelyn’s, sometimes challenging, sometimes embellishing her view. Riveting, witty, sly, idiosyncratic, and bold, these stories describe a state of mind, a manner of being — now. A Beattie story, says Margaret Atwood, is “like a fresh bulletin from the front: we snatch it up, eager to know what’s happening out there on the edge of that shifting and dubious no-man’s-land known as interpersonal relations.” The State We’re In is a fearless exploration of contemporary life by a brilliant writer whose fiction startles as it illuminates

"Yes sir. Well, there are three men outside trying to kill me...." "Quite right," Mr. Frendlyer said. "And today is Landing Day. You came off the ship that landed today, and have been classified a peon.... I'm happy to say that everything is in order. The Landing Day Hunt ends at sundown. You can leave here with the knowledge that everything is correct and that your rights have not been violated." "Leave here? After sundown, you mean." Mr. Frendlyer shook his head and smiled sadly. "I'm afraid not. According to the law you must leave here at once." "But they'll kill me!" "That's very true. Unfortunately it can't be helped. A victim by definition is one who is to be killed.... We protect rights, not victims." OMEGA: PRISON PLANET LIFE EXPECTANCY: THREE YEARS MAXIMUM MOST PEOPLE ARE LUCKIER THAN THAT

The Status Civilization concerns Will Barrent, a man who finds himself, without memory of any crime or, indeed, of his previous life, being shipped across space to the planet Omega. Omega, used to imprison extreme offenders, has a hierarchical society of extreme brutality, where the only way to advance (and avoid dying) is to commit an endless series of crimes. The average life expectancy from time of arrival on Omega is three years. The story concerns Barrent’s attempt to survive, escape, and return to Earth to clear himself of the accusations against him