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Review

Praise for Black Blade Blues:

“A hip, urban take on dragons and dwarves packed with great one-liners like 'Troll at two o'clock.' Add to that, a sexy blacksmith in Doc Martens. It's about time we had a fantasy heroine like Sarah Beauhall!”—Kay Kenyon, author of Bright of the Sky

“Endlessly entertaining.  A colliding mix of action and ancient myth—yet sexy with a dash of tongue-in-cheek humor.  Not to be missed!”—Barb and J.C. Hendee, authors of the Noble Dead Saga 

Product Description

Sarah Beauhall is a blacksmith, has a night job as a props manager for a low-budget movie, and spends her free time fighting in a medieval re-enactment group. Her world falls apart when she discovers that dragons are real and live among us as shapeshifters; in fact, it is they who have been the secret masters of our world from time immemorial. On top of all this, it appears that Sarah has managed to reforge an ancient sword that everyone suddenly wants...and those who don’t want the weapon want Sarah to take on her destiny and become humanity’s saviour.

As Sarah tries to make her way in this new world, she discovers just how little she knows of reality.  Fairies and dwarves and giants abound, the fault line of the Pacific Northwest is rife with ancient Norse magic. Odin himself appears with ravens at his side and cryptic advice for the fledgling heroine.  And the cherry on the sundae?  The discovery that Sarah’s girlfriend is from a family that has been battling these forces for generations and they look to Sarah as their last best hope.

What’s a girl to do when the powers of the world decide that you’re responsible for cleaning up the magical mess?

Ein Nerven zerreißender Roman um eine geheimnisvolle Femme fatale. Nora Sinclair führt ein Leben, von dem die meisten Menschen nur träumen können: ein luxuriöses Apartment in Manhattan, ein Kreis gut betuchter und einflussreicher Freunde – und bald sollen auch die Hochzeitsglocken läuten. Doch dann kommt ihr Verlobter Connor plötzlich zu Tode. Niemand ahnt, dass er ermordet wurde. Niemand außer FBI-Agent John O’Hara; und sein Verdacht fällt auf Nora ...

Review

"charmingly old-fashioned...gradually improves and deepens as it goes on."  —Fantasy Literature

"Michael Pryor is the king of steampunk for teens."  —Visual Bookshelf

"Reminiscent at times of Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, and even P. G. Wodehouse, this is a fun read for all ages." —Booklist on Heart of Gold

"Readers with some snow on the roof will fondly embrace the madcap antics and British “I say, old Chap” dialog, as it is totally reminiscent of the adventures of P.G. Wodehouse’s My Man Jeeves."  —VOYA on Heart of Gold

"Clever dialogue and a fully realized history of the fictional kingdom set the stage for at least five more titles in the Australian Laws of Magic series."  —Booklist Online on Blaze of Glory

Product Description

In the earth-shattering final book of the Laws of Magic series, Aubrey goes deep into the lair of his enemy in an attempt to save the world

Aubrey Fitzwilliam, renegade and traitor. Instead of clearing his name in Albion, Aubrey has chosen to pursue his enemy, Dr. Mordecai Tremaine, deep into the heart of enemy territory. What he uncovers in Dr. Tremaine's stronghold promises to change the course of the war and the future of humanity itself. A hideous combination of electrical science, golem manufacturing, and soul-shattering magic is bringing the world far closer to the edge of the abyss than anyone apart from Aubrey realizes. Alone, reviled, and hunted, this is Aubrey's last chance to save the world—for if he doesn't there might not be a world left to save.

Product Description

Two complete novels of the top-selling Man-Kzin Wars in one hugh volume: The Children's Hour by Jerry Pournelle and S.M. Stirling: As the war rages on between the mighty felinoid warriors from the planet Kzin and the wimpy leaf-eating monkey-boys from Earth, one Kzin commander has decided to learn from the monkeys and cooperate to conquer. But the humans know how to get the rivals of an enemy to cooperate, too. Cathouse by Dean Ing: In another corner of the galaxy, Carroll Locklear is stranded on a planet with a group of prehistoric Kzinti. To survive, he must find common cause, if not with the males, then with the females of that antiques species...

About the Author

Jerry Pournelle (right), a past winner of the John W. Campbell Award, has collaborated with Niven on numerous bestsellers. He has also written such successful solo novels as Janissaries and Starswarm. He lives in Studio City, California.

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle were the joint winners of the 2005 Robert A. Heinlein Award.

Romance can be a hairy business-especially when you're a werewolf.<

You can't runDetective Alex Cross is pulled out of a family celebration and given the awful news that a beloved relative has been found brutally murdered. Alex vows to hunt down the killer, and soon learns that she was mixed up in one of Washington's wildest scenes. And she was not this killer's only victim.You can't hideThe hunt for her murderer leads Alex and his girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, to a place where every fantasy is possible, if you have the credentials to get in. Alex and Bree are soon facing down some very important, very protected, very dangerous people in levels of society where only one thing is certain--they will do anything to keep their secrets safe. Alex Cross is your only hope to stay aliveAs Alex closes in on the killer, he discovers evidence that points to the unimaginable--a revelation that could rock the entire world. With the unstoppable action, unforeseeable twists, and edge-of-your-seat suspense that only a James Patterson thriller delivers, I, Alex Cross is the master of suspense at his sharpest and best.

Amazon.com Review

For all that it involves organized crime, naked women, grumpy bouncers, a serious snowstorm, and a hero with a profound drinking pattern, The Ice Harvest is a quiet little book--noir-ish, certainly, but never to excess. As the novel traces Charlie Arglist's trail around his small Kansas hometown on Christmas Eve, 1979, the lawyer's literal footprints are clear enough, given the whopper of a blizzard that's descended, but his metaphorical path is far less obvious. He's killing time before leaving town, but where is he going? And why?

Scott Phillips' sketch of a crooked lawyer on the lam is amusingly ironic: though there's violence aplenty in the novel--including a morbidly comic finger-breaking scene starring Spencer, a philosophical bouncer at the Sweet Cage, one of the strip clubs Charlie oversees for Bill Gerard--this is Waiting for Godot rather than Goodfellas. Phillips masterfully sets up the reader's expectations for action and adventure, dropping cryptic hints about Charlie's past, present, and future, then gleefully keeps Charlie in a holding pattern, circling from one strip club to another, from bars to massage parlors to his former in-laws' house.

But when the world isn't scripted by Beckett, all waiting games must come to an end. Charlie's gamble--it would be cheating to tell you more than that it involves a little cocaine, a beautiful woman of indeterminate origin, a Christmas package full of cash, and an embarrassing photograph--pays off, and he heads out of town. How far does he get? Well, that's another story--and another opportunity for Phillips to show off the mordant humor that may brand him as the Cohen brothers' literary heir apparent. In his hands, Kansas doesn't seem far at all from Fargo. --Kelly Flynn

From Publishers Weekly

Everywhere you look, trashy people are doing trashy things in this darkly delicious debut comic thriller. Set in the middle of a Christmas Eve blizzard in 1979 Wichita, the novel opens with lawyer-turned-petty-mobster Charlie Arglist marking time before an important meeting with his shady partner, Vic Cavanaugh. After this meeting he plans to leave Wichita hurriedly with a load of cash and, presumably, the enmity of its rightful owner, Bill Gerard, the local head of a larger regional crime syndicate. Charlie and Vic run a string of strip bars around Wichita for Gerard, from which they have been skimming cash on the sly. But Charlie, who sets out to visit all the outposts in his "empire" one last time, lets a drunken spirit of Yuletide sentimentality (or maybe spite) trigger an unprecedented (and therefore highly visible) string of improvisations. He comps some of his dancers' shakedown money, causing a riot at a club; he unwisely lets his would-be girlfriend in on one of Gerard's blackmail scams. Then he and his ex-brother-in-law crash the Christmas gathering of their cumulative ex-family, setting off a whole new string of disasters. For Charlie there is only the imminent future of his escape with Gerard's money, and it isn't until he discovers a fresh corpse buried behind Vic's empty house that he realizes that his future isn't what it used to be. Newcomer Phillips's seedy characters are skillfully developed, particularly the semiremorseful Charlie. The frigid Midwestern setting is the perfect frame for Charlie's wretched situation; the time period emphasizes the low-level viciousness of Charlie's contemporaries, and Phillips wastes no time in piling up the bodies. Charlie's final confrontation with Gerard will likely leave readers nauseated with laughterAaltogether not a bad way to debut in crime fiction. Agent, Nicole Aragi at Watkins-Loomis. Rights sold in the U.K., Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Amazon.com Review

Billionaire Palmer Lloyd is accustomed to getting what he wants--and what he wants for his new museum is the largest meteorite on earth. Unfortunately for Lloyd, it's buried on an inhospitable Chilean island just north of the Ice Limit in the most brutal, unforgiving seas in the world.

Fortunately for Lloyd, he knows people--people like Eli Glinn, the hyper-focused president of Effective Engineering Solutions, Inc.; Glinn's nonconformist, genius of a mathematician, Rachel Amira; and the uncannily able construction engineer, Manuel Garza. Lloyd's also tapped the brilliant but disgraced meteorite hunter, Sam McFarlane, and the exceptional supertanker captain, Sally Britton, whose career was unshipped by intemperance and a reef. Of course, such a team has a hefty price tag:

Lloyd's broad features narrowed. "And that is... "

"One hundred and fifty million dollars. Including chartering the transport vessel. FOB the Lloyd Museum."

Lloyd's face went pale. "My God. One hundred and fifty million... " His chin sank onto his hands. "For a ten-thousand-ton rock. That's... "

"Seven dollars and fifty cents a pound," said Glinn.

EES's plan is to obtain mining rights to the island, secure the allegiance of various Chilean functionaries via blinding sums of money, disguise a state-of- the-art supertanker as a decrepit ore rig, mine the rock, slip it into the ship, and zip back to New York to thunderous notoriety. Unforeseen, however, are a rogue Chilean naval captain, seas to make Sebastian Junger boot, and a blood-red meteorite of undetermined pedigree and a habit of discharging billions of volts of electricity for no apparent reason.

Like Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's earlier collaborations (_Relic_, Thunderhead, and others), The Ice Limit tools along swiftly, blending nicely drawn characters (excepting, regrettably, the book's true protagonist, the meteorite), a reasonably exciting narrative, and enough graspable science and plausible-seeming theories to bring readers happily up to speed and keep them climax-bound. Not the authors' best effort, certainly, but a fine diversion nonetheless. --Michael Hudson

From Publishers Weekly

The summer-beach reader has few better friends than Preston and Child, who, beginning with Relic (1995), have produced one (generally) smart and suspenseful thriller after another, most recently Thunderhead. Their new novelDwhich, like its predecessors, skirts the edge of science fictionDis their most expertly executed (though not most imaginative) entertainment yet. Its concept is high and simple: a scientific expedition plans to dig out and transport to New York harbor the mother of all meteorites from its resting spot on an icy island offshore Chile. The mission is nearly impossible: not only will the meteorite be the heaviest object ever moved by humanity, but the Chileans, if they learn of the mission, may decimate it in order to keep the meteorite. Six strong if broadly drawn characters propel the premise into action. There's bullheaded billionaire Palmer Lloyd, who funds the expedition, and three (of the many) people he hires to get the rock: world-class meteorite-hunter Sam McFarlane, disgraced for his obsession about possible interstellar meteorites; Captain Britton, disgraced alcoholic skipper hired to ferry the meteorite to the U.S.; and Eli Glinn, cold-blooded mastermind of an engineering firm dedicated to getting incredible jobs doneDthis one at the price of $300 million. There's Commandante Vallenar, a Chilean naval officer exiled to his nation's southern wastes, who will stop at nothing to defend Chile's honor and property. Finally, there's the meteoriteDblood red, impossibly dense, possessed of strange and dangerous properties. Like the premise, the plot is simple, traversing a near-linear narrative that sustains serious tension as the expedition travels to Chile, digs out the meteorite and heads homewardDonly to face both Vallenar and a ferocious storm. What the novel lacks in sophistication, it makes up for in athleticism: this is a big-boned thriller, one that will make a terrific summer movie as well as a memorable hot-day read. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A tour de force that ranks as one of the twentieth century's most remarkable feats of imaginative writing.

'Peake's books are actual additions to life; they give, like certain rare dreams, sensations we never had before, and enlarge our conception of the range of possible experience' C.S. Lewis

Enter the world of Gormenghast. The vast crumbling castle to which the seventy-seventh Earl, Titus Groan, is Lord and heir. Titus is expected to rule this Gothic labyrinth of turrets and dungeons, cloisters and corridors as well as the eccentric and wayward subject. Things are changing in the castle and Titus must contend with a kingdom about to implode beneath the weight of centuries of intrigue, treachery, manipulation and murder.

SUMMARY: Wyman Ford is tapped for a secret expedition to Cambodia... to locate the source of strangely beautiful gemstones that do not appear to be of this world. A brilliant meteor lights up the Maine coast...and two young women borrow a boat and set out for a distant island to find the impact crater. A scientist at the National Propulsion Facility discovers an inexplicable source of gamma rays in the outer Solar System. He is found decapitated, the data missing. High resolution NASA images reveal an unnatural feature hidden in the depths of a crater on Mars...and it appears to have been activated. Sixty hours and counting.<

From Publishers Weekly

"Riflewoman Perini refreshes romantic suspense with an unusual protagonist: Jasmine “Jazz” Parker, lead sniper for the Jefferson County, Colo., sheriff’s SWAT team. Jazz lives by her mother’s dying advice never to let anyone into her own heart, so this Amazonian beauty holds back from the easy camaraderie of her team, just as two years earlier she halted a steamy romance with former army ranger and journalist Luke Montgomery. Jazz’s tightly held secrets make her the target of jealous rivals in the sheriff’s office, and a psychotic stalker from her excruciating childhood also makes an appearance. As she struggles to overcome these difficulties, she also battles her raging lust for super-sexy Luke. Perini convincingly ratchets up the pace of Jazz’s tribulations with high-tech armament and high-heat passion before the independent, no-nonsense heroine predictably signs on to be Luke’s partner, friend, lover, and wife." --Publishers Weekly

Review

"Debut author Robin Perini's first book, IN HER SIGHTS is a riveting, tightly-paced story about a female sharpshooter with a Colorado SWAT team who has a lot to prove and even more to hide. The romance was as hot as the suspense was gripping. I can't wait to see more from this amazing new author." - Sharon Sala, New York Times Best-selling author*

* "Great romantic suspense is a balance between aching emotion and violence's hard edge. Tip one way or the other and the story will miss its mark. IN HER SIGHTS, by Robin Perini delivers an emotional wallop, but never gets too soft. She keeps the pace urgent, the tension buzzing, the characters sharp, and the emotion building until the novel's explosive end. When it comes to romantic suspense, Robin Perini places her shots skillfully and hits her target square."
--Ann Voss Peterson, nationally bestselling author of nearly 30 thrillers and romantic thrillers, including FLEE, co-written with JA Konrath.

Robin Perini will keep you perched on the edge of your seat. Danger, excitement and romance...everything a reader craves!" - Brenda Novak, New York Times Bestselling Author

"This riveting book will keep readers on the edge of their seats and surprise them at the end. The tightly woven plot, quick pace and complex characters make for a remarkable read." --RT Reviews, 4 1/2 stars