449 results for "Fantasy"

Mindwar

Andrew Klavan
In the tradition of Ready Player One and The Matrix, New York Times bestseller Andrew Klavan's MindWar is a complex thriller about a seemingly ordinary teenager who discovers a hidden gift--a gift that could make him a hero . . . or cost him everything. New High Score! New Record Time! Rick nodded with grim satisfaction. He laid the game controller aside on the sofa and reached for his crutches. Rick Dial was the best quarterback Putnam Hills High School had ever seen. Unflappable. Unstoppable. Number 12. But when a car accident left him crippled, Rick's life as he knew it ended. He disavowed his triumphant past. He ignored his girlfriend. He disappeared into his bedroom--and into the glowing video screen. But Rick's uncanny gaming skills have attracted attention. Dangerous attention. Government agents have uncovered a potentially devastating cyber-threat: a Russian genius has created a digital reality called the Realm, from which he can enter, control, and disrupt American computer systems . . . from transportation to defense. The agents want Rick, quick-thinking quarterback and gaming master, to enter the Realm and stop the madman--before he sends America into chaos. Entering the Realm will give Rick what he thought he'd never have again: a body as strong and fast as it was before the accident. But this is no game, there are no extra lives, and what happens to Rick in the Realm happens to Rick's body in reality. Even after Rick agrees to help, he can't shake the sense that he's being kept in the dark. Why would a government agency act so aggressively? Can anyone inside the Realm be trusted? How many others have entered before him . . . and failed to return? "Edgar Award-winning Klavan's well-orchestrated fantasy thriller features . . . an imaginative mix of gaming action with real-life stakes. With just the right cliff-hanger ending, this trilogy opener shows promise." --Booklist Readers love MindWar's creative worldbuilding, high-stakes virtual reality battleground, relatable protagonist, and themes of morality, inner strength, redemption after personal failure, and good vs. evil.
Thomas Nelson 2015-03-17 336 pages

The four profound weaves

Lemberg, R. B.
"Wind: To match one's body with one's heart. Sand: To take the bearer where they wish. Song: In praise of the goddess Bird. Bone: To move unheard in the night. The Surun' do not speak of the master weaver, Benesret, who creates the cloth of bone for assassins in the Great Burri Desert. But Uiziya now seeks her aunt Benesret in order to learn the final weave, although the price for knowledge may be far too dear to pay. Among the Khana, women travel in caravans to trade, while men remain in the inner quarter as scholars. A nameless man struggles to embody Khana masculinity, after many years of performing the life of a woman, trader, wife, and grandmother. As the past catches up to the nameless man, he must choose between the life he dreamed of and Uiziya, and Uiziya must discover how to challenge a tyrant, and weave from deaths that matter."--Provided by publisher.
Tachyon Publications 2020-09 175 pages

Duckling Ugly

Neal Shusterman
Cara is so ugly, mirrors would rather break than show her reflection. Not even her own parents can deny her ugliness, and nothing can make up for the cruelty of her schoolmates. Tormented and tortured by the shallow people of Flock’s Rest, Cara’s life is miserable. Then Cara receives a shimmering note from some exotic place suggesting that there’s more to her than meets the eye. Cara wonders if her destiny has something to do with her recurring dreams of a beautiful green valley where the people are so accepting, her ugliness doesn’t matter. Soon, Cara discovers that her valley of dreams is real. It’s a place where the ugliest of ducklings can become swans. A swan, however, can have a serious taste for revenge . . . deadly revenge.
Penguin Young Readers Group 2007-04-05 224 pages

Riese Kingdom Falling

Greg Cox,Ryan Copple,Kaleena Kiff
A steampunk princess is torn between love and duty in this prequel to SyFy.com’s wildly popular webisodes. Riese has never been happy as a princess; she’d much rather be hunting or fighting than sitting through another lesson on court etiquette. When she meets Micah, a wandering artist with a mysterious past, she pretends to be a peasant—it’s a chance to be just a normal girl with a normal boy for a while. But with war decimating her once-proud nation and the sinister clockwork Sect infiltrating her mother’s court, Riese’s moments with Micah are the only islands of sanity left in a world gone mad. As her kingdom falls and the Sect grows ever stronger, will Riese remain true to her duty as a princess…or risk everything on a boy she barely knows? SyFy’s enormously popular Riese webisodes come to literary life in this prequel rife with steampunk technology and medieval mysticism.
Simon and Schuster 2013-06-11 288 pages

The Golden Shrine

Harry Turtledove
Continuing the alternate-Bronze-Age epic begun in Harry Turtledove's Beyond the Gap: The glaciers came and covered the world with ice. Now they are in retreat. North of the city of Nidaros, north of the forest, north of the steppes where the nomadic Bizogots hunt, a gap has opened in the ice-wall. And down through that gap come the men who call themselves "Rulers." Their terrifying cavalry rides wooly mammoths. Their bows can shoot arrows farther than those of the southerners. Their wizards wield power that neither the shamans of the Bizogots nor the wizards of Raumsdalian Empire can match, a magic that can melt the stone beneath a man's feet, call down blasting fire from the sky, or decimate a tribe with plagues that have no cure. Scattered survivors of the Bizogot tribes hide from the Rulers. The Empire is shattered. The feckless Emperor Sigvat II is in hiding. Against the Rulers stands Count Hamnet Thyssen and his small band of friends. Jarl Trasamund of the Three Tusk Bizogots. The adventurer Ulric Skakki. And, most important, Marcovefa, the female shaman of a cannibal tribe that lives atop the Glacier itself. Marcovefa has magic that the Rulers cannot counter. But there are many Rulers, and they have many wizards. Marcovefa is but one. Perhaps Hamnet and his allies can save their lands from the Rulers. But first they must seek out the legendary Golden Shrine – and the Golden Shrine has not been seen by human eyes since the time before the glaciers came.
Macmillan 2010-11-02 438 pages

Opening Atlantis

Harry Turtledove
Atlantis lies between Europe and the East Coast of Terranova. For many years, this land of opportunity lured dreamers from around the globe with its natural resources, offering a new beginning for those willing to brave the wonders of the unexplored territory. It is a new world indeed: ripe for discovery, for plunder, and eventually for colonization?but will its settlers destroy the very wonders they had journeyed to Atlantis to find?
National Geographic Books 2008-12-02 528 pages

Salamis

Harry Turtledove
"all will be impressed by Turtledove's immersive ancient world." − Publishers Weekly A new novel by one of the most acclaimed writers of alternate history in the world; a New York Times bestselling author who has been crowned as 'the Master of Alternate History' by Publisher Weekly and has won virtually every major award associated with the genre. Salamis is the fifth (standalone) novel in Harry Turtledove's critically acclaimed Hellenic Traders universe, detailing the adventures of two cousins, Menedemos and Sostratos, who work as seaborne traders following the death of Alexander the Great. This time the stage is one of the greatest sea battles ever fought in ancient times; the Battle of Salamis of 306 BC . The small, free, and independent polis of Rhodes is trying to stay neutral between the local great powers, each ruled by one of Alexander the Great's marshals: Asia Minor, controlled by one-eyed Antigonos, and Egypt, under the rule of Ptolemaios. As tensions between the great powers escalate, Menedemos and Sostratos are trying to resolve their own problems, oblivious to the fact that one of the greatest navel fleets in ancient history is about to set sail. Ptolemaios, needing shipping to carry weapons for the army he intends to land, coerces Menedemos into bringing their ship, the Aphrodite , along as part of his expeditionary force. And so, very much against their will, Menedemos and Sostratos become small parts of one of the ancient world's most significant naval battles.
CAEZIK 2020 268 pages

Over the Wine-Dark Sea

Harry Turtledove
Menedemos, the young dashing sea captain, and his helper, the scholarly Sostratos, are sea-traders from the Greek island of Rhodes. Fearless sailors, they will travel any distance to make a profit or to search for rich treasures. *** While they trade in fineries such as wine and silk (and even, to the chagrin of many, peacocks), they live in dangerous times with pirates, thieves and barbarians. As if avoiding death by the hands of these miscreants isn't enough (particularly the barbarians from an obscure town called Rome), they are also caught between the political intrigues of Alexander's former generals.
Arc Manor 2013-09 340 pages

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017

Leigh Bardugo,Dale Bailey,Helena Bell,Genevieve Valentine,E. Lily Yu,Debbie Urbanski,Nisi Shawl,Alexander Weinstein,Jeremiah Tolbert,Catherynne M. Valente,A. Merc Rustad,Greg Van Eekhout,Peter S. Beagle,Brian Evenson,N. K. Jemisin,Caroline M. Yoachim,Alice Sola Kim,Nick Wolven,Joseph Allen Hill
"This volume showcases the nuanced, playful, ever-expanding definitions of the genre and celebrates its current renaissance." --Washington Post Science fiction and fantasy can encompass so much, from far-future deep-space sagas to quiet contemporary tales to unreal kingdoms and beasts. But what the best of these stories do is the same across the genres--they illuminate the whole gamut of the human experience, interrogating our hopes and our fears. With a diverse selection of stories chosen by series editor John Joseph Adams and guest editor Charles Yu, The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017 continues to explore the ever-expanding and changing world of SFF today, with Yu bringing his unique view--literary, meta, and adventurous--to the series' third edition.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2017 345 pages

Alien Sex 19 Tales by the Masters of Science Fiction and Dark Fantasy

Harlan Ellison,Pat Murphy,Larry Niven
"In these 19 evocative pieces of short fiction, best-selling and award-winning writers tackle such intriguing issues as sex by telepathy, the pick-up scene on other planets, and making love with Superman. Thought-provoking, often shocking, always entertaining, 'Alien Sex' daringly explores those barriers between men and women that can make them seem so 'alien' to one another. probing the current and future state, shape, and complex problems of the human male/female relationship, this fantastic collection will make you think about sex in a whole new way."--Pg. [4] of cover.
Roc 1992 317 pages

Oliver's Story

Erich Segal
The sequel to the phenomenal national bestseller and enduring classic Love Story. Can the love of your life appear twice in a lifetime? Oliver Barrett IV found his soulmate in Jenny Cavilleri. Their love was magical and exhilarating...and though heartbreakingly brief, it was a love to last a lifetime. Two years have passed since Jenny was taken from him, and Oliver believes he will never love again. Then one day, Marcie--beautiful and mysterious--enters his world and suddenly the future holds new promise. From the running track in New York's Central Park to the hushed executive suites of a mightly department store empire, from a snowy Massachusetts Christmas to a shattering moment of turth in exotic Hong Kong--the story of Oliver Barrett IV is a story of passion and principle, of a young man's journey out of sadness, into love.
HarperCollins Publishers 2020-02-04 272 pages

Magic A Novel

William Goldman
“One of those can’t-put-it-down-until-the-last-page-is-turned monsters that has readers all over the country missing sleep.”— Minneapolis Tribune Corky is a brilliant entertainer with a bright future ahead of him. He has good looks, many women, and enormous talent. He also had a secret and a certainty: a secret that must be hidden from his public at all costs; and a certainty that the dark forces of magic were out to destroy him. “Fascinating . . . This dazzling psychological thriller cannot be put down! . . . The most imaginative and enjoyable novel I've read since Marathon Man. . . . [A] bizarre journey into the world of illusion.”— St. Louis Post-Dispatch “Kept me up half the night. . . . A brilliantly alarming novel!”— Cosmopolitan
Random House Publishing Group 1978-09-15 256 pages

The Season to Be Wary

Rod Serling
The Season To Be wary is unique in that it is one of the first examples of Rod Serling publishing stories he created first in narrative form. This collection of three novellas provides poignant insights into the human condition with all its' moral and ethical dilemmas. Of the three, Escape Route and Eyes were included in the pilot for The Night Gallery, with the latter starring Joan Crawford and directed by new comer, Steven Spielberg. Darkly disturbing, these stories remain relevant today.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 2014-01-18 220 pages

Little Nothing

Marisa Silver
In an unnamed country at the beginning of the last century, a child called Pavla is born to peasant parents. Her arrival, fervently anticipated and conceived in part by gypsy tonics and archaic prescriptions, stuns her parents and brings outrage and scorn from her community. Pavla has been born a dwarf, beautiful in face, but as the years pass, she grows no farther than the edge of her crib. When her parents turn to the treatments of a local charlatan, his terrifying cure opens the floodgates of persecution for Pavla. "Little Nothing" unfolds across a lifetime of unimaginable, magical transformation in and out of human form, as an outcast girl becomes a hunted woman whoseultimate survival depends on the most startling transfiguration of them all. Woven throughout is the journey of Danilo, the young man entranced by Pavla, obsessed only with protecting her. Part allegory about the shifting nature of being, part subversive fairy tale of love in all its uncanny guises, "Little Nothing" spans the beginning of a new century, the disintegration of ancient superstitions, and the adoption of industry and invention. With a cast of remarkable characters, a wholly original story, and extraordinary, page-turning prose, Marisa Silver delivers a novel of sheer electricity."
Thorndike Press 2016 417 pages