"In 2008, a cheerful ambulance-chasing lawyer named Jay Shenk persuades the grieving Keener family to sue a private LA hospital. Their son Wesley has been transformed by a routine surgery into a kind of golem, absent all normal functioning or personality, walking in endless empty circles around his hospital room. In 2019, Shenk - still in practice but a shell of his former self - is hired to defend Wesley Keener's father when he is charged with murder . . . the murder, as it turns out, of the expert witness from the 2008 hospital case. Shenk's adopted son, a fragile teenager in 2008, is a wayward adult, though he may find his purpose when he investigates what really happened to the murdered witness. Two thrilling trials braid together, medical malpractice and murder, jostling us back and forth in time. The Quiet Boy is a book full of mysteries, not only about the death of a brilliant scientist, not only about the outcome of the medical malpractice suit, but about the relationship between children and their parents, between the past and the present, between truth and lies. At the center of it all is Wesley Keener, endlessly walking, staring empty-eyed, in whose quiet, hollow body may lie the fate of humankind."--Publisher.

By encouraging massive accumulations of debt from its underclass, a single corporation, Caerus, controls all aspects of society. Inesa lives with her brother in a half-sunken town where they scrape by running a taxidermy shop. Unbeknownst to Inesa, their cruel and indolent mother has accrued an enormous debt, enough to qualify one of her children for Caerus's livestreamed assassination spectacle : the Lamb's Gauntlet. Melinoe is a Caerus assassin, trained to track and kill the sacrificial Lambs. The product of neural reconditioning and physiological alteration, she is a living weapon, known for her cold brutality and deadly beauty. She has never failed to assassinate one of her marks. When Inesa learns that her mother has offered her as a sacrifice, at first she despairs, the Gauntlet is always a bloodbath for the impoverished debtors. But she's had years of practice surviving in the apocalyptic wastes, and with the help of her hunter brother she might stand a chance of staying alive. For Melinoe, this is a game she can't afford to lose. Despite her reputation for mercilessness, she is haunted by painful flashbacks. After her last Gauntlet, where she broke down on livestream, she desperately needs redemption. As Mel pursues Inesa across the wasteland, both girls begin to question everything : Inesa wonders if there's more to life than survival, while Mel wonders if she's capable of more than killing. And both wonder if, against all odds, they might be falling in love.

The winner of a Nebula and three Hugos invites readers to view his gallery of very unusual portraits--some bizarre, some touching, all unforgettable. Martin is well-known for his television writing for such programs as The Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast.

Signet / New American Library, 1977. Paperback original novel, 1st edition. A tale of a world where children must choose the gender they are to become, and one child's decision may decide her world's fate. Nominated for the Nebula Award.

Number 47, a fourteen-year-old slave boy growing up under the watchful eye of a brutal master in 1832, meets the mysterious Tall John, who introduces him to a magical science and also teaches him the meaning of freedom.

Nicholas races against time to save Jeremy, the brother with whom he shares a mysterious psychic bond, and stop the evil forces emanating from the Silver Citadel

What does a writer who produced two hundred books do with his spare time? If his name is Isaac Asimov, he writes - on any and every subject of interest to his fertile mind. Informative, amusing, timely, and provocative - OPUS 200 is Asimov at his sparkling best in selections carefully culled from his second hundred books. Drawing on novels (which have won both the Hugo and Nebula awards), on short stories, serious essays, and on children's books, Asimov addresses himself to everything from Black Holes to biblical Canaan. Here is a taste of the intelligence, the craftsmanship, and the ingenuity that have made Issac Asimov the most prolific writer of science fiction in the world.

In a society where lies are law, a simple act of honesty can become the ultimate rebellion. When does silent compliance with an oppressive regime become unbearable? For Charlie Simpkins, the manager of a small vegetable shop in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, part of the West Coast People's Democratic Republic, the breaking point comes when he is asked to display a meaningless propaganda poster in his shop window. It is a seemingly insignificant act in a lifetime of obedience. But Charlie just can't bring himself to doing it. This minor act of defiance, however, show too much independent thinking on Charlie's part, setting off a chain of escalating consequences for Charlie and his wife and two children. Powerless is a haunting dystopian tale of how even the smallest act of defiance can spiral into disaster in a society that demands total conformity. It serves as a chilling reminder of how easily standing up for one's principles can lead to crushing consequences, erringly echoing the challenges we face today for speaking our truth, even in societies that claim to uphold freedom. While the novel draws original inspiration from Alexander Dubček's 1968 vision of "socialism with a human face" in Czechoslovakia (the reformist movement sought to humanize authoritarian rule), it will resonate with many who fear that individual freedoms are under attack in many parts of the world. In Powerless, Charlie Simpkins' growing disillusionment mirrors the psychological toll experienced by many today as political stress and uncertainty become ever more pervasive. As Charlie seeks out others who share his dissatisfaction, his increasingly deliberate and risky actions symbolize the quiet acts of defiance that offer hope and resistance in a society where the powerful suppress dissent. Powerless serves as a poignant reminder of the consequences that can arise when standing up for one's principles in an environment that demands conformity.​

Joseph has always had such good luck that his nickname is Lucky. Tomorrow, he is going to turn thirteen on the thirteenth of the month. He's the thirteenth child in a family with thirteen kids...and both of his parents are also thirteenth children. With so many thirteens, his luck is bound to run out! An old man and a woman with a black cat visit Lucky to warn him that he has too many thirteens in his life. And if he collects thirteen thirteens by midnight on his birthday, he'll unleash evil spirits. Almost as soon as the old man and the woman leave, the bad luck begins. And the thirteens just keep coming: the thirteen doughnuts his teacher gives him, the thirteen he scores on his pop math quiz, the thirteen barks from his normally quiet dog. Now Lucky is driving himself crazy adding up everything he comes across. Can he break the curse of thirteen in time? Clever and fun, The 13th Warning is certain to spook young readers.

Noah Prime must set out to save his friends and the universe once again in this action-packed, alien-filled, hilarious novel in the New York Times bestselling The N.O.A.H. Files series. Noah Prime never expected to wind up a fugitive hunted by aliens. To be honest, he had never even believed in aliens...until a team of them blew up his house. He escaped--and managed to save the world--by using his mysterious ability to harness the traits of every animal on earth. Now he's in hiding, and thinks all is well.... ...Until his friend Ogden buys a star for Claire, the most popular girl in school. However, instead of a quaint romantic notion, it turns out to be an actual real estate deal--and aliens from that star system abduct Claire to take her to the nasty, trash-filled planet she now owns. It's up to Noah, Sahara, and Ogden to cross the cosmos in search of Claire to save her and her strange new world from the evilest body-snatching worms in the galaxy. This time it's going to take a lot more than walrus blubber, cheetah speed, or skunk funk to save the day...it's going to take friendship of the most extraordinary and extraterrestrial variety. Read all The N.O.A.H. Files: I Am the Walrus Shock the Monkey The Dog Days Are Over

Home alone Victor stays up late, visits the zoo, enjoys pizza with anchovies, and finally becomes one of the few people who know about a community of intelligent lizards which appears to have arrived from another planet

Two girls become fast friends practicing witchcraft together. Just when they think they've perfected their special flying potion, Jennifer and Elizabeth quarrel over the main ingredient. Will it take a magic spell to make them friends again? A Newbery Medal winner.

Two sixth-grade boys try to control their teacher's mind, but find their project getting out of hand when serious things start happening to her.

A rock 'n' roll band to die for.... When fourteen year old Callie McCallan scores a backstage pass to interview the lead singer of the famous band Brass Rat, she's thrilled. Peter Gringras is so cool. When he plays his flute, it's as if he has some kind of hypnotic power. But there is something strange about him, something Callie can't quite put her finger on. Then, on Halloween night, Callie's little brother Nicky disappears, along with all the other children in town. It's crazy, but Callie thinks she knows where the children have gone--and who took them. To prove it, and to rescue Nicky and the other children, Callie must journey to a mythical world filled with fantastical creatures. A world from which there may be no return....

Stories involving a variety of monstrous and inconspicuous, fantastic and apparently normal mutations explore the possible consequences of variously caused genetic changes in living creatures

"This book considers the development of science fiction for children and teens between 1950 and 2010, exploring why it differs from science fiction aimed at adults. In a broader sense, this examination of 400 texts sheds light on changing attitudes toward children and teenagers, toward science education, and toward the authors' expectations and sociological views of their audience"--Provided by publisher.

Maris of Amberly, a fisherman's daughter, challenges the tradition that only the legitimate children of fliers be allowed to enter the elite ranks of those chosen to carry news between the islands of Windhaven by means of metal wings, but her victory threatens to tear apart the very structure she so wanted to join.

David Gerrold is an American science fiction author who started his career in 1966 while a college student by submitting an unsolicited story outline for the television series Star Trek. He was invited to submit several premises, and the one chosen by Star Trek was filmed as "The Trouble with Tribbles" and became one of the most popular episodes of the original series. Gerrold's novelette "The Martian Child" won both Hugo and Nebula awards. The Star Wolf series of novels by David Gerrold is centered on the star ship Star Wolf and its crew: Voyage of the Star Wolf (1990), The Middle of Nowhere (1995), Blood and Fire (2004), and Yesterday's Children (1972) which is actually an earlier novel that features the same main character, later significantly expanded and republished as Starhunt (1985)—it occurs prior to the other novels in the series' main continuity. The Star Wolf is a "Liberty Ship," officially designated the LS-1187. Plagued by misfortune throughout the series, without any confirmed kills to its credit, it was denied a name by Command. Gerrold had planned to develop this concept into a TV series. The later novels were written after the TV concept had been presented. The Star Wolf series reflects Gerrold's contention that, due to the distances involved, space battles would be more like submarine hunts than the dogfights usually portrayed—in most cases the ships doing battle wouldn't even be able to see each other. Gerrold referred to the concept as "World War II in space," and intended it as a stylistic opposite of Star Trek (particularly its "Next Generation" incarnation) by setting the main characters on a small, dingy spacecraft that had little respect in the fleet rather than on the flagship. Tales of the Star Wolf includes Voyage of the Star Wolf, The Middle of Nowhere, and Blood and Fire.

"January fifteenth - the day all Americans receive their annual Universal Basic Income payment. For Hannah, a middle-aged mother, today is the anniversary of the day she took her two children and fled her abusive ex-wife. For Janelle, a young, broke journalist, today is another mind- numbing day interviewing passersby about the very policy she once opposed. For Olivia, a wealthy college freshman, today is 'Waste Day', when rich kids across the country compete to see who can most obscenely squander the government's money. For Sarah, a pregnant teen, today is the day she'll journey alongside her sister-wives to pick up the payments that undergird their community - and perhaps embark on a new journey altogether. In this near-future science fiction novella by Rachel Swirsky, the fifteenth of January is another day of the status quo, and another chance at making lasting change."--