"What if an empire of Jewish warriors that really existed in the Middle Ages had never fallen--and was the only thing standing between Hitler and his conquest of Russia? Eastern Europe, August 1942. The Khazar kaganate, an isolated nation of Turkic warrior Jews, lies between the Pontus Euxinus (the Black Sea) and the Khazar Sea (the Caspian). It also happens to lie between a belligerent nation to the west that the Khazars call Germania--and a city the rest of the world calls Stalingrad. After years of Jewish refugees streaming across the border from Europa, fleeing the war, Germania launches its siege of Khazaria. Only Esther, the daughter of the nation's chief policy adviser, sees the ominous implications of Germania's disregard for Jewish lives. Only she realizes that this isn't just another war but an existential threat. After witnessing the enemy warplanes' first foray into sovereign Khazar territory, Esther knows she must fight for her country. But as the elder daughter in a traditional home, her urgent question is how. Before daybreak one fateful morning, she embarks on a perilous journey across the open steppe. She seeks a fabled village of Kabbalists who may hold the key to her destiny: their rumored ability to change her into a man so that she may convince her entire nation to join in the fight for its very existence against an enemy like none Khazaria has ever faced before. The Book of Esther is a profound saga of war, technology, mysticism, power, and faith. This novel--simultaneously a steampunk Joan of Arc and a genre-bending tale of a counterfactual Jewish state by a writer who invents worlds "out of Calvino or Borges" (The New Yorker)--is a stunning achievement. Reminiscent of Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union and Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, The Book of Esther reaffirms Barton's place as one of her generation's most gifted storytellers"--

· Reimagines the Epic of Gilgamesh in the context of Sitchin's discoveries · Details ancient Sumerian sex rituals, the Anunnaki lineage of the gods who lived in Sumer, Anunnaki spacecraft technology, the workings of the Oracle of Anu and Gilgamesh's relationship with the goddess IshtarRetelling the Epic of Gilgamesh in the context of his discoveries about the Anunnaki, Zecharia Sitchin weaves a ta[Bokinfo]

Classic comic book titles from the past inspire fully painted Marvel masterworks featuring some of the world's greatest heroes! When a sadistic killer who claims to be descended from Loki goes on the rampage, it will take three Avengers to face a mad Viking - Hank Pym, the Wasp and the Hulk! Things take a turn for the monstrous in stories featuring Doctor Strange, the Thing, Human Torch and Nick Fury! And old friends Captain America and Iron Man are recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. to stop a deadly new terror threat using Stark technology! Celebrate the heroic legacy of the Marvel Age of Comics with these strange tales of suspense guaranteed to astonish! COLLECTING: TALES TO ASTONISH (1994) 1, STRANGE TALES (1994) 1, TALES OF SUSPENSE (1995) 1

The twentieth century was awash in war. World powers were pouring men and machines onto the killing fields of Europe. Then, in one dramatic stroke, a divided planet was changed forever. An alien race attacked Earth, and for every nation, every human being, new battle lines were drawn. . HOMEWARD BOUND With his epic novels of alternate history, Harry Turtledove shares a stunning vision of what might have been–and what might still be–if one moment in history were changed. In the WorldWar and Colonization series, an ancient, highly advanced alien species found itself locked in a bitter struggle with a distant, rebellious planet–Earth. For those defending the Earth, this all-out war for survival supercharged human technology, made friends of foes, and turned allies into bitter enemies. For the aliens known as the Race, the conflict has yielded dire consequences. Mankind has developed nuclear technology years ahead of schedule, forcing the invaders to accept an uneasy truce with nations that possess the technology to defend themselves. But it is the Americans, with their primitive inventiveness, who discover a way to launch themselves through distant space–and reach the Race’s home planet itself. Now–in the twenty-first century–a few daring men and women embark upon a journey no human has made before. Warriors, diplomats, traitors, and exiles–the humans who arrive in the place called Home find themselves genuine strangers on a strange world, and at the center of a flash point with terrifying potential. For their arrival on the alien home world may drive the enemy to make the ultimate decision–to annihilate an entire planet, rather than allow the human contagion to spread. It may be that nothing can deter them from this course. With its extraordinary cast of characters–human, nonhuman, and some in between– Homeward Bound is a fascinating contemplation of cultures, armies, and individuals in collision. From the novelist USA Today calls “the leading author of alternate history,” this is a novel of vision, adventure, and constant, astounding surprise.

George is in charge of taking care of his friend's tadpoles, and he knows just what to do! He takes them out for some exercise in the pond, but what will he do when they don't return A perfect book for early readers on the concept of metamorphosis. Curious George's friend Bill has put him in charge of several tadpoles. George sends the tadpoles for a nice swim in the lagoon, but to his dismay, the tadpoles don't return! Each time he goes back to the lake he tries to find the tadpoles, but he finds only tadpole-like creatures without tails . . . and with legs. A trip to the museum teaches George about the development of tadpoles into frogs, and he and Bill are happy to make the acquaintance of their new froggy friends! The animated series Curious George is available to watch on Peacock, NBC Universal's streaming platform.

" What if time could be taken from us-the minutes, the hours, the years of our lives, extracted like organs taken for transplant? What would it mean for the world? And what would it do to the person from whom it's taken? Grace Berney is a mid-level bureaucrat in the Food and Drug Administration, a woman who once brimmed with purpose but somehow turned into a middle-aged single mom with a dull government job and a melancholy sense that life has passed her by. Until the night a strange photo comes across her desk, of a young woman in a hospital bed who has been subjected to a mysterious procedure. Against orders and against common sense, Grace sets out to bring the girl to safety, and finds herself risking her job, her future, and her life on whether she can find the missing girl before an obsessive and violent mercenary who's also looking. Big Time is a fast-paced thriller and a metaphysical mystery about the very nature of our lives." -- Amazon.

The third in a series of superb science fiction. The Alpha series of anthologies center on no particular theme except that of literary quality. Two criteria were used in the selecting of these stories-literary merit and importance to the genre. The result is that the variety of subjects is matched only by the richness and diversity of their handling-brilliant, frightening, clever, bizarre, powerful, witty, funny-and several steps in-between. Simply put, here is the best science fiction from the best science fiction writers. The main intent of the Alpha series is to assemble groups of stories that give pleasure by demonstrating the richness and variety of the science-fiction form. Quality of storytelling is the touchstone; I make no effort to gather the stories in any one volume according to any thematic pattern. Yet thematic patterns seem to creep into the books like insidious invaders from far galaxies. The first Alpha contained a cluster of tales dealing with travel through time-relativity gone topsy-turvy all over the book. The second volume, through no prior intent of the editor, seemed to deal almost entirely with the tensions arising out of man's confrontation with technology. And in this third one, I find, a prevailing theme in nearly every story is the conflict between ourselves and strangers. Again and again, through some odd accident of balance, you will find tales of tense encounters, showing protagonists facing the unknown quantities of time and space. Freud tells us that nothing ever happens by accident. Perhaps so. These anthologies are not assembled in a random process, and no doubt the editor's mind serves as a thematic filter in ways that are not clear to the editor himself except in hindsight. And one can reasonably object that virtually every good science-fiction story deals in meetings with the unknown, so that the supposed theme detected here is no true theme at all, but only a universal characteristic of the genre. In any event, here are ten outstanding stories. I think they achieve what is for me the basic science-fiction accomplishment: they show the reader visions he has not previously had, and send him away transformed and enlarged. Go thou and read. Go and be changed.

MORE DEADLY THAN THE MALE Millionaire industrialist Tony Stark has rejected the lucrative munitions trade that put his company on the map. But he can’t just turn away when the antiterror organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D. asks him for help in its battle against the sinister forces of HYDRA. As the next step in its quest for global domination, the international terrorist cabal is plotting to use cutting-edge technology in a devastating attack on New York City. The source of their advanced weaponry: Stark Industries. Against such fearsome firepower, the city’s only hope lies with the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and with the ultimate human weapon: the golden avenger known as Iron Man. But when the man behind the metal mask falls prey to the schemes of two tantalizing temptresses, both as stunning and seductive as they are lethal, a fatal chink in his armor is revealed–a flaw that could lead to his downfall and the city’s doom.

A witty, heartwarming, and heart-wrenching epistolary novel, soon to be a major motion picture starring James Caan, Rosanna Arquette, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, about a dysfunctional family--led by a Jewish pig farmer in Israel--struggling to love and accept each other. As comic as it is deeply moving, Holy Lands chronicles several months in the lives of an estranged family of colorful eccentrics. Harry Rosenmerck is an aging Jewish cardiologist who has left his thriving medical practice in New York--to raise pigs in Israel. His ex-wife, Monique, ruminates about their once happy marriage even as she quietly battles an aggressive illness. Their son, David, an earnest and successful playwright, has vowed to reconnect with his father since coming out. Annabelle, their daughter, finds herself unmoored in Paris in the aftermath of a breakup. Harry eschews technology, so his family, spread out around the world, must communicate with him via snail mail. Even as they grapple with challenges, their correspondence sparkles with levity. They snipe at each other, volleying quips across the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and Europe, and find joy in unexpected sources. Holy Lands captures the humor and poignancy of an adult family striving to remain connected across time, geography, and radically different perspectives on life.

America, the not-too-distant future. Citizens are indefinitely contracted to megacorporations in a system that is slavery in everything but name. Sundra Glassgarden, one of the enslaved, can't take it anymore. To change her fate, she steals a time machine with the goal of killing the mother of Octavio Velez, the charismatic president who created this nightmare. Meanwhile, in 1979, Archie London, a pugilistic cop-turned-private eye, is on his own messianic mission in decrepit New York, single-handedly battling a gang he believes is a threat to life itself.Along the way, Archie stumbles upon the most remarkable woman he has ever met: 21-year-old Lolita Velez. Waiting for Lolita-and love-struck Archie-is Sundra, hell-bent on freeing her future by undoing the past. Demolition Night is a satirical yet haunting novel about love and fate and technology's grim promise, about the sibilating streets of New York and the utopias we can never have-and why we keep struggling anyway.

On the planet Pyrrus, human colonists have fought a centuries-old war with the native life forms. These life forms adapt to human tactics and technology, evolving new species so rapidly that natives returning from even brief trips off planet must be carried in protective armor canisters from their ship to the safe buildings, where they will learn of the latest deadly threats. "The Ethical Engineer" is the second volume in the DEATHWORLD series. It was originally published as a two-part serial in ANALOG magazine in 1963.

Kevin is a thirtysomething homebody, happily committed to his hydroponics-expert girlfriend, Amber, as they grow weed in their basement in Vancouver. Out of the blue, Amber announces that she has been selected for a reality show where she will compete for one of two seats on the first human-led mission to Mars. If selected, she must stay on Mars for good, because the technology to come home doesn'[Bokinfo]

Judge Milton Handelsman to young attorney Reginald Rashad: "You are standing on the threshhold of a new Age. The Age of the lawyer. In our grand and glorious history this nation has seen industry after industry rise and thrive. Railroads! Coal! Oil! Shipping! Electric power! The automobile! Broadcasting! Recently Technology. Then Biotechnology. All rose from small beginnings to eventually dominate the nation's economy. And now . . now comes the next big industry to take over. "The Class Action. The means by which lawyers will take over all the other industries. And, of course, you want your share. Well, counselor, it will not be easy." Reginald Rashad, young black attorney, who recently resigned impulsively from the huge white-shoe law firm, WHITE, CRAVAT & SULLIVAN, is determined now to make it on his own. But as Judge Handelsman warned, it will not be easy.

"HARRY HARRISON IS ONE OF SCIENCE FICTION’S MOST PROLIFIC AND ACCOMPLISHED CRAFTSMEN." —The New York Times Book Review In the midst of Civil War, a stunned North and South join forces to combat a sudden attack of British troops. Though the Americans are victorious, three years later a new threat emerges. Her Majesty’s Army is massing for a possible attack through Texas. Into the gauntlet Lincoln sends his chosen angel of death, General Ulysses S. Grant—while his top soldiers, including Robert E. Lee and William Tecumseh Sherman, plan the most daring naval invasion ever launched: an assault on British soil itself. Stars and Stripes in Peril is the new masterwork from one of the world’s most provocative authors. Venturing beyond a fascinating question of what if? Harry Harrison brilliantly examines the people and passions that make up nations both great and small—and shows how technology and politics had the power to shape history’s first great World War . . . half a century before it began . . . "Lovers of novels of alternate history hold Harry Harrison in high regard and his latest book can only enhance that esteem." —Abilene Reporter News

"Until someone tells you, you never know in whose dreams you appear..." - From the prologue of To Catch the Lightning What is the price of our dreams? Beginning in the late 1890s, Edward Sheriff Curtis undertook the seemingly overwhelming odyssey of capturing the past, of documenting and photographing the fading way of life of the American Indian. In To Catch the Lightning , Alan Cheuse has created a remarkable portrait of the man who would become a legend. Drawn on his epic journey by a series of female muses, Curtis turns his lens on a landscape of unparalleled beauty and tradition. Curtis@ desire to complete his destiny as foretold by Chief Joseph, to photograph all of the hundreds of western American Indian tribes, is a haunting tale of the struggle between ambition and duty. The architect of the finest lasting visual record of a culture close to extinction, Curtis stands as a testament to the power of the sacrifices we make for the dreams that compel us. With the ear of a poet and the eye of a historian, Cheuse has crafted a masterwork of American historical fiction. Lyrical, beautifully written, and impressively researched, To Catch the Lightning is a novel of the American spirit. PRAISE FOR TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING: "To Catch the Lightning is a story of loss - of choices made and prices paid, of the future coming fast and the past disappearing faster. Cheuse@s narrative is refracted through multiple voices, each distinct, but each containing its own poetic precision. A wonderful, wonderful book of quiet power and great beauty." - Karen Joy Fowler, author of Wit@s End and The Jane Austen Book Club "To Catch the Lightning tells Curtis@ story vividly and eloquently. It is a great American story, about a life spent preserving and honoring those elements of life which are most respected and beloved. Alan Cheuse is to be congratulated for this vivid novel." - William Kittredge, author of The Willow Field and The Next Rodeo "Bravo to Cheuse for this incarnation of a major and unfairly forgotten American artist, capturing an era so crucial in native American, and therefore American history. I found it immediate and innovative." - Diane Johnson, author of Le Divorce and Lulu in Marrakech "The photography and cinema of Edward Curtis exist at the intersection of art, history, anthropology, and technology. He was an essentially American kind of genius, and Alan Cheuse has transformed his life into compelling fiction that digs deep into the mystery and sacrifice and selfishness of creative vision." - Charles Frazier, author of Cold Mountain and Thirteen Moons "... the narrative brims with keen insight." - Publishers Weekly "Curtis devoted his life to creating the most significant and comprehensive retrospective of American Indian culture, which he viewed as @one of the great races of mankind.@ Curtis correctly predicted that the culture was near extinction ... and much of his work remains the only recorded history of a civilization even then becoming the stuff of legend." - ForeWord Magazine Catch Alan Cheuse in your town: Key West, FL: January - Key West Lit

In a parallel-world 21st-century San Francisco where the Kaiser's Germany won World War One and went on to dominate the world, Paul Gomes and his father Lawrence are secret agents for our timeline, posing as traders from a foreign land. They run a storefront shop called Curious Notions, selling what is in our world routine consumer technology-record players, radios, cassette decks--all of which is better than anything in this world, but only by a bit. Their real job is to obtain raw materials for our timeline. Just as importantly, they must guard the secret of Crosstime Traffic--for of the millions of parallel timelines, this is one of the few advanced enough to use that secret against us. Now, however, the German occupation police are harrassing them. They want to know where they're getting their mysterious goods. Under pressure, Paul and Lawrence hint that their supplies comes from San Francisco's Chinese...setting in motion a chain of intrigues that will put the entire enterprise of Crosstime Traffic at deadly risk.

In a parallel-world 21st-century San Francisco where the Kaiser's Germany won World War One and went on to dominate the world, Paul Gomes and his father Lawrence are secret agents for our timeline, posing as traders from a foreign land. They run a storefront shop called Curious Notions, selling what is in our world routine consumer technology-record players, radios, cassette decks--all of which is better than anything in this world, but only by a bit. Their real job is to obtain raw materials for our timeline. Just as importantly, they must guard the secret of Crosstime Traffic--for of the millions of parallel timelines, this is one of the few advanced enough to use that secret against us. Now, however, the German occupation police are harassing them. They want to know where they're getting their mysterious goods. Under pressure, Paul and Lawrence hint that their supplies comes from San Francisco's Chinese...setting in motion a chain of intrigues that will put the entire enterprise of Crosstime Traffic at deadly risk. Curious Notions is the second book in Harry Turtledove's Crosstime Traffic series.

In Menachem's Seed , Carl Djerassi , world-renowned scientist and inventor of the birth-control pill, brings us a new novel that explores the human--and passionate--side of science. Melanie Laidlaw and Menachem Dvir meet at a series of international conferences where jet-setting scientists come together to discuss the global implications of their discoveries. Melanie runs a foundation that awards grants for innovations in reproductive technology; Menachem is an infertile nuclear engineer and a married man. Naturally, they fall in love. What follows is a story of sexual steam, stolen seed, and religious conversion--a very modern romance that hinges on a cutting-edge scientific breakthrough. As Melanie and Menachem discover, what science makes possible, only two hearts can make right.

Arabian Nights 1914 begins in 1914...the world is on the precipice of a World War. The great powers, Germany and the Ottoman Empire face each other. Ouda is a small Arab desert kingdom, poor and isolated. Zade, a direct descendant of Scheherazade, is convinced that Ouda is doomed unless it becomes a modern, secular state and adopts science and technology. Her king's model must be the quintessential modern monarch, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. The Oudian Ambassador in Berlin sends books, documents, information praising the virtues of the forward-looking Kaiser. Late June, 1914. Zade learns about the assassination in Sarajevo of the Austrian heir to the throne. The world war must be stopped. She immediately decides to go to Berlin, seduce the Kaiser and preserve the peace. Full of intrigue, seduction, exotic characters, where the 'seductive middle east meets the modern west Arabian Nights 1914 is a totally engrossing novel. Like his previous works, Eric Koch introduces the reader to a by-gone but crucially important historical world. All his characters are well researched and reflect the reality of the period. In the master's hands, they are plausible, human and fully entertaining.