"Big Slide," (116 pp.) by James Howard Kunstler, is a three-act play set in the autumn of an unspecified near-future year, at an Adirondack "great camp" where three generations of the Freeman family have taken refuge from New York and Boston during a severe national political maelstrom. We are never fully apprised of the exact nature of this upheaval, but it appears to involve a coup d'etat in the White House and the uprising of local militias all over the nation in response. The estate at Big Slide is isolated from these events, but news dribbles in by radio. The electricity has stopped working and law enforcement seems to have been suspended, making it dangerous to travel even to the nearest town for food and necessities. The thirteen members of the family, ranging from the dying patriarch, Clifford Freeman, to his grown children and their spouses, to the two teenage step-siblings, Raven and Zach, struggle to work out how they will organize themselves for survival in the months ahead against a background of old and deep personal grievances with each other.

Clifford Sawyer, investigating ghosts in a mine, finds ancient beings from another world -- and gets swept up in a titanic struggle for control of a parallel dimension. Henry Kuttner (1915-1958) was known for his literary prose and worked in close collaboration with his wife, C. L. Moore. They met through their association with the "Lovecraft Circle," a group of writers and fans who corresponded with H. P. Lovecraft. Their work together spanned the 1940s and 1950s, mostly published under pseudonyms such as Lewis Padgett and Lawrence O'Donnell.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

First there was Jar Jar Binks Must Die, the Hugo-Award finalist collection of essays discussing science fiction film which Analog called "intelligent and entertaining" and F&SF called "terrific." Then came Shh! It's a Secret, the comedy science fiction novel that Publishers Weekly called "a freewheeling, laugh-out-loud satire." Now Daniel M. Kimmel is back with Time On My Hands, his quirky take on time travel, lost love, divided loyalties, and the eternal search for really good scotch. Time On My Hands investigates the myriad time travel troubles over which most science fiction readers have pondered, but it presents a fresh take on the time travel novel by adhering to the Aristotelian Unity of Time: it all takes place within a single day. In the book, Professor Price tells the story of how he came to be in possession of a time travel device (which he may or may not have invented), and how he found his future hiding in his past. But the discovery of time travel will necessitate far more than just building a really cool machine: it'll take the efforts of many people to figure out how to talk about time travel, the requirements necessary to be an ethical time traveler, and just whose office it is when my yesterday becomes your tomorrow without the courtesy of a knock on the door. Film critic and professor Daniel M. Kimmel has taught film and media classes at Emerson College, Boston University, and Suffolk University. His book on the history of FOX TV, The Fourth Network, received the Cable Center Book Award. His other books include a history of DreamWorks, The Dream Team, and I'll Have What She's Having: Behind the Scenes of the Great Romantic Comedies. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Rochester (where much of Time On My Hands is set) and his law degree from Boston University.

The imaginative talents of Caroline Lawrence (author of the Roman Mysteries series) and Laura Jenkinson Brown (illustrator of Greek Myth comics) combined with the expertise of Dr Sophie Hay, Prof. Andrew Wallace-Hadrill and Dr Olivia Elder, with just a dash of the CSCP magic that made the Cambridge Latin Course so well-loved, bring the ancient town of Pompeii to life in a truly unique way. Follow the story of Amarantus and his neighbourhood as they experience a year of puppies, friendships, weddings, funerals, bar fights, elections and earthquakes, and find out: - why honey is a 'hot food' - why the best seat in the house was on the 'lowest' couch - how the Romans cleaned their ears - and why the late drinkers supported Vatia in the local elections. Want to learn more? Check out the companion website at: cambridgeamarantus.com

In the much-anticipated third entry in Edeet Ravel's delightful series, Pauline Carelli-Bloom is off to London to visit her grandmother. She's thrilled by all the different cultures she encounters in the great city -- and thrilled even more with Nigel Sivananda, a dashing young New Age devotee with, as she faithfully records in her diary, "blue eyes that pierce your soul and penetrate your thoughts." Now that her soul's been pierced and her thoughts penetrated, will Pauline also be swept completely off her feet? Will she return to her dull-but-faithful boyfriend Yoshi or escape to an ashram with Nigel in search of adventure and everlasting enlightenment? One thing is certain: Pauline's life is never boring, and neither is her journey toward self-discovery. Relating her latest adventures in life and love with quirky humor and an ever-present flair for the dramatic, Pauline presents a warm and funny snapshot of teen life, unfiltered and uncensored.

This is a classic science fiction novella by Stanley G. Weinbaum that was originally published in Astounding Stories in 1935. This is the only of Weinbaum's stories to be set on the planet Pluto, written only five years after the planet's discovery. The tale starts with a spaceship called Aardkin that gets boarded by the notorious pirate ship the Red Peri. One year on Frank Keene and astrophysicist Solomon Nestor crash land on Pluto and find themselves captives of the Red Peri herself, the nineteen year-old daughter of the man who built the Red Peri. During their ordeal the secret of the reason behind her forays into piracy are revealed. This work is part of our Vintage Sci-Fi Classics Series, a series in which we are republishing some of the best stories in the genre by some of its most acclaimed authors, such as Isaac Asimov, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Robert Sheckley. Each publication is complete with a short introduction to the history of science fiction.

That rarest of things, a children's book for "children" of all ages.... In this picaresque and highly entertaining novel, Leutenlieb, a.k.a. Baron Munchausen (great-great-great grandson of his celebrated ancestor), takes us on a roller-coaster ride through the history of the Twentieth Century, introducing us along the way to a galaxy of iconic figures - from Hitler to Hemingway, from Al Capone to Greta Garbo - while describing how, with breath-taking imagination, brilliant ingenuity and technological expertise of staggering proportions (not to mention legendary modesty!) he succeeds in solving all the problems with which he is faced. The darker side is there too - two world wars, Nazi extermination camps and Soviet labour camps - but through it all our protagonist maintains his optimism, his integrity, his belief in the power of the indomitable human spirit, and his sense of humour. The full tragi-comedy of life is there. Shlomo Kalo, a nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature and a story teller of international renown brings us a book of refreshing insights and ingenious humor that younger readers can enjoy too. Scroll up and grab your copy today!

'The ultimate book for any Jennings or Gleitzman fan.' Kids Book Review Shortlisted - BILBY Children's Choice Awards 2002 - Prize for Writing for Young Adults Winner - KROC Children's Choice Awards 2000 - Prize for Writing for Young Adults Winner - YABBA Children's Choice Awards 1998 - Older Readers Winner - Dymock's Children's Choice Awards 1999 - Older Readers Winner - CROW Children's Choice Awards 1998 - Prize for Writing for Young Adults Winner - COOL Children's Choice Awards 1998 - Prize for Writing for Young Adults Something very weird is happening to Dawn and Rory. And it's not just their new step-family. Slurping slobberers want to suck their bones out. Strange steel sheep want to smash them to pieces. Giant frogs want to crunch them up. Cruel killer creepers want to squeeze the life out of them. Their parents can't help them. Dawn and Rory are on their own. It's wild. It's wacky. It's WICKED! With the perfect mix of humour and suspense, Wicked! will keep middle-grade readers on the edge of their seat as Rory and Dawn navigate the challenges of life, family ... and monsters! A must-read for any kid (or adult) who loves a good mix of creepy, funny and clever storytelling. ALL SIX PARTS IN ONE! Part 1- The Slobberers Part 2- Battering Rams Part 3- Croaked Part 4- Dead Ringer Part 5- The Creeper Part 6- Till Death Us Do Part ------------------ PRAISE FOR MORRIS GLEITZMAN 'Readers can't get enough of him.' The Independent 'A brilliantly funny writer' Sunday Telegraph 'A virtuoso demonstration of how you can make comedy out of the most unlikely subject' Sunday Times 'He is one of the finest examples of a writer who can make humour stem from the things that really matter in life.' The Guardian

Twelve-year-old time traveler Eli Sands continues his search for his missing mom, encountering new characters and trying to save the free world from tyrannical rule.

"Readers will revel in the fractured time line, as well as in Eli’s ruminations on relativity, unintended consequences of technology, and quantum flux." — SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL After another close call, Eli Sands, aka Danger Boy, is back in San Francisco in 2020. The bad news is that he and his friends, Clyne and Thea, are being held captive by the government agency DARPA. Since their last foray into the Fifth Dimension, history has been unraveling, the deadly slow pox is spreading fast, and DARPA wants to send Eli back in time to ancient Jerusalem. But Eli and crew discover a city in ruins from a Babylonian invasion and an angry mob ready to stone them. Will Danger Boy and company ever find their way home again?

"The Frontier Garrison" is the first English translation of "Az elõretolt helyõrség" by the Hungarian novelist Jenõ Rejtõ (1905-1943), originally published in 1939 under the pen name of "P. Howard." The translator, Balint Kacsoh (a university professor) also annotated the edition. The preface provides biographical data of Jenõ Rejtõ in historical and literary context. The genre is fiction; elements of action, adventure, mystery, and comedy are mixed in the story. It is suitable for young readers and adults. Synopsis: Action and adventure are mixed with a healthy dose of offbeat humor in this P. Howard classic, set in the second half of the 1930s. Harrincourt is dishonorably discharged from the French Naval Academy for a prank. He realizes that his carefree behavior put the livelihood of his widowed mother and teenage sister in jeopardy. To secure their financial future, he pays the premium on his life insurance policy and joins the French Foreign Legion destined to Africa, where his death "in the course of professional duty" would be all but guaranteed. While in basic training in Oran, he unwittingly becomes mixed up in murder and espionage and encounters the ghost of a murdered woman who has a penchant for singing. In short order, his unit is dispatched to a frontier garrison established to support French colonial expansion into equatorial Africa. Rival foreign powers, however, attempt to thwart the French plans and Harrincourt finds himself in the crossfire of international intrigue and falls in love with the beautiful woman whose haunting ghost follows the legionnaires as they march through the deadly Sahara. It is up to Harrincourt to save the day and uncover the secret of a mysterious watch, even if it might mean foregoing the death benefit his insurance policy would pay to his family.

Dearest Reader: The story you now have in front of you is a real-life miracle. Beware, though: for even the most incredible miracles can sometimes come with a price. For ten-year-old Emily Sweet, the price could be her very life. If you decide to read this book, be warned that you will experience Emily Sweet's highs and lows as if you are alongside her. On one hand, you will find her story uplifting, exciting, and inspiring. You'll ride along as she discovers a magical bottle with a life-changing message inside, and travels on both an invisible hot air balloon and a whale-shaped submarine. You'll be there when she converses with talking animals and discovers new and exciting friends on a wondrous secret island filled with super-cool inventions, boundless adventure, and a special child-saving company whose leader happens to be a six-foot, four-inch panda bear doctor! But Emily has her share of disappointment, too. You'll experience Emily's many unpleasantries, like being abandoned at birth and being sent to live with a wretched, hideous pet grooming foster mom. When Emily comes down with a mysterious illness, she rubs shoulders with an evil, child-hating doctor armed with an army of grotesque, masked, killer mall mannequins -- determined to not only stop her and other unfortunate children from being happy, but to destroy the special child saving company and the giant panda bear doctor who runs it. Please help children in need by reading this story, then spread the word so others will also read it. Hopefully, together, we can make sad children happy, one story at a time. For the Children, Dr. Henry J. Baer CSFR Inc. Secretisland4.com "In Emily's Miracle, Chris Lombardi speaks with a true voice; allowing the innocence of youth to inform, enlighten, and guide us all towards those paths we seek; an engaging, imaginative, page turning ride." -- Chris Lemmon, (Actor/Writer and author of "A Twist of Lemmon: A tribute to my father"). "Emily's Miracle is a feast for the senses... Lombardi blends fresh creativity with a sense of stated purpose." -- Thomas Hill. Launchpad book reviews.

What do you do when you are staring straight down at the abyss that your life has become? This is the question Anthony Albergo asked himself the night the New York Yankees lost game seven of the 2001 World Series and he had to come up with the $50,000 that he owed local mob boss Frankie Feliciani. A New York Hold'em is the story of a young man who lets his gambling addiction ruin his life. He has lost everything-including his parents, who were brutally murdered-to this vicious habit and now he needs to decide if he wants to walk away from this nightmare or seek revenge against Frankie and his nephew Bull for his losses. There's only one catch; he has just five days to either come up with the money or a plan to settle the score. For all you people out there that think playing Texas Hold'em and gambling for a living is a great life, think again. It is much easier on television and in the movies because in the real world, the house always wins and they want their money-no matter what.

From a distant world the invaders came. They were a race not unlike mankind but technologically advanced enough to impose their genocidal interests on Earth. In their wake nearly all of the human population is disintegrated, blanketing the surface of the planet in white dust. This holocaust is the ultimate waste of life, as the aliens discover the new world they have conquered and colonized is incompatible with their biology. Now scattered survivors, both human and alien, trudge through this post-apocalyptic wasteland: a power-hungry science fiction writer, a brilliant scientist losing his battle with schizophrenia, a man convinced he's the robot he portrayed on television in pre-invasion times, a recalcitrant hero who has proclaimed himself the son of God, a former boxer tortured by his past and the tribe of misfits who follow him, and a young girl chosen to bear the children of a new civilization in the last known settlement of humanity. Some are aimless, others purposeful, but all cling to survival and their own sanity, unaware their fates are intertwined. When Earth's champions gather, is there hope for a better world? No, definitely not.

The stories here, all of them written between March of 1972 and November of 1973, mark a critical turning point in my career. Those who know the three earlier volumes have traced my evolution from a capable journeyman, very young and as much concerned with paying the rent as he was to advancing the state of the art, into a serious, dedicated craftsman now seeking to leave his mark on science fiction in some significant way. Throughout the decade of the 1960s I had attempted to grow and evolve within the field of writing I loved--building on the best that went before me, the work of Theodore Sturgeon and James Blish and Cyril Kornbluth and Jack Vance and Philip K. Dick and half a dozen others whose great stories had been beacons beckoning me onward--and then, as I reached my own maturity, now trying to bring science fiction along with me into a new realm of development, hauling it along even farther out of its pulp-magazine origins toward what I regarded as a more resonant and evocative kind of visionary storytelling. --Robert Silverberg, from his Introduction

It's the second decade of 21st Century Earth's 29th Configuration. Zack Carver, an alcoholic archeologist, discovers a craft, apparently built for flight, dating back amillion millennia. Carver teams up with Leslee Myles, an attorney, and a stunning, alien humanoid to battle the most malevolent forces in the universe, including bio-terrorists, shadow-military operatives, a renegade administration and Dax Wolf, a sociopath genius. However, the trio'smost daunting challenge is to outfox the Custodians-supreme beings who were born out of galactic cataclysm and whose sole purpose is to find civilizations that have reached their doom-point and then delete all evidence of their existence so that an entirely new life-form may emerge. As with Earth's previous 28 Configurations, the current 29th is rushing toward self-annihilation. Can Zack, Leslee and their otherworldly companion prevent the Custodians from activating the Null Quotient? Is it possible for the three heroes to convince the Nine Custodians to spare their blue-and-green planet and not revert it to the stardust that is the essential ingredient of the primordial slime?Philip Margo is a founding member of The Tokens, the vocal group that made the classic recording of The Lion Sleeps Tonight. Mr. Margo has worked as a record producer with eleven gold records to his credit, is a songwriter, television producer and writer and a personal manager for celebrities. He is currently writing the sequel to his novel and lives in Beverly Hills, California with his wife of forty-three years, Abbie. They are the proud parents and grandparents of three children and seven grandchildren.

Book by Peters, David

Bigger and fatter than all the other microbes in the valley. Wilton feels ostracised and out of place. But even more worryingly, their world has become unhealthy and toxic with mass illness and flash storms. Setting out to find out what is wrong, Wilton meets Algy, a tiny microbe small enough to sit on his shoulder (and take refuge in his guts) who accompanies Wilton on his quest. Taking a wrong turn in an effort to escape some killer fungus, they inadvertently end up outside - and discover (thanks to some helpful bacteria) that the world in which they live is actually one giant organism called Janet.

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.