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

When Harvard Medical graduate Dr. Seth Levin's fiancee Amber dies under mysterious circumstances, Seth's passion to reclaim her becomes an obsession. Intent on cloning his fiancee and armed with a sample of Amber's DNA, Seth travels to the secluded South American estate of a rogue geneticist, unaware that the surrogate he has chosen to carry Amber's embryonic clone has a dangerous secret of her own.

There are big plans for a small town in Nevada. When a world famous architect is commissioned to design a completely enclosed city, he hires a young apprentice named Burke Isadore to translate his sketches into a three-dimensional computer model. The ambitious project is called New Moon City. Burke has promised himself to make a difference in the world. He sees the new city's design as a solution to environmental degradation, homelessness and isolation. But his youthful idealism leaves him with a blind spot to the intentions of others who are using the project to further their own goals, contradictory to the original vision. To complicate matters, there are some long-term employees of the master architect who are not well suited to the challenge of building the city. It falls to Burke to resolve an issue caused by their foolish antics. Burke meets a newspaper reporter named Aliyah Estrella who questions the entire premise of the enclosed city, known as an arcology. She thinks she would feel trapped inside a giant anthill if she were forced to live there. She also knows the local ranchers are not happy with the project, but some of her articles in the small-town newspaper raise the hackles of the powerful people behind the construction of New Moon City. The Arcs is the first book of The New Moon Trilogy. It examines the power and endurance of a promise over generations, as it follows the thread of one man's word through the tapestry of time.

The Devil's Knee : In the eighteen years that have passed since they were last seen, Larry "Tunafish" Tunig and Simon "Bull" Bronstien have left their criminal careers behind and have been living the quiet life in Mexico City. "Bull," overcome by remorse for past misdeeds, has sought solace in religion, changing his name back to Simon, growing a beard and attending daily services at the local synagogue. But the mob won't leave them alone. Larry and Simon are recalled from Mexico and moved into a Beverly Hills mansion, where Larry is to preside as the fourth husband of Joyce Adams, once a Las Vegas whore, now the widow of the mob's big boss. Larry's assignment: to keep cops and reporters from snooping around. But how do you stay inconspicuous when your new stepdaughter is becoming one of the nation's leading rock stars, your pacifist buddy has attacked and maimed an anti-Semitic orator in the street, and a contingent of tommygun-wielding mobsters has just prevented three drug-crazed hippies from blowing up your house?

2014 COMPTON CROOK AWARD FINALIST. The Brogardi appeared out of nowhere, and -- telegraphing their peaceful intentions -- they landed in the middle of nowhere: New York State's Catskills Mountains resorts. It was an alien invasion, of the most peaceful, friendly kind. But there had to be something sinister behind it all, right? Movie executive Jake Berman lives fiction for a living, promoting movies to the masses. He's happy, and only moderately harried. But his peaceful existence is thrown into overdrive when one of the aliens sets his sights beyond the decaying resorts of the east -- when he decides it's time to invade Hollywood Daniel M. Kimmel is a film critic and professor of film. 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 . His collection of essays, Jar Jar Binks Must Die... and other Observations about Science Fiction Movies , was a 2012 nominee for the Hugo Award for Best Related Work. He is a past president of the Boston Society of Film Critics, and current co-chair of the Boston Online Film Critics Association. This is his first novel. " Kimmel's first novel is] a true joy... let's hope there are more to come." --Don Sakers, Analog Science Fiction and Fact "This is the book we've been waiting for from Dan Kimmel -- funny, knowing, fast paced, full of humor, and told with a big heart. An absolute joy." ---Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Red Planet Blues "Dan Kimmel's first novel is a funny and delightful tour de force that will appeal to movie fans as well as science-fiction readers." --Michael A. Burstein, John W. Campbell Award-winning author of I Remember the Future "Exceptionally funny... pretty damned spectacular... this is the funniest book of the year and one of the best debut SF novels in ages " --Chris Garcia, The Drink Tank

Runcible the weimaraner digs a hole in the sand, from Cape Cod all the way to Japan, where he meets a little girl held captive by a dragon and helps her to find the most loyal person in Japan.

This tale follows the adventures of John of Gamala during the years of Roman occupation, political infighting, and lawlessness that resulted in the destruction of the Temple in AD 70. It puts the reader at the heart of the conflict between Rome and the greedy political groups and robber bands of Palestine. Although fighting a losing struggle, John keeps his integrity and honor intact, even overcoming slavery and eventually becoming a procurator after the struggle. Solomon Joseph Solomon RA (16 September 1860 - 27 July 1927) was a British painter, a founding member of the New English Art Club and member of the Royal Academy.Solomon's family was Jewish, and his sister, Lily Delissa Joseph (née Solomon), was also a painter.He made an important contribution to the development of camouflage in the First World War, working in particular on tree observation posts and arguing tirelessly for camouflage netting.... George Alfred Henty (8 December 1832 - 16 November 1902) was a prolific English novelist and war correspondent.He is best known for his historical adventure stories that were popular in the late 19th century. His works include The Dragon & The Raven (1886), For The Temple (1888), Under Drake's Flag (1883) and In Freedom's Cause (1885).G. A. Henty was born in Trumpington, near Cambridge. He was a sickly child who had to spend long periods in bed. During his frequent illnesses he became an avid reader and developed a wide range of interests which he carried into adulthood. He attended Westminster School, London, and later Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was a keen sportsman. He left the university early without completing his degree to volunteer for the Army Hospital Commissariat when the Crimean War began. He was sent to the Crimea and while there he witnessed the appalling conditions under which the British soldier had to fight. His letters home were filled with vivid descriptions of what he saw. His father was impressed by his letters and sent them to The Morning Advertiser newspaper which printed them. This initial writing success was a factor in Henty's later decision to accept the offer to become a special correspondent, the early name for journalists now better known as war correspondents.Shortly before resigning from the army as a captain in 1859 he married Elizabeth Finucane. The couple had four children. Elizabeth died in 1865 after a long illness and shortly after her death Henty began writing articles for the Standard newspaper. In 1866 the newspaper sent him as their special correspondent to report on the Austro-Italian War where he met Giuseppe Garibaldi. He went on to cover the 1868 British punitive expedition to Abyssinia, the Franco-Prussian War, the Ashanti War, the Carlist Rebellion in Spain and the Turco-Serbian War. ........

In the tradition of the old "Ace Doubles" two-in-one books (flip one over to read the second title)--here is the twelfth Wildside Double: LISA KANE: A NOVEL OF WEREWOLVES, by Richard A. Lupoff. Lisa is a 12-year-old girl with all the worries of any normal girl beginning the transition to womanhood. She's frightened by the changes happening to her body--the budding breasts, the stiff black hairs that appear on the back of her hands, and the way her nails twist to look like claws during the full moon. Is this normal? Why is she so different from everyone else? Scott A. Culp says: "A good book...that does not deserve to be forgotten." THE PRINCES OF EARTH: A SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL, by Michael Kurland. Adam Warrington is a young man from a repressive plant in the grasp of fundamental Puritanism. Then he's accepted by the University of Sol on Mars, and his great adventure begins. On the way there his spaceship is hijacked by a disgruntled noble who wants to overthrow the emperor, and Adam is forced to choose sides. A grand tale in the tradition of Robert A. Heinlein. A Young Adult Literary Guild Selection.

Armchair Fiction presents extra large editions of classic science fiction double novels. The first novel is by sci-fi/fantasy master Frank Belknap Long, "Woman From Another Planet." This is the unusual and sensual story of David Loring, an artist, and his beautiful fiancée, Janice Reece. David loved Janice but the Martian Empire had a plan to entice David away from his beloved. With their plan for world domination at stake the Martians selected these two lovers' for their first attack. Together, David and Janice became involved in a highly emotional and physical conflict that broke through the barriers of outer space itself. Join renowned horror and sci-fi author Frank Belknap Long for a 1960 sci-fi tale he wrote for Chariot Books, a book company famous for their sexually provocative paperback novels. Although this tale is fairly tame by today's standards, it's interesting to see how Long weaves the elements of sex and science fiction together. The second novel is "Homecalling," by Judith Merril. The ship had crash landed on an alien world, burning to death the two parents of two small children on board. Although thoroughly jostled and bruised, Dee and her little brother Petey had somehow survived. Comprehending their horrible situation wasn't easy for a child of eight! But, gathering up all the courage she could muster, she set off exploring the area near the ship. What she found, was a large garden, and a lot of very big, ugly, and overly curious, bugs! Veteran science fiction author Judith Merril has presented here a fascinating and convincing picture of the thought-processes of a different species on a far-off world. It's a tale filled with unusual adventure and thought-provoking situations.

An old doll's house, a new doll's house, miniature gardens in plastic and lead; when Nancy Barbellion returned to her old family house in Bath after a lifetime of exotic excitement she could never have anticipated the new adventure that awaited her... The latest story from the pen of the author of 'The Last Resort Library', 'The Princess Who Wouldn't Come Home', and 'Swizzle De Brax and the Blungaphone'. Illustrated by Jenny Kallin.

The Last Manuscript of a Master It began with an accident, as if Fate had a plan for Vergil Magus . . . After his trials in the Very Rich City of Averno but before his crowning achievement of a certain magic mirror, the great sorcerer and alchemist finds himself on a journey nothing short of epic. Sure he is slated for death in Rome, Vergil seeks safety in the far reaches of the Empire--and finds a world teeming with wonders and magical oddities. The "unhistoric" sea adventure is a deft mix of fantastic fact and fable, showcasing the author's keen attention to the often forgotten connections between them.

Nini Cat enjoys her outdoor adventure until she ventures too far and cannot find her way home.

With life simply overflowing with pungent melodrama, it's all Pauline and her purple pen can do to record each twist of the plot. First, her best friend splits to become a teen ice queen. Then, Pauline's dragged into the revolting details of her divorcing parents' love life. And to top it off, she finds herself falling for a self-described "neo-existentialist" -- much to the displeasure of her loyal boyfriend. How will she ever write her way out of this one?

The stories collected here, written between August of 1987 and May of 1990, demonstrate that I still believe in the classical unities. Of course, what seems to us a unity now might not have appeared that way when H.G. Wells was writing his wonderful stories in the nineteenth century. Wells might have argued that my 'To the Promised Land' is built around two speculative fantastic assumptions, one that the Biblical Exodus from Egypt never happened, the other that it is possible to send rocketships to other worlds. But in fact we've sent plenty of rocketships to other worlds by now, so only my story's alternative-world speculation remains fantasy today. Technically speaking the space-travel element of the plot has become part of the given; it's the other big assumption that forms the central matter of the story. --Robert Silverberg, from his Introduction

In this sequel to the hilarious science fiction novel No Small Bills, the aptly named DuckBob Spinowitz is settling into his new job as Guardian of the Matrix and his new friendship with the Man in Black he dubbed Tall. But when a gift/bribe from Tall has an unexpected effect on the dour government agent, it's up to DuckBob to figure out what's going on and save his friend-and possibly the entire human race! Again! And all without leaving his couch!