'I burned through it . . . Great book: Tinker Tailer Soldier Spook' Ian McDonald
Loss is a thing of the past. Murder is obsolete. Death is just the beginning.
*****
How do you catch a spy who's already dead?
In 1938, death is no longer feared but exploited.
Since the discovery of the afterlife, the British Empire has extended its reach into Summerland, a metropolis for the recently deceased.
But Britain isn't the only contender for power in this life and the next. The Soviets have spies in Summerland, and the technology to build their own god.
When SIS agent Rachel White gets a lead on one of the Soviet moles, blowing the whistle puts her hard-earned career at risk. The spy has friends in high places, and she will have to go rogue to bring him in.
*************************
'Summerland: As if Alfred Hitchcock had made a movie with HP Lovecraft . . . A vision so original it deserves its own subgenre. And all worked out with the diamond-hard logic of a great SF writer. After Summerland, the thriller has a new geometry' Stephen Baxter
'Eerily plausible, beautifully pitched on the cusp between wonder and horror, and thoroughly engrossing from the first page to the last' Alastair Reynolds
'Clever, subtle and . . . has a rich emotional centre' SFX
'Summerland is in its own way as persuasive an example of Rajaniemi's disciplined inventiveness as his better-known hard SF' LOCUS
'Engaging writing, tight plotting and fantastic imagination' Ed McDonald, author of Blackwing
'A tense and twisting tale full of delightful allusions and ingeious' Ken MacLeod
'An intricate and vivid world of technological and spiritual wonder' Kirkus
'Hard to admit, but I think he's better at this stuff than I am' Charles Stross
A new land has been discovered to the east. Winterkeep is a land of miracles, a democratic republic run by people who like each other, where people speak to telepathic sea creatures, adopt telepathic foxes as pets, and fly across the sky in ships attached to balloons. But when Bitterblue's envoys to Winterkeep drown under suspicious circumstances, she and Giddon and her half-sister, Hava, set off to discover the truth--putting both Bitterblue's life and Giddon's heart to the test when Bitterblue is kidnapped. Giddon believes she has drowned, leaving him and Hava to solve the mystery of what's wrong in Winterkeep.
Lovisa Cavenda is the teenage daughter of a powerful Scholar and Industrialist (the opposing governing parties) with a fire inside her that is always hungry, always just nearly about to make something happen. She is the key to everything, but only if she can figure out what's going on before anyone else, and only if she's willing to transcend the person she's been all her life.
A must-read title for all fans of Patrick Rothfuss and Trudi Canavan, Fire will have you hooked on its gripping action, political intrigue, and beautiful central relationship.
'The book is REALLY good. Reading it made me very, very happy!' Tamora Pierce
Set in a world of stunningly beautiful, exceptionally dangerous monsters, Fire is one of the most dangerous monsters of all - a human one. Marked out by her vivid red hair, she's more than attractive. Fire is mesmerising.
But with this extraordinary beauty comes influence and power. People who are susceptible to her appeal will do anything for her attention, and for her affection. They will turn away from their families, their work, and their duties for her. They will forget their responsibilities to please her ... and worse, crush nations, neglect kingdoms and abuse their power.
Aware of her power, and afraid of it, Fire lives in a corner of the world away from people, and away from temptation. Until the day comes when she is needed - a day when, for her king, she has to take a stand not only against his enemies, but also against herself ...
Readers can't get enough of Fire:
'I was BLOWN AWAY! I fell in love with the world with the monsters and politics, the characters, the romance . . . Fantastic. Itching for a re-read already' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'The writing is beautiful, and Fire herself is at the same time so damaged and SO strong, that I fell completely head over heels. Finishing this book was heart-breaking' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'I found Fire's world to be well drawn, expertly woven and colourfully written. Each character is a delicious shade of gray, possessing both light and dark tendencies' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'If you asked me to recommend ONE book, or save ONE book from a fire, or keep ONE book of mine forever, it would be this one' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Just as Graceling drew fans of Tamora Pierce and her strong female characters, Fire will definitely do the same' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'This was the most gorgeous romantic fantasy I've read in a while. And want to know what the last one was? - Graceling!! Kristin Cashore is just so good at writing these beautiful, deep relationships that stem from trust and acceptance' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'If you had to read only one hard fantasy YA book this year, FIRE just might be the one. Its blend of fantasy, romance, political intrigue, and feminism will appeal to all fantasy lovers, and then some' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
THE INTERNATIONAL PHENOMENON BEHIND THE COSMERE
A STANDALONE COSMERE ADVENTURE WITH MAGIC AS YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN IT
****
A story of two sisters, who just so happen to be princesses.
A story about two gods, one a God King and one lesser.
A story about an immortal trying to undo the mistakes he made hundreds of years ago.
Meet WARBREAKER.
This is a story of two sisters - who happen to be princesses, the God King one of them has to marry, a lesser god, and an immortal trying to undo the mistakes he made hundreds of years ago.
Theirs is a world in which those who die in glory return as gods to live confined to a pantheon in Hallandren's capital city. A world transformed by BioChromatic magic, a power based on an essence known as breath. Using magic is arduous: breath can only be collected one unit at a time from individual people.
But the rewards are great: by using breath and drawing upon the color in everyday objects, all manner of miracles and mischief can be performed.
****
SANDERSON THE EPIC FANTASY TITAN:
'Exceptional tale of magic, mystery and the politics of divinity'
MICHAEL MOORCOCK
'A powerful stand-alone tale of unpredictable loyalties, dark intrigue and dangerous magic'
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
'Sanderson is astonishingly wise'
ORSON SCOTT CARD
'Epic in every sense'
GUARDIAN
Eversion is a superb, original Gothic SF novel. A small group of intrepid explorers are in search of a remote and mysterious artefact. It's a well-funded expedition, well organised, which is lucky as they're sailing north of Bergen on the schooner Demeter, searching for a narrow inlet which will lead them to a vast uncharted lake - and their goal--
Until disaster strikes.
Doctor Silas Coade wakes from disturbing dreams, on the steamship Demeter, in pursuit of an extraordinary find almost too incredible and too strange to believe, secreted within a lagoon in the icy inlets of Patagonia. But as they come in sight of their prize he and the crew see they are not the first to come so far: there is a wreck ahead, and whatever ruined it may threaten them as well--
Shaking off his nightmares, Doctor Silas Coade joins his fellow exploders on the deck of the zeppelin Demeter and realises something has already gone dangerously wrong with their mission. If any of them are to survive, then he will have to take the exploration - and their lives - into his own hands . . .
After World War III, the Servants of Wrath cult deified the mysterious Carlton Lufteufel, creator of the doomsday weapon that wiped out much of humanity. But to worship the man, they need an image of him as a god, and no one has ever seen him. So the high priests send a limbless master painter named Tibor McMasters into the wilderness on a mission to find Lufteufel and capture his likeness. Unfortunately for Tibor, the nation's remaining Christians do not want him to succeed and are willing to kill to ensure that the so-called Deus Irae remains hidden.
This hallucinatory tale through a nuclear wasteland asks what price the artist must pay for art and tries to figure out just what makes a god.
Elantris was built on magic and it thrived. But then the magic began to fade and Elantris began to rot. And now its shattered citizens face domination by a powerful Imperium motivated by dogged religious views. Can a young Princess unite the people of Elantris, rediscover the lost magic and lead a rebellion against the imperial zealots?
Brandon Sanderson's debut fantasy showed his skill as a storyteller and an imaginer of baroque magical systems to be fully developed from the start.
World War Terminus had left the Earth devastated. Through its ruins, bounty hunter Rick Deckard stalked, in search of the renegade replicants who were his prey. When he wasn¿t ¿retiring¿ them with his laser weapon, he dreamed of owning a live animal -- the ultimate status symbol in a world all but bereft of animal life. Then Rick got his chance: the assignment to kill six Nexus-6 targets, for a huge reward. But in Deckard¿s world things were never that simple, and his assignment quickly turned into a nightmare kaleidoscope of subterfuge and deceit -- and the threat of death for the hunter rather than the hunted...
Helen of Troy is in mourning for her dead husband, Paris. Killed in single combat with the merciless Apollo, his body is nothing but a scorched and blasted thing.
Hockenberry, her lover, still sneaks from her bed after their nights of lovemaking. And the gods still strike out from the besieged Olympos, their single-molecule bomb casings quantum phase-shifting through the moravecs' force shield and laying waste to Ilium. Or so Hockenberry and the amusing little metal creature, Mahnmut, have tried to explain to her.
Helen of Troy does not give a fig about machines. She must dress for the funeral.
And man and the gods and the unknown players in this tragedy must prepare for the final act. And a battle that will decide the future of the universe itself.
Shortlisted for the Whitbread prize, MOTHER LONDON is a dazzling journey through the heart of a city that the author loved. Spanning generations of characters across a variety of boroughs from the Blitz to the mid-eighties, this is a book about the real London that tourists will never find, a London which is being erased by the spread of high-rise flats and shining skyscrapers.
Following a group of released mental patients across the years and streets of London, Moorcock creates a vivid impressionistic portrait of the city, from its downtrodden pubs to its green parks. All of the lead characters hear voices - but are they the murmurings of their damaged minds, or the true voice of the city?
Nasim is a young computer scientist, hoping to work on the Human Connectome Project: a plan to map every neural connection in the human brain. But funding for the project is cancelled, and Nasim ends up devoting her career to Zendegi, a computerised virtual world used by millions of people.
Fifteen years later, a revived Connectome Project has published a map of the brain. Zendegi is facing fierce competition from its rivals, and Nasim decides to exploit the map to fill the virtual world with better Proxies: the bit-players that bring its crowd scenes to life. As controversy rages over the nature and rights of the Proxies, a friend with terminal cancer begs Nasim to make a Proxy of him, so some part of him will survive to help raise his orphaned son. But Zendegi is about to become a battlefield ...
Briddey is about to get exactly what she thinks she wants . . .
Briddey is a high-powered exec in the mobile phone industry, overseeing new products from concept ('anything to beat the new apple phone') to delivery. And she works with her wonderful partner, Trent. They've been together for six magical weeks, in a whirlwind of flowers, dinners, laughter and now comes the icing on the cake: not a weekend away or a proposal but something even better. An EDD. A procedure which will let them sense each other's feelings. Trent doesn't just want to tell her how much he loves her - he wants her to feel it.
Everything is perfect.
The trouble is, Briddey can't breathe a word of it to anyone (difficult, when the whole office is guessing) until she's had two minutes to call her family. And they're hounding her about the latest family drama, but when they find out about the EDD - which they will - they'll drop everything to interrogate her. And it might just be easier to have the procedure now and explain later.
The race is on: not just for new, cutting-edge technology, but also for a shred of privacy in a public world and - for Briddey - a chance for love at the heart of it all.
This is a brilliant, heart-warming romantic comedy from one of the wittiest and wisest of our authors. Written with a light touch and a smile, we're swept up in Briddey's romance - and into the difficulties of a world just one technological step away from our own, as technology and social media blur (or indeed remove) the line between personal and public.
'I just love the world of Patrick Rothfuss' Lin-Manuel Miranda
'He's bloody good, this Rothfuss guy' George R R Martin
Sequel to the extraordinary THE NAME OF THE WIND, THE WISE MAN'S FEAR is the second instalment of this superb fantasy trilogy from Patrick Rothfuss. This is the most exciting fantasy series since George R. R. Martin's A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, and a must-read for all fans of HBO's GAME OF THRONES.
Picking up the tale of Kvothe Kingkiller once again, we follow him into exile, into political intrigue, courtship, adventure, love and magic ... and further along the path that has turned Kvothe, the mightiest magician of his age, a legend in his own time, into Kote, the unassuming pub landlord.
Packed with as much magic, adventure and home-grown drama as THE NAME OF THE WIND, this is a sequel in every way the equal to its predecessor and a must-read for all fantasy fans. Readable, engaging and gripping THE WISE MAN'S FEAR is the biggest and the best new fantasy novel out there.
Richard Morgan has always been one of our most successful SF authors with his fast-moving and brutal storylines, blistering plots and a powerful social conscience behind his work.And now he's back, with his first SF novel for eight years . . . and it promises to be a publication to remember.An ex-corporate enforcer, Hakan Veil, is forced to bodyguard Madison Madekwe, part of a colonial audit team investigating a disappeared lottery winner on Mars. But when Madekwe is abducted, and Hakan nearly killed, the investigation takes him farther and deeper than he had ever expected. And soon Hakan discovers the heavy price he may have to pay to learn the truth.
Brandon Sanderson - the international phenomenon who finished the Wheel of Time sequence - continues his smash-hit Mistborn fantasy trilogy.
The impossible has happened. The Lord Ruler is dead has been vanquished. But so too is Kelsier the man who masterminded the triumph. The awesome task of rebuilding the world has been left to his protege Vin; a one-time street urchin, now the most powerful Mistborn in the land.
Worryingly for her Vin has become the focus of a new religion, a development that leaves her intensely uneasy. More worryingly still the mists have become unpredictable since the Lord Ruler died and a strage vaprous entity is stalking Vin.
As the siege of Luthadel intensifies the ancient legend of the Well of Ascension offers the only glimmer of hope. But no-one knows where it is or what it can do...
A New York Times bestseller and a international smash-hit trilogy from the author who wrote the final books in The Wheel of Time sequence.
The triumphant return to the world of MYTHAGO WOOD, one of the greatest fantasy novels of the twentieth century
At the heart of Ryhope Wood, Steven and the mythago Guiwenneth live in the ruins of a Roman villa close to a haunted fortress from the Iron Age, from which Guiwenneth's myth arose. She is comfortable here, almost tied to the place, and Steven has long since abandoned all thought of returning to his own world. They have animals, protection and crops.
They also have two children, a combination of human and mythago. Jack is like his father, an active boy keen to know all about `the outer world'; Yssobel takes after her mother, even to her long auburn hair.
But this idyll cannot last. The hunters who protected Guiwenneth as a child have come to warn her she is in danger. Yssobel is dreaming increasingly of her Uncle Christian, Steven's brother, who disappeared into Lavondyss, and Jack wants to see 'the outer world' more than anything. Events are about to overtake them.
One of the great classics of modern horror, set in a small New York town and filled with creeping dread.
'The terror just mounts and mounts' Stephen King
It began shortly after the party at which one of their members, Edward Wanderley, had died - or was killed. The Chowder Society, who for years had met in customary evening dress with the object of telling each other tales of every kind, now found themselves drawn towards the supernatural. It was some sort of solace for Edward's loss. They began to tell ghost stories, extraordinary ghost stories ... ghost stories that did not always stop when the teller finished speaking ... Then came the dreams, shared simultaneously by the Chowder Society members, forecasting horrors the four ageing men can scarcely bring themselves to discuss. And now they are about to learn what happens to those who believe they can bury the past - and get away with murder.
Readers can't stop turning Ghost Story's pages:
'A real haunting good read, the story drives you crazy in places' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Intelligent and ambitious . . . one of the best horror novels of the 20th century . . . the terror, sometimes expected, often unexpected, is measured out in precise and exact quantities' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'This beautifully written story of evil in a small town has a lot in common with Stephen King's IT . . . The stories of these men, the stories about the relatives of these men, and the stories about the town itself, wind around and through each other' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Probably the scariest book I ever read' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Loved this book! The setting, the characters, the atmosphere, the small town... some really creepy scenes. All of it just worked for me' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'This is actually one of the "scariest" books I've read so far as atmosphere and actual emotional scare goes' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Fantastic book if you like to be scared. Straub is a master of this genre' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'This is a book that combines the chill of the New York winter with the arthritic helplessness of old man nightmares . . . If you want to read some of the best writing that horror has to offer, read Ghost Story' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Introducing Geralt the Witcher - revered and hated - who holds the line against the monsters plaguing humanity in the bestselling series that inspired the Witcher video games and a major Netflix show.
Geralt of Rivia is a Witcher, a man whose magic powers and lifelong training have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin.
Yet he is no ordinary killer: he hunts the vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent.
But not everything monstrous-looking is evil; not everything fair is good . . . and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth.
Andrzej Sapkowski, winner of the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement award, started an international phenomenon with his Witcher series. The Last Wish is the perfect introduction to this one-of-a-kind fantasy world.
Translated by Danusia Stok
Ian Macdonald's RIVER OF GODS, painted a vivid picture of a near future India, 100 years after independence. It revolutionised British SF for a new generation by taking a perspective that was not European or American. BRASYL will do the same for South America's largest and most vibrant country.
A story that begins in the favelas, the slums of Rio, and quickly expands to take in drugs, corruption, and a frightening new technology that allows access to all the multiple worlds that have slipped into existence in other planes everytime we make a decision.
This is rich, epic SF that opens our eyes to the world around us and posits mind-blowing alternative sciences. It is a landmark work in modern SF from one of its most respected practitioners.
Springtime in Styria. And that means war.
There have been nineteen years of blood. The ruthless Grand Duke Orso is locked in a vicious struggle with the squabbling League of Eight, and between them they have bled the land white. While armies march, heads roll and cities burn, behind the scenes bankers, priests and older, darker powers play a deadly game to choose who will be king.
War may be hell but for Monza Murcatto, the Snake of Talins, the most feared and famous mercenary in Duke Orso's employ, it's a damn good way of making money too. Her victories have made her popular - a shade too popular for her employer's taste. Betrayed, thrown down a mountain and left for dead, Murcatto's reward is a broken body and a burning hunger for vengeance. Whatever the cost, seven men must die.
Her allies include Styria's least reliable drunkard, Styria's most treacherous poisoner, a mass-murderer obsessed with numbers and a Northman who just wants to do the right thing. Her enemies number the better half of the nation. And that's all before the most dangerous man in the world is dispatched to hunt her down and finish the job Duke Orso started...
Springtime in Styria. And that means revenge.
'I loved this book. What else is there to say?' Patrick Rothfuss
According to mythology mankind used to live in The Tranquiline Halls. Heaven. But then the Voidbringers assaulted and captured heaven, casting out God and men. Men took root on Roshar, the world of storms. And the Voidbringers followed...
They came against man ten thousand times. To help them cope, the Almighty gave men powerful suits of armor and mystical weapons, known as Shardblades. Led by ten angelic Heralds and ten orders of knights known as Radiants, mankind finally won.
Or so the legends say. Today, the only remnants of those supposed battles are the Shardblades, the possession of which makes a man nearly invincible on the battlefield. The entire world is at war with itself - and has been for centuries since the Radiants turned against mankind. Kings strive to win more Shardblades, each secretly wishing to be the one who will finally unite all of mankind under a single throne.
On a world scoured down to the rock by terrifying hurricanes that blow through every few day a young spearman forced into the army of a Shardbearer, led to war against an enemy he doesn't understand and doesn't really want to fight.
What happened deep in mankind's past?
Why did the Radiants turn against mankind, and what happened to the magic they used to wield?
Readers absolutely love The Way of Kings:
'Incredible, impressive or fantastic, all these words are an understatement to the quality this book holds. The Way of Kings is the beginning of a masterpiece series in epic fantasy' Novel Notions
'It's multi-POV, action-packed, heartfelt, exciting, thrilling, and I am running out of adjectives' Goodreads Reviewer, Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'The story is mind-blowing, the ideas and thoughts create a world that is believable and intriguing. A strong tale with a well fleshed out world and multidimensional characters that are easy to care about' Goodreads Reviewer, Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'The Way of Kings is a huge opening act to The Stormlight Archive which took every single one of these elements of a good fantasy story and elevated the art of storytelling to a different league' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Brandon Sanderson is probably the most gifted storyteller of his generation. He's a silent force that strikes you when you least expect it, and with The Way of Kings he introduces a series that will change the history of Fantasy' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'I've been struck speechless. I've loved Sanderson's books in the past, but this one completely blew me away. I really wish I could give The Way of Kings a sixth star' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Book 1 in the Rivers of London series, from Sunday Times Number One bestselling author Ben Aaronovitch.
My name is Peter Grant, and I used to be a probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service, and to everyone else as the Filth.
My story really begins when I tried to take a witness statement from a man who was already dead...
Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London's Metropolitan Police. After taking a statement from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost, Peter comes to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny.
Suddenly, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.
Praise for the Rivers of London novels:
'Ben Aaronovitch has created a wonderful world full of mystery, magic and fantastic characters. I love being there more than the real London'
NICK FROST
'As brilliant and funny as ever'
THE SUN
'Charming, witty, exciting'
THE INDEPENDENT
'An incredibly fast-moving magical joyride for grown-ups'
THE TIMES
Discover why this incredible series has sold over two million copies around the world. If you're a fan of Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams - don't panic - you will love Ben Aaronovitch's imaginative, irreverent and all-round irresistible novels.
From Emma Newman, the award-nominated author of Between Two Thorns, comes a novel of how one secret withheld to protect humanity's future might be its undoing...
Renata Ghali believed in Lee Suh-Mi's vision of a world far beyond Earth, calling to humanity. A planet promising to reveal the truth about our place in the cosmos, untainted by overpopulation, pollution, and war. Ren believed in that vision enough to give up everything to follow Suh-Mi into the unknown.
More than twenty-two years have passed since Ren and the rest of the faithful braved the starry abyss and established a colony at the base of an enigmatic alien structure where Suh-Mi has since resided, alone. All that time, Ren has worked hard as the colony's 3-D printer engineer, creating the tools necessary for human survival in an alien environment, and harboring a devastating secret.
Ren continues to perpetuate the lie forming the foundation of the colony for the good of her fellow colonists, despite the personal cost. Then a stranger appears, far too young to have been part of the first planetfall, a man who bears a remarkable resemblance to Suh-Mi.
The truth Ren has concealed since planetfall can no longer be hidden. And its revelation might tear the colony apart...
Acclaimed author Emma Newman returns to the captivating universe she created in Planetfall with a stunning science fiction mystery where one man's murder is much more than it seems...
Gov-corp detective Carlos Moreno was only a baby when Atlas left Earth to seek truth among the stars. But in that moment, the course of Carlos's entire life changed. Atlas is what took his mother away; what made his father lose hope; what led Alejandro Casales, leader of the religious cult known as the Circle, to his door. And now, on the eve of the fortieth anniversary of Atlas's departure, it's got something to do why Casales was found dead in his hotel room-and why Carlos is the man in charge of the investigation.
To figure out who killed one of the most powerful men on Earth, Carlos is supposed to put aside his personal history. But the deeper he delves into the case, the more he realizes that escaping the past is not so easy. There's more to Casales's death than meets the eye, and something much more sinister to the legacy of Atlas than anyone realizes...
