A New York Times Notable Book of 2015
Shortlisted for the Hugo, Nebula, Kitschies, Audie and Locus Awards
The inaugural Wired.com book club pickTHIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS . . . FOR THE LAST TIME.
IT STARTS WITH THE GREAT RED RIFT across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun.
IT STARTS WITH DEATH, with a murdered son and a missing daughter.
IT STARTS WITH BETRAYAL, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.
'There aren't too many recent sf novels we can confidently call truly moral works, but Speaker for the Dead is one. It's a completely gripping story.' - The Toronto Star
'Achieves and delivers more than almost anything else within the science fiction genre, Ender's Game is a contemporary classic' - New York Times on Ender's Game
A FALLEN HERO - HAUNTED BY HIS PAST, BUT CAN HE CHANGE THE FUTURE?
Ender Wiggin was once considered a great military leader, a saviour for mankind.
But now history judges his destruction of an alien race as monstrous rather than heroic.
In the aftermath of the war, Ender disappeared, and a powerful voice arose: The Speaker for the Dead, who told the true story behind the battle with the aliens. Now, years later, a second alien race has been discovered. But again they are strange and frightening - and again, humans are dying.
It is only the Speaker for the Dead, secretly Ender Wiggin, who has the courage to confront the mystery . . . and the truth.
The Hugo and Nebula award-winning sequel to the classic science fiction novel ENDER'S GAME - soon to be released as a major motion picture starring Harrison Ford.
Books by Orson Scott Card:
Alvin Maker novels
Seventh Son
Red Prophet
Prentice Alvin
Alvin Journeyman
Heartfire
The Crystal City
Ender Wiggin Saga
Ender's Game
Speaker for the Dead
Xenocide
Children of the Mind
Ender in Exile
Homecoming
The Memory of the Earth
The Call of the Earth
The Ships of the Earth
Earthfall
Earthborn
First Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)
Earth Unaware
Earth Afire
Earth Awakens
The prequel novel to the globally bestselling Wheel of Time series - a fantasy phenomenonThe city of Canluum lies close to the scarred and desolate wastes of the Blight, a walled haven from the dangers away to the north, and a refuge from the ill works of those who serve the Dark One. Or so it is said. The city that greets Al'Lan Mandragoran, exiled king of Malkier and the finest swordsman of his generation, is instead one that is rife with rumour and the whisperings of Shadowspawn. Proof, should he have required it, that the Dark One grows powerful once more and that his minions are at work throughout the lands.And yet it is within Canluum's walls that Lan will meet a woman who will shape his destiny. Moiraine is a young and powerful Aes Sedai who has journeyed to the city in search of a bondsman. She requires aid in a desperate quest to prove the truth of a vague and largely discredited prophecy - one that speaks of a means to turn back the shadow, and of a child who may be the dragon reborn.'Epic in every sense' - Sunday Times
'With the Wheel of Time, Jordan has come to dominate the world that Tolkien began to reveal' New York Times'A fantasy phenomenon' SFXThe Wheel of Time
The Eye of the World
The Great Hunt
The Dragon Reborn
The Shadow Rising
The Fires of Heaven
Lord of Chaos
A Crown of Swords
The Path of Daggers
Winter's Heart
Crossroads of Twilight
Knife of Dreams
The Gathering Storm
Towers of Midnight
A Memory of LightNew Spring (prequel)
'Vivid and beautiful . . . Astonishing' - Guardian'A thrilling journey through an age of ice and stone - one of Kim Stanley Robinson's best!' - Greg BearAn award-winning and bestselling SF writer, Kim Stanley Robinson is widely acknowledged as one of the most exciting and visionary writers in the field. His latest novel, 2312, imagined how we would be living 300 years from now. Now, with his new novel, he turns from our future to our past - to the Palaeolithic era, and an extraordinary moment in humanity's development. An emotionally powerful and richly detailed portrayal of life 30,000 years ago, it is a novel that will appeal both to his existing fans and a whole new mainstream readership.An extraordinary portrayal of life in the Palaeolithic era, 30,000 years into our past, by the multi-award-winning author described recently by the Sunday Times as 'one of science fiction's greats'Novels by Kim Stanley Robinson: Icehenge
The Memory of Whiteness
A Short, Sharp Shock
Antarctica
The Years of Rice and Salt
Galileo's Dream
2312
Shaman
Aurora
New York 2140
Red Moon
'Epic in every sense' - Sunday TimesThe ninth novel in the Wheel of Time series - one of the most influential and popular fantasy epics ever published.
Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, is slowly succumbing to the taint that the Dark One has placed upon the saidin - the male half of the True Source. His Asha'man followers are also showing signs of the insanity that once devastated the world and brought the Age of Legends to an end. And as Rand falters, the Shadow falls across a stricken land. In the city of Ebou Dar the Seanchan, blind to the folly of their cause, marshal their forces and continue their relentless assault. In Shayol Ghul the Forsaken join together to destroy the Dragon. Rand's only chance is to hazard the impossible and remove the taint from the saidin. But to do so he must master a power from the Age of Legends that none have ever dared to risk - a power that can annihilate Creation and bring an end to Time itself.
'With the Wheel of Time, Jordan has come to dominate the world that Tolkien began to reveal' New York Times
'A fantasy phenomenon' SFXThe Wheel of Time
The Eye of the World
The Great Hunt
The Dragon Reborn
The Shadow Rising
The Fires of Heaven
Lord of Chaos
A Crown of Swords
The Path of Daggers
Winter's Heart
Crossroads of Twilight
Knife of Dreams
The Gathering Storm
Towers of Midnight
A Memory of LightNew Spring (prequel)
'Kim Stanley Robinson is one of science fiction's greats . . . fans of the Mars books will delight in this novel; new readers will be astonished by the depth, breadth and power of Robinson's invention' - SUNDAY TIMES
'Polymathic, visionary brilliance' - FINANCIAL TIMESWinner of the 2013 Nebula Award for Best NovelThe year is 2312. Scientific advances have opened gateways to an extraordinary future. Earth is no longer our only home; new habitats have been created throughout the solar system, on moons, planets and in between. But in 2312, a sequence of events will force humanity to confront our past, present and future. The first event takes place on Mercury, in the city of Terminator, itself a miracle of engineering on an unprecedented scale. For Swan Er Hong, it will change her life. Once a designer of worlds, now Swan will be led into a plot to destroy them. 2312 is a bold vision of humanity's future and a compelling portrait of those individuals who will shape its events.Novels by Kim Stanley Robinson:Icehenge
The Memory of Whiteness
A Short, Sharp Shock
Antarctica
The Years of Rice and Salt
Galileo's Dream
2312
Shaman
Aurora
New York 2140
Red Moon
The tenth Culture book from the awesome imagination of Iain M. Banks, a modern master of science fiction. The Scavenger species are circling. It is, truly, the End Days for the Gzilt civilisation.An ancient people, organised on military principles and yet almost perversely peaceful, the Gzilt helped set up the Culture ten thousand years earlier and were very nearly one of its founding societies, deciding not to join only at the last moment. Now they've made the collective decision to follow the well-trodden path of millions of other civilisations: they are going to Sublime, elevating themselves to a new and almost infinitely more rich and complex existence.Amid preparations though, the Regimental High Command is destroyed. Lieutenant Commander (reserve) Vyr Cossont appears to have been involved, and she is now wanted - dead, not alive. Aided only by an ancient, reconditioned android and a suspicious Culture avatar, Cossont must complete her last mission given to her by the High Command. She must find the oldest person in the Culture, a man over nine thousand years old, who might have some idea what really happened all that time ago. It seems that the final days of the Gzilt civilisation are likely to prove its most perilous.Praise for the Culture series:'Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution' Independent on Sunday
'Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future' Guardian
'Jam-packed with extraordinary invention' Scotsman
'Compulsive reading' Sunday Telegraph The Culture series:
Consider Phlebas
The Player of Games
Use of Weapons
The State of the Art
Excession
Inversions
Look to Windward
Matter
Surface Detail
The Hydrogen SonataOther books by Iain M. Banks:
Against a Dark Background
Feersum Endjinn
The Algebraist
***50 MILLION TERRY BROOKS COPIES SOLD AROUND THE WORLD***THE SHANNARA CHRONICLES IS NOW A MAJOR TV SERIES'Terry's place is at the head of the fantasy world' Philip PullmanFifty years from now, our world looks very different. Governments have fallen. Thousands live in fortified strongholds; others roam the landscape as either predator or prey. Standing against the forces that have tipped the balance from good to evil are a very few heroes, men and women imbued with powerful magic and sworn to a high destiny. Logan Tom is one of those heroes. He's on a desperate quest to deliver the street kids he rescued in Seattle to safety. So, too, is Angel Perez, who is leading a second group in the Oregon wilderness where she encounters the long-hidden Elves of Cintra. And Hawk - just learning his magic - has an encounter with the mystical King of the Silver River, who promises safety for both humans and elves - if only they can reach him. . .
Praise for Terry Brooks:'A master of the craft . . . required reading' Brent Weeks'I can't even begin to count how many of Terry Brooks's books I've read (and re-read) over the years' Patrick Rothfuss, author of The Name of the Wind'I would not be writing epic fantasy today if not for Shannara' Peter V. Brett, author of The Painted Man'If you haven't read Terry Brooks, you haven't read fantasy' Christopher Paolini, author of Eragon
The Genesis of Shannara trilogy:ARMAGEDDON'S CHILDREN
THE ELVES OF CINTRA
THE GYPSY MORPH
Horror stalks the Four Lands. The Ildatch, ancient source of evil, has stirred to life. It sends its foul Mord Wraiths to make war on all living things and bring about, at last, Mankind's destruction. Once again Allanon, Druid Protector of the Races, must seek the help of a descendant of the Elven King, Jerle Shannara. Brin, daughter of Wil Ohmsford, has been born with the magic of the Wishsong, which alone can open a way to the Ildatch. Reluctantly, she joins Allanon on his perilous journey east. Meanwhile her younger brother, Jair, learns that Brin will fail and die unless he can reach her in time. As Brin walks blindly into the trap the Ildatch has set, Jair's only hope of reaching her in time is to travel through the very heart of evil. . . THE WISHSONG OF SHANNARA is the third volume of the classic series that set the standard for modern fantasy. A timeless work from a master storyteller.
Life is quiet for Alex Verus. Amazing.With a flat full of friends (and the occasional fish), and business booming, why not enjoy the humdrum here and now?But of course that's too good to be true. In a sudden and cruel pincer movement of fate, Alex finds himself fighting a sinister and powerful gang as well as his own demons - for the same crime.Held hostage by the choices of his past, Alex's future is now in jeopardy . . .
HUMANS THOUGHT THEY WERE ALONE IN THE GALAXY. UNTIL NOW.A hundred years before Ender's Game, humanity is slowly making its way out to the planets of the solar system, exploring and mining asteroids.The ship El Cavador is far from Earth, in the deeps of the Kuiper Belt, beyond Pluto. When the ship's telescopes pick up a fast-moving object coming in-system, they're unsure what to make of it. Little do they know that this object is the most important thing to happen to the human race in a million years. It's humanity's first contact with an alien race. The First Formic War is about to begin.BOOK ONE OF THE FIRST FORMIC WAR
STORM OF WINGS: When the uneasy peace of the three kingdoms is threatened by war, Hal's dream of riding dragons becomes reality. For this is a conflict like no other. For the first time, wild dragons have become living weapons, ridden by men of cold daring and ruthless ambition. And the greatest of them is Hal Kailas. Dragonmaster.
KNIGHTHOOD OF THE DRAGON: When he first dreamed of riding a dragon to war, Hal Keilas was laughed at. Then the war between the kingdoms of Deraine, Sagene and Roche compelled a solution daring beyond their people's wildest dreams. But Hal, Dragonmaster, knows that the war and the killing have only begun.
THE LAST BATTLE: As predicted, with the end of the war both dragon fliers and dragons have been cast aside. However, what or who is savaging the dragons in their native lands? Hal embarks on a new crusade, and discovers a threat, not just to the dragons but to man himself.
I've been fighting it all night. I'm going to lose ... Nature wins out. It always does.'
Elena Michaels didn't know that her lover Clay was a werewolf until he bit her, changing her life forever. Betrayed and furious, she cannot accept her transformation, and wants nothing to do with her Pack - a charismatic group of fellow werewolves who say they want to help.
When a series of brutal murders threatens the Pack - and Clay - Elena is forced to make an impossible choice. Abandon the only people who truly understand her new nature, or help them to save the lover who ruined her life, and who still wants her back at any cost.
Book six in Kelley Armstrong's supernatural series marks the return of werewolf Elena Michaels from BITTEN and STOLEN. When half-demon Xavier calls in the favour Elena owes him, it seems easy enough - steal Jack the Ripper's 'From Hell' letter away from a Toronto collector who had himself stolen it from the Ripper evidence boxes in the Metropolitan Police files. But nothing in the supernatural world is ever as simple as it seems. Elena accidentally triggers a spell placed on the letter, and manages to tear an opening that leads into the nether regions of Victorian London. Toronto may be looking for a tourism boost, but 'Gateway to Hell' isn't quite the new slogan the city had in mind . . .
Eve Levine - half-demon, black witch and devoted mother - has been dead for three years. She has a great house, an interesting love life and can't be killed again - which comes in handy when you've made as many enemies as Eve. Yes, the afterlife isn't too bad - all she needs to do is find a way to communicate with her daughter Savannah and she'll be happy. But fate - or more exactly, the Fates - have other plans. Eve owes them a favour, and they've just called it in. An evil spirit called the Nix has escaped from hell. She feeds on chaos and death, and is very good at persuading people to kill for her. The Fates want Eve to hunt her down before she does any more damage, but the Nix is a dangerous enemy - previous hunters have been sent mad in the process. As if that's not problem enough, it turns out that the only way to stop her is with an angel's sword. And Eve's no angel . . .
Paige Winterbourne is a witch. Not that you'd notice - no warts, no green skin, no cute little wiggle of the nose whenever she casts a spell. No, most of the time she's just a normal 23-year-old girl; works too hard, worries about her weight, wonders if she'll ever find a boyfriend. Okay, so she does have an adopted teenage daughter, Savannah, who wants to raise her black witch of a mother from the dead. And who is being stalked by a telekinetic half-demon and an all-powerful cabal of sorcerers. But other than that, Paige has a really ordinary life. That is, until the neighbours find out who she is, and all hell breaks loose. Literally...
After Paige Winterbourne is ousted as leader of the American Coven of Witches, all she wants to do is hide under her duvet for a few months. Let the supernatural world manage without her, see if she cares... But fate, of course, has other plans. A murderer is on the loose - someone with superhuman skills. When Paige learns that the killer is targeting children, she realises she has to get involved in the covert investigation. And so Paige - desperate to protect those she loves - is thrown into a world of arrogant Cabal leaders, drunken necromancers, sulky druid gods and pretentious leather-clad vampires. Luckily, she has a female werewolf and a certain renegade sorcerer on her side...
It was one of the less glorious incidents of a long-ago war. It led to the destruction of two suns and the billions of lives they supported. Now, eight hundred years later, the light from the first of those ancient mistakes has reached the Culture Orbital, Masaq'. The light from the second may not.'Confirms Banks as the standard by which the rest of SF is judged' GUARDIAN'In terms of sheer storytelling prowess and verve, Look to Windward is a work of genius' SFX'A great book' NEW SCIENTIST
The Culture - a human/machine symbiotic society - has thrown up many great Game Players, and one of the greatest is Gurgeh. Jernau Morat Gurgeh. The Player of Games. Master of every board, computer and strategy.Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the Empire of Azad, cruel and incredibly wealthy, to try their fabulous game . . . a game so complex, so like life itself, that the winner becomes emperor. Mocked, blackmailed, almost murdered, Gurgeh accepts the game, and with it the challenge of his life - and very possibly his death.
The first ever collection of Iain Banks's short fiction, this volume includes the acclaimed novella, The State of the Art. This is a striking addition to the growing body of Culture lore, and adds definition and scale to the previous works by using the Earth of 1977 as contrast. The other stories in the collection range from science fiction to horror, dark-coated fantasy to morality tale. All bear the indefinable stamp of Iain Banks's staggering talent.
The man known as Cheradenine Zakalwe was one of Special Circumstances' foremost agents, changing the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through intrigue, dirty tricks or military action.The woman known as Diziet Sma had plucked him from obscurity and pushed him towards his present eminence, but despite all their dealings she did not know him as well as she thought. The drone known as Skaffen-Amtiskaw knew both of these people. It had once saved the woman's life by massacring her attackers in a particularly bloody manner. It believed the man to be a burnt-out case. But not even its machine intelligence could see the horrors in his past.
Jesse has survived the chasers. He's survived the roving bands of humans. And he might even have started to make some new friends.But the quarantine period is up. The army is coming in. And Jesse's about to learn that the real test of survival has only just begun.
Magiere has cultivated a reputation as the most formidable vampire slayer in the land. Villagers everywhere welcome her with both awe and dismay, grateful to her for removing the undead menace, but finding themselves poorer for their salvation. Magiere has never had a problem with exploiting superstition for profit. Now, tired of this game, Magiere and her half-elf partner are ready to retire. But Magiere has attracted the attention of vampires who recognize her true identity - even if she does not - and who fear her birthright and latent power. They will do anything to stop Magiere from realising her true potential.
The Legend
Druss, Captain of the Axe: the stories of his life were told everywhere. Instead of the wealth and fame he could have claimed, he had chosen a mountain lair, high in the lonely country bordering on the clouds. There the grizzled old warrior kept company with snow leopards and awaited his old enemy death.The Fortress
Mighty Dros Delnoch, protected by six outer walls, the only route by which an army could pass through the mountains. It was the stronghold of the Drenai empire. And now it was the last battleground, for all else had fallen before the Nadir hordes.And hope rested on the skills of that one old man...
