Book Preview INVASION CYCLE • BOOK II Every Claw, Every Fang Multani traced the damage done by the ray cannon blast. The bolt had struck Weatherlight’s hull where the figurehead should have been. It had torn a wide gash through seven inches of solid magnigoth wood and had vaporized the first forecastle rib. In the … Read more
Book Preview INVASION CYCLE • BOOK I White clouds fled through blue skies. The sea chanted fearfully below. Waves crowded shoulder to shoulder and shoved each other. Gray land crouched at the edge of Dominaria, hiding itself in veils of yellow steam. Evil hung in the heavens. Something was coming, something horrible, and it would … Read more
Book Preview Barrin paused in the classroom’s open doorway, his charitable mood fading. Barely an hour returned to the Tolarian Academy, the master mage had decided to walk a quick tour of the main building before retiring, a habit he formed over his many years as the academy’s chief administrator. Tonight it possessed the added … Read more
Book Preview Urza says he’s sane. Perhaps he is. Measures of sanity among planeswalkers are hard to come by. He has lived for over three thousand years. He heals by merely willing it. With a thought, he steps from world to world to world. His very appearance is a matter of convenience, clothes and even … Read more
Book Preview His journey had begun in the clouds, riding the winds in search of a place remembered but no longer known. He’d found the place, as he’d found it before, by following the ancient glyphs an ancient folk had carved into the land, glyphs that had endured millennia of neglect and the cataclysmic finale … Read more
Book Preview ARTIFACT CYCLE • BOOK I It was the night before the end of the world. The two armies had gathered on opposite sides of a blasted vale. Once this had been a verdant valley, its wide plain shaped by a wide, meandering stream, its flanking hills blanketed by thick groves of oak, blanchwood, … Read more
Book Preview AUTHOR’S NOTE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS WHEN I FIRST PROPOSED this book to my editor, it was the winter of 1998 and nearly seven months since the last shooting — Kip Kinkel’s May rampage in Springfield, Oregon. That tragedy had followed close on the heels of another, in Jonesboro, Arkansas (March 24, 1998), … Read more
Book Preview Copyright © 2002 by Lisa Gardner Acknowledgments As a general rule, I enjoy researching all of my novels. Murder, mayhem, investigative procedures, it’s all good stuff. This time around, however, I had a particularly wonderful experience, and for that I’m … Read more
Book Preview Writers have a tendency to view their craft as a solitary occupation. In fact, it takes many people to create a book and I’m indebted to quite a few. I would like to express my deep appreciation and gratitude to all the people who helped me in this process, including: … Read more
Book Preview AS ALWAYS, I‘M indebted to quite a few people for their expertise and patience in helping make this book a reality. Being myself, I took artistic license with a great deal of the information but tried to keep things as rooted in the real world as possible. All mistakes are mine, of course. … Read more
Book Preview The third book in the Quincy / Rainie series The third book in the Quincy / Rainie series Copyright © 2001 by Lisa Baumgartner Copyright © 2001 by Lisa Baumgartner Acknowledgments For most of my career as a suspense author, I’ve been repeatedly greeted by the comment, … Read more
Book Preview I’ve always wondered what people felt in the final few hours of their lives. Did they know something terrible was about to occur? Sense imminent tragedy, hold their loved ones close? Or is it one of those things that simply happens? The mother of four, tucking her kids into bed, worrying … Read more
Book Preview A little bit of research went into the making of this novel. In the absolutely, highly recommended, great-way-to-spend-a-weekend department, I was privileged to once again visit the FBI Academy and learn more about life amid an active Marine base. I have done my best to re-create the facilities and culture of the Academy. … Read more
Book Preview “In the U.S., the dangerous spiders include the Widows and the Recluse Spiders.” “In the U.S., the dangerous spiders include the Widows and the Recluse Spiders.” FROM Spiders and Their Kin,BY HERBERT W. AND LORNA R. LEVI, A GOLDEN GUIDE FROM ST. MARTIN’S PRESS, 2002 FROM Spiders and Their Kin,BY HERBERT W. AND … Read more
Book Preview It’s a question anyone should be able to answer. A question that defines a life, creates a future, guides most minutes of one’s days. Simple, elegant, encompassing. He asked the question, and I felt the answer in the weight of my duty belt, the constrictive confines of my armored vest, the tight brim … Read more
Book Preview I don’t remember that night much anymore. In the beginning, it seems like you’ll never forget. But time is a nebulous thing, especially for a child. And year by year, bit by bit, details started to fade from my memory. Coping skills, Dr. Frank assured me. The natural evolution of my psyche starting … Read more
Book Preview MY FATHER EXPLAINED it to me the first time when I was seven years old: The world is a system. School is a system. Neighborhoods are a system. Towns, governments, any large group of people. For that matter, the human body is a system, enabled by smaller, biological subsystems. Criminal justice, definitely a … Read more
Book Preview Tuesday, 12:24 a.m. PST SHE IS DREAMING AGAIN. She doesn’t want to. She wrestles with the sheets, tosses her head, tries to keep the dream version of herself from walking up those stairs, from opening that door, from entering the gloom. She wakes up stuffing the scream back into her throat, eyes bulging … Read more