Book Preview There’s an old saying that the only way to leave the Mafia is in a coffin. Members are pledged to a lifetime of secrecy, and to quit would be to arouse suspicion that you are cooperating with the police or federal agents. Such breaches of faith the mob punishes with death. Michael Franzese … Read more
Book Preview Flying toward thankfulness, you become the rare bird with one wing made of fear, and one of hope. In autumn, a rose crawling along the ground in the cold wind. Rain on the roof runs down and out by the spout as fast as it can. Talking is pain. Lie down and rest, … Read more
Book Preview BOOK FLAP Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl is among the most enduring documents of the twentieth century. Since its publication in 1947, it has been read by tens of millions of people all over the world. It remains a beloved and deeply admired testament to the indestructable nature of the … Read more
Book Preview 12.46: 13-year-old Claire Bingley stands alone at a bus stop. 12.47: Ted Conkaffey parks his car beside her. 12.52: The girl is missing … Six minutes is all it takes to ruin Detective Ted Conkaffey’s life. Accused but not convicted of Claire’s abduction, he’s now living in the croc-infested wetlands of Crimson Lake. … Read more
Book Preview Advance Reader’s Copy — Not for Sale THE SUM OF HER PARTS Alan Dean Foster Del Rey This is an uncorrected eBook file. Please do not quote for publication until you check your copy against the finished book. Tentative On-Sale Date: November 27, 2012 Tentative Publication Month: December 2012 Tentative Print Price: $15.00 … Read more
Book Preview Whispr knew for certain that he was in Africa when the pair of black leopards shot past him in the airport corridor. His companion, cautious business partner, overbearing scientific advisor, and (dare he think it?) sometime personal physician, Dr. Ingrid Seastrom, let out a gasp and dropped to her knees as one of … Read more
Book Preview BY ALAN DEAN FOSTER The Black Hole Cachalot Dark Star The Metrognome and Other Stories Midworld No Crystal Tears Sentenced to Prism Star Wars®: Splinter of the Mind’s Eye Star Trek® Logs One-Ten Voyage to the City of the Dead … Who Needs Enemies? With Friends Like These… Mad Amos The Howling Stones Parallelites … Read more
Book Preview For the eleventh time, Ussakk the Astronomer pored over the most recent collated readouts while trying to decide how best to kill himself. Whichever method he chose, it would be faster and cleaner than what was coming. While the last time the Iollth had ravaged Hyff had been well before his birth, abundant … Read more
Book Preview Marcus Walker’s khirach-tel soufflé had fallen, and couldn’t get up. But it was trying to. Writhing, peridot-hued filaments of specially sweetened bariile as active as they were tasty twisted and coiled like a nest of worms on speed as they struggled to re-form the compact yet airy loaf Walker had initially marshaled out … Read more
Book Preview Marcus Walker loved Chicago, and Chicago loved him, which is why he was in Bug Jump, California. Well, notin Bug Jump, exactly. As even the locals would admit, one was never actually wholly within Bug Jump. One sort of hovered around its tenuous periphery, much as the peripatetic mosquitoes of midsummer zoned around … Read more
Book Preview IT STARTED IN L’BOR. Or perhaps it was Lynchbany. In any case the occurrence certainly was singular as opposed to simultaneous. Which is to say there was only one of whatever it was. It shifted from place to place, revealing itself with distinction and imprinting itself on the memories of all who encountered … Read more
Book Preview Maybe nothing would have happened if Talea hadn’t found the demon in the breadbox. She’d baked six loaves of fresh humberpine the previous day and had left them in the metal-lined wooden container to cool. It sat on the tiled kitchen counter just to the left of me big oval window cut in … Read more
Book Preview “Jon-Tom, there’s someone in the tree.” From the abyss of deep rest he replied. “Huh—what?” Feminine fingers imprinted themselves on the flesh of his shoulder. “I said there’s someone in the tree” The voice was sharp, melodious, familiar, as well it should have been. Extending himself mightily, he opened one eye. Moonlight gilded … Read more
Book Preview For once all seemed right with the world, even if the world in question happened to be the one to which he had been unwillingly transported, Jon-Tom reflected with a resigned sigh. It was a perfectly gorgeous autumn morning. Bright sunshine warmed his face, his stomach was giving him no trouble, and there … Read more
Book Preview “And I say Opiode should give way!” The speaker. Asmouelle the tamandua, stood be- fore the narrow wooden oval that was the Quorum table and glared at his colleagues. His nose was damp and glistening, and so was the table. Most everything stayed damp in Quasequa, a city built on numerous islands … Read more
Book Preview “I’m dying,” Clothahump wheezed. The wizard glanced to his left. ‘Tm dying and you stand there gawking like a virginal adolescent who’s just discovered that his blind date is a noted courtesan. With your kind of help I’ll never live to see my three-hundredth birthday.” “With your kind of attitude it’s a … Read more
Book Preview The Hour of the Gate Spellsinger #2 Alan Dean Foster Jon-Tom reeled dizzily at the top of the steps. All wrong, he knew. Out of place, out of time. He was not standing before the entrance to this strange Council Building in a city named Polastrindu. A five-foot tall otter in peaked … Read more
Book Preview Discontent ruled the stars, and there were portents in the heavens. On the fourth day of Eluria, which follows the Feast of Consanguinity, a great comet was seen in the night sky. It crossed east to west over the Tree and lasted for half a fortnight. It left a black scar on the … Read more