From the Publisher With more colorful characters and startling plot twists than the most dramatic of novels, John J. Robinson's Dungeon, Fire, and Sword immerses the reader in an historical era where the blood flows freely, tribal antagonisms run deep, and betrayal lurks around every corner. The time is the Crusades and the place is the Middle East, where a fearless band of monk-warriors called the Knights Templar have vowed to protect Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. The story of their faith and courage - and the horrors of their ultimate betrayal - has resonated throughout history. A vivid and gripping account of that incredible time, Dungeon, Fire, and Sword is a brilliant work of narrative history. Here are some features of the book: Separates fact from the large amount of fiction that surrounds the Knights Templar. Offers valuable insights into the people and politics of the Middle East that are strikingly relevant today. Filled with famous figures such as Richard the Lionhearted, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Thomas Aquinas, Marco Polo, and Genghis Khan. Explores the question of missing Templar treasure and whether a secret succession of underground grand masters exists to this day.

"Starhawk"

"Starhawk"

"Starhawk"

"Starhawk"

Adams

Adams

Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams The Salmon of Doubtis the late Douglas Adams' third comic novel about "holistic detective" Dirk Gently. Ten tantalising chapters of this unfinished project are padded to book size with about 50 short Adams pieces, mostly non-fiction.

Additional material includes introductions by Stephen Fry and editor Peter Guzzardi (who stitched together the Salmonfragment from disk drafts), The Guardian's Adams biography, Richard Dawkins' farewell piece, and the order of the memorial service.

The non-fiction by the man himself ranges from perhaps a dozen meaty articles and speeches to brief squibs, interview/questionnaire answers and tiny asides like:

We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works. How do you recognise something that is still technology? A good clue is if it comes with a manual.

There are enjoyable pieces on computers (especially), atheism, dogs, manta rays on the Great Barrier Reef, the Save the Rhino stunt climb, and PG Wodehouse. Much of the rest is ephemeral; you can't help reflecting that Adams himself never chose to collect all this lightweight newspaper work.

Lovers of his fiction will welcome the Hitch-Hiker-related short stories "The Private Life of Genghis Khan" and "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe", despite the latter's dreadfully dated political punch line.

What of The Salmon of Doubtitself, a quarter of this book? There's a glimpse of a far-future estate agent's utopia, a woman asking Dirk Gently to investigate a cat that's literally only half there (his puzzling reluctance to take the case may echo Adams' own feelings about the novel), Gently's capricious trip to America in response to an unknown client's total lack of instructions, the tragic death of a rhino as perceived by the rhino... Many teasing questions; we'll never know the answers.

Overall it's a must-have for devoted Adams fans and completists, a likely disappointment (though with pleasant exceptions) for new readers. —David Langford

Douglas Adams

Hans Christian Anderson

Hans Christian Anderson

Kevin J. Anderson

Kevin J. Anderson

Kevin J. Anderson

Kevin J. Anderson

Kevin J. Anderson

Kevin J. Anderson

Kevin J. Anderson A Forest of Stars is book two of Kevin J Anderson's widescreen space opera "The Saga of Seven Suns", which began with Hidden Empire. The story so far is given in some detail for new readers. Briefly, unwise human tampering has roused the wrath of the near-invincible alien "hydrogues" who live within gas-giant planets, to the delight of the more humanlike Ildiran Empire who would love to see those bumptious Terrans taken down a peg. But soon the hydrogue clampdown on mining starship fuel from those gas giants threatens to bring ruin to the whole galactic economy, not just to humanity's corporate "Hanseatic League" and its breakaway factions.

Now it emerges that the hydrogue problem is a very old one, and that humans and Ildirans are minor players——"like field mice on a giant battleground"—in an ancient war of elementals. The awakened hydrogues (Air) are determined to finish the job of wiping out the helpless-seeming forest group-mind (Earth) already introduced in book one, and in this volume the representatives of Fire and Water begin to stir...

The slam-bang action follows many characters in many story strands. Independent human Roamers, mining fuel at frightful risk, come into conflict with the desperate League, which also feels forced into brutal oppression of its own colonies. A cruel, illicit Ildiran/human breeding experiment continues in secret. Sinister robots created by a vanished race plot their own enormities, while a matter-transmitter network built by that same race could be the answer to the fuel shortage. Dirty politics and unwilling marriages of convenience abound. Space fleets face impossible odds, whole planets are wrecked, and even suns are now at risk of oblivion.

It's all rip-roaring interstellar adventure with megadeaths aplenty, lashings of pyrotechnics, the occasional touch of romance and doom-laden forebodings of worse to come. Stay tuned for more of "The Saga of Seven Suns". —David Langford

Kevin J. Anderson

Kevin J. Anderson

Kevin J. Anderson

Ann Moura Aoumiel

Joanne Asala

Robert Asprin

Robert Asprin

Robert Asprin

Jane Austen

Chris Ayres

Anne McCaffrey Margaret Ball

J.G. Ballard

Lindsey Bareham

Clive Barker

Clive Barker

Mel Bartholomew

Simon Bennett, John Skelton, Ken Lunn

Jon Bentley This reviewer still has the original edition of Bentley's book, 14-years-old now. Bentley's influential and eponymous columns first appeared in Communications of the ACM. Programming Pearls contains 15 of these—now updated—columns.

In his book Bentley assumes little more than a working knowledge of C, but it's in no way a guide to C. Rather, it approaches programming in the same way William Morris approached design—as a creative act founded on knowledge of the craft. From the first essay, Bentley emphasises the importance of accurately defining the problem in arriving at a fast, robust and efficient solution. He gives a number of examples that show how real understanding can reduce programming time, increase accuracy and reduce bugs.

The essays are divided into three alliteratively named sections: Preliminaries, Performance and Product. The first section covers writing a program that's correct for the programmer and the client. The second addresses efficiency, code tuning and performance. The last is a little unfocussed, albeit still interesting: it covers sorts, searches and heaps among other subjects. Take note, though: the solutions in the appendices are, in true C fashion, pointers to solutions. Programming Pearls is such a delight, you're likely to find yourself reading it in the bath. —Steve Patient

Paul Beyerl

Bill Bigelow

Isabel Allende Magda Bogin

Mark Bowden In Black Hawk Down journalist Mark Bowden delivers a strikingly detailed account of the 1993 nightmare operation in Mogadishu that left 18 American soldiers dead and many more wounded. This early foreign-policy disaster for the Clinton administration led to the resignation of Secretary of Defence Les Aspin and a total troop withdrawal from Somalia. Bowden does not spend much time considering the context; instead he provides a moment-by-moment chronicle of what happened in the air and on the ground. His gritty narrative tells of how Rangers and elite Delta Force troops embarked on a mission to capture a pair of high-ranking deputies to warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid only to find themselves surrounded in a hostile African city. Their high-tech MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters had been shot down and a number of other miscues left them trapped through the night. Bowden describes Mogadishu as a place of Mad Max—like anarchy—implying strongly that there was never any peace for the supposed peacekeepers to keep. He makes full use of the defence bureaucracy's extensive paper trail—which includes official reports, investigations and even radio transcripts—to describe the combat with great accuracy, right down to the actual dialogue. He supplements this with hundreds of his own interviews, turning Black Hawk Down into a completely authentic non-fiction novel, a lively page-turner that will make readers feel like they're standing beside the embattled troops. This will quickly be realised as a modern military classic. —John J. Miller

Marion Zimmer Bradley

Marion Zimmer Bradley

Marion Zimmer Bradley

John Brason

Terry Brooks

Terry Brooks

Terry Brooks

Terry Brooks

Terry Brooks

Terry Brooks

Terry Brooks

Terry Brooks

Terry Brooks

Terry Brooks Terry Brooks' new Shannara epic The Voyage of the Jerle Shannarakicks off its first volume Ilse Witchwith the discovery of a mad Elf drifting on wreckage miles out at sea with his tongue and eyes removed, and a map secreted among his possessions. It rapidly emerges that he is a lost prince who set out decades earlier to find old magic on another continent. Walker the Druid persuades the Elf King that both vengeance and prudence dictate a second expedition and assembles the usual crew of talented misfits to travel by airship into unknown territory. The forces of evil are on their way as well—the shadowy figure known as the Ilse Witch and the lizard-like mercenaries forced on her by her untrustworthy ally the Morgawr are closing in too, with acquisition and murder in their hearts.

Fans of Terry Brooks will know precisely what to expect from him: undemanding sword—and—sorcery adventure with touches of the gloomily mysterious and of the more complex emotions. This is Brooks at his best and this novel is the least dependent on earlier models as it becomes clear that in this sequence the relationship between good and evil is more complicated than usual. —Roz Kaveney

Terry Brooks Terry Brooks stretches the formula of his Shannara stories in Antrax, the second volume of "The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara", travelling far further than usual into morally grey areas. Brooks' villainess, the Ilse Witch, is driven by a ruthless desire to seek revenge for the brother she wrongly believes to be dead. Her brother Bek tries to convince her of his identity but she cannot let herself listen—she has too much invested in revenge, hatred and her own past crimes. Meanwhile, the other members of Bek's party stumble into the grip of an ancient evil—Antrax, the computer guardian of lost science, which has learned to survive in this age of magic by draining those who seek it out. The Druid Walker, the cowardly Elvenprince Ahren and the flawed young seeker Ryer find themselves in serious jeopardy.

Brooks' writing is at its most suspenseful here as his characters confront their demons and find their hidden resources. The dark woods and steel corridors in which they find themselves trapped are both powerfully evoked and precise, if standard, metaphors for mental states.

Like its predecessor, Ilse Witch, this is a far darker and in some ways more interesting take on the world Brooks has assembled. —Roz Kaveney

Terry Brooks Morgawr, the third volume of Terry Brooks'"The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara" trilogy, continues his productive exploration of guilt, moral ambiguity and adventures in huge airships.

The Ilse Witch, Grianne, has found out that everything she has ever believed, all the reasons for revenge which have led her into evil magic, are a lie—that her mentor the reptilian Morgawr is her enemy—and for much of the book she is in such a state of moral and mental collapse that she has to rely on the mercy of her former enemies and her brother, the young Highlander Bek. As he and the other separated members of his party trek through cold forests and dragon-haunted jungles, they find themselves pursued by the Morgawr's demonic allies—by misguided troops from home and finally by the Morgawr himself with a fleet full of zombie aeronauts.

This trilogy is about the best thing Brooks has done because it is, much of the time, far less reliant than he has been on the stock materials of fantasy; the mixture of magic and technology here has sparked in him a real inventiveness that can excite even the jaded reader. —Roz Kaveney

Terry Brooks

Terry Brooks

Terry Brooks

Terry Brooks

Terry Brooks

Brooks/Terry

Bill Bryson A travelogue by Bill Bryson is as close to a sure thing as funny books get. The Lost Continent is no exception. Following an urge to rediscover his youth (he should know better), the author leaves his native Des Moines, Iowa, in a journey that takes him across 38 states. Lucky for us, he brought a notebook.

With a razor wit and a kind heart, Bryson serves up a colourful tale of boredom, kitsch, and beauty when you least expect it. Gentler elements aside, The Lost Continent is an amusing book. Here's Bryson on the women of his native state: "I will say this, however—and it's a strange, strange thing—the teenaged daughters of these fat women are always utterly delectable ... I don't know what it is that happens to them, but it must be awful to marry one of those nubile cuties knowing that there is a time bomb ticking away in her that will at some unknown date make her bloat out into something huge and grotesque, presumably all of a sudden and without much notice, like a self- inflating raft from which the pin has been yanked."

Yes, Bill, but be honest: what do you really think?

Bill Bryson Bill Bryson is an unabashed Anglophile who, through a mistake of history, happened to be born and bred in Iowa. Righting that error, he spent 20 years in England before deciding to repatriate: "I had recently read that 3.7 million Americans according to a Gallup poll, believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another, so it was clear that my people needed me." That comic tone enlivens this account of Bryson's farewell walking tour of the countryside of "the green and kindly island that had for two decades been my home."

Zach Bush, Jennifer Brandes, Chris Hepler, Chris Hussey, Jonathan Jacobson, Steve Kenson, Linda Naughton, Brian Schoner, Michael Mulvihill

Pauline Campanelli

Pauline Campanelli

Trudi Canavan

Trudi Canavan

Trudi Canavan

Trudi Canavan

Trudi Canavan

Trudi Canavan

Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card Xenocide is Card's best-selling sequel to the Hugo Award-winning Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead.

Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card Orson Scott Card's SF career began with Ender's Game, a 1977 story expanded into an acclaimed 1985 novel. Unwittingly responsible for xenocide—destruction of an alien species—while still a boy, Ender expiates his guilt on another world in Speaker for the Dead. This confronts humanity with a deadly alien-built virus whose elimination seems to demand another xenocide. The tense continuing story takes an extraordinary leap into magical metaphysics at the climax of Xenocide, of which Children of the Mindis in effect the second half. Though that virus is now defeated, this isn't believed: the planet-eating doomsday weapon still approaches. Ender's AI friend Jane, who inhabits the galactic net and is the only agency that can move spacecraft faster than light, is being killed by dismantling the net. Ender himself is fading, passing responsibility to strange young avatars of his dead brother and aging sister created from his memories in Xenocide. Even in the shadow of death there are grippingly argued political, philosophical and moral debates—plus bitter family quarrels. A master storyteller with a knack for showing painful human relationships, Card achieves almost unbearable suspense before resolving his complex tangle and finishing Ender's 3000-year story with a touching elegy. One dangling plot line suggests that Card may return again to this universe. Solid, high-quality SF despite some implausible science. —David Langford

Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card

E. R. Carmin

Angela Carter

Forrest Carter

Graham Carter

Robert Carter

P.C. Cast, Kristin Cast

Luis De Castresana

Lilian G. Katz Sylvia C. Chard

Henri Charriere

Henri Charriere

Geoffrey Chaucer

Daniel D. Chiras

Tom Clancy Tom Clancy goes to the White House in this thriller of political terror and global disaster. The American political situation takes a disturbing turn as the President, Congress and Supreme Court are obliterated when a Japanese terrorist lands a 747 on the Capitol. Meanwhile, the Iranians are unleashing an Ebola virus threat on the country. Jack Ryan, CIA agent, is cast into the middle of this maelstrom. As a result of a recent sex scandal, Ryan had been appointed vice president, but it's an office he doesn't hold for long when he finds himself suddenly thrust into the Chief Executive's chair. He goes after the Iranians and then tries to piece together the country and his life the only way he knows how—with a fury, which is what we've come to expect in Clancy's intricate, detailed and accurate stories of warfare and intrigue.

Tom Clancy Power is delightful, and absolute power should be absolutely delightful—but not when you're the most powerful man on earth and the place is ticking like a time bomb. Jack Ryan, CIA warrior turned US president, is the man in the hot seat, and in this vast thriller he's up to his nostrils in crazed Asian warlords, Russian thugs, nukes that won't stay put, and authentic, up-to-the-nanosecond technology as complex as the characters' motives are simple. Quick, do you know how to reprogramme the software in an Aegis missile seekerhead? Well, if you're Jack Ryan, you'd better find someone who does, or an incoming ballistic may rain fallout on your parade. Bad for re-election prospects. "You know, I don't really like this job very much," Ryan complains to his aide Arnie van Damm, who replies, "Ain't supposed to be fun, Jack."

But you bet The Bear and the Dragonis fun—over 1,000 swift pages' worth. In the opening scene, a hand-launched RPG rocket nearly blows up Russia's intelligence chief in his armoured Mercedes, and Ryan's clever spooks report that the guy who got the rocket in his face instead was the hoodlum "Rasputin" Avseyenko, who used to run the KGB's "Sparrow School" of female prostitute spies. Soon after, two apparent assassins are found handcuffed together afloat in St. Petersburg's Neva River, their bloated faces resembling Pokémon toys.

The stakes go higher as the mystery deepens: oil and gold are discovered in huge quantities in Siberia, and the evil Chinese Minister Without Portfolio Zhang Han San gazes northward with lust. The laid-off elite of the Soviet Army figure in the brewing troubles, as do the new generation of Tiananmen Square dissidents, Zhang's wily, Danielle Steel-addicted executive secretary Lian Ming, and Chester Nomuri, a hip, Internet-porn-addicted CIA agent posing in China as a Japanese computer salesman. He e-mails his CIA boss, Mary Pat "the Cowgirl" Foley, that he intends to seduce Ming with Dream Angels perfume and scarlet Victoria's Secret lingerie ordered from the catalogue—strictly for God and country, of course. Soon Ming is calling him "Master Sausage" instead of "Comrade," but can anybody master Ming?

The plot is over the top, with devastating subplots erupting all over the globe and lurid characters scaring the wits out of each other every few pages, but Clancy finds time to insert hard-boiled little lessons on the vileness of Communism, the infuriating intrusions of the press on presidential power, the sexual perversions of Mao, the poor quality of Russian pistol silencers ("garbage, cans loaded with steel wool that self-destructed after less than ten shots"), the folly of cutting a man's throat with a knife ("they flop around and make noise when you do that"), and similar topics. Naturally, the book bristles like a battlefield with intriguingly intricate military hardware.

When you've got a Tom Clancy novel in hand, who needs action movies? —Tim Appelo

Cassandra Clare

Cassandra Clare

Joanna Cole

Robert Coles

Ken Connor

Various Contributors

Various Contributors

Various Contributors

Sue Cowley

Thomas E. Creighton

Michael Crichton

Scott Cunningham

Scott Cunningham

Scott Cunningham

Scott Cunningham

Scott Cunningham

Scott Cunningham

Joseph D'Lacey

John Daintith

Richard E. Dansky

James E. Darnell, etc., Harvey Lodish, David Baltimore, Arnold Berk, S. Lawrence Zipursky, Paul Matsudaira

Elizabeth Davis

Graeme Davis

Richard Dawkins Just as we trace our personal family trees from parents to grandparents and so on back in time, so in The Ancestor's TaleRichard Dawkins traces the ancestry of life. As he is at pains to point out, this is very much our human tale, our ancestry. Surprisingly, it is one that many otherwise literate people are largely unaware of. Hopefully Dawkins's name and well deserved reputation as a best selling writer will introduce them to this wonderful saga.

The Ancestor's Taletakes us from our immediate human ancestors back through what he calls `concestors,' those shared with the apes, monkeys and other mammals and other vertebrates and beyond to the dim and distant microbial beginnings of life some 4 billion years ago. It is a remarkable story which is still very much in the process of being uncovered. And, of course from a scientist of Dawkins stature and reputation we get an insider's knowledge of the most up-to-date science and many of those involved in the research. And, as we have come to expect of Dawkins, it is told with a passionate commitment to scientific veracity and a nose for a good story. Dawkins's knowledge of the vast and wonderful sweep of life's diversity is admirable. Not only does it encompass the most interesting living representatives of so many groups of organisms but also the important and informative fossil ones, many of which have only been found in recent years.

Dawkins sees his journey with its reverse chronology as `cast in the form of an epic pilgrimage from the present to the past [and] all roads lead to the origin of life.' It is, to my mind, a sensible and perfectly acceptable approach although some might complain about going against the grain of evolution. The great benefit for the general reader is that it begins with the more familiar present and the animals nearest and dearest to us—our immediate human ancestors. And then it delves back into the more remote and less familiar past with its droves of lesser known and extinct fossil forms. The whole pilgrimage is divided into 40 tales, each based around a group of organisms and discusses their role in the overall story. Genetic, morphological and fossil evidence is all taken into account and illustrated with a wealth of photos and drawings of living and fossils forms, evolutionary and distributional charts and maps through time, providing a visual compliment and complement to the text. The design also allows Dawkins to make numerous running comments and characteristic asides. There are also numerous references and a good index.— Douglas Palmer

Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins

Keith R.A. DeCandido

Reader's Digest

Mercedes Lackey Larry Dixon

Mercedes Lackey Larry Dixon

Mercedes Lackey Larry Dixon

Julia Donaldson

Stephen Donaldson

Stephen Donaldson

Stephen Donaldson

Mini Books Doubleday

Opal Dunn

Roger Eckert, D.J. Randall, Warren Burggren, Kathleen French, Warren W. Burggren

Michael Ende

Walter Erben

Lloyd Arthur Eshbach

Lloyd Arthur Eshbach

Lloyd Arthur Eshbach

"Starhawk" etc.

Anne Fadiman

Jan Fearnley

Christine Feehan

Susan Feldmann

Alan D. Forster

Alan Foster

Alan Foster

Alan Dean Foster

Alan Dean Foster

Alan Dean Foster

Kate Fox

J. Michael Straczynski Jeff Youngquist Gary Frank

Terry Pratchett Neil Gaiman

Alan Gardiner

Ina May Gaskin

Ina May Gaskin

Charles Mills Gayley

Margaret George

Gergely

Ian Gibson

William Gibson Case was the best interface cowboy who ever ran in Earth's computer matrix. Then he double- crossed the wrong people.… Winner of the Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick Awards.

William Gibson

William Gibson

William Gibson

Parke Godwin

Parke Godwin

Ben Goldacre

William Goldman First published well, in 1973 actually, this book spawned the Rob Reiner-directed cult film of the same name. It's a tongue-in-cheek fairytale of love, life, action, death and life again. Featuring the obligatory handsome Prince and supremely beautiful princess, it also boasts a Spanish sword wizard, the Zoo of Death, a chocolate-coated resurrection pill and lots of villains, who span the spectrum from evil, through even more evil to (gasp) most evil. And then there's Fezzik, the gentle giant addicted to rhyming.

William Goldman—who—who's won two Oscars for his screenwriting (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kidand All the President's Men), and has endeared himself to dentists and their patients planetwide through his novel Marathon Man—has always claimed he merely abridged this text, extracting the "good parts" from an inventive yet wordy classic by Florinese literary superstar, S Morgenstern.

It has, however, been whispered in certain circles that Morgenstern himself is a figment of Goldman's ultra-fertile imagination. Read Goldman's original and special Anniversary introductions and make up your own mind. Oh—and don't forget his explanation as to why he's only "abridged" the first chapter of the sequel Buttercup's Baby—which appears here for the first time—and why it took him so long to get round to it.

Completely delightful, suitable for cynics and romantics alike. Suspension of disbelief optional. — Lisa Gee

Wayne Gould

Simon R. Green

Simon R. Green

Simon R. Green

Simon R. Green

Simon R. Green

Simon R. Green

Philippa Gregory Everyone knows the fate of Anne Boleyn, but not many know the story of her rise to majesty and the part played by her rival and sister, Mary, who was Henry's mistress and mother to two of his bastard children before the dazzling older Boleyn girl even caught his eye. Philippa Gregory, whose own role as the Queen of historical romance grows more secure with each new novel, has surpassed her self with this epic tale of lust, jealousy and betrayal. The Other Boleyn Girl charts the lives of both Boleyns—each in their turn "the other Boleyn Girl"—and their fiercely ambitious, conniving family who used the girls as pawns to advance their own positions at the court of Henry VIII. At 13, Mary is little more than a child when she is presented to Henry, ordered by her scheming family to serve her King and country by opening her legs whenever commanded, or doing anything else the great monarch desires. And while his loins are satisfied, life at court is sweet for the unofficial Queen and her pushy coterie. Inevitably though, the King's eyes soon begin to wander and Mary is overlooked, helpless to do anything but aid her family's plot to advance their fortunes, replace her with Anne and give Henry the greatest gift of all: a son and heir.

So good a job has Ms Gregory done at portraying the Boleyns and Howards as selfish, scheming, treacherous manipulators however, that it becomes increasingly hard to feel empathy for any of them. While Mary is merely hapless, Anne is the most ruthless of them all, so that instead of feeling cheated by knowing the outcome of her story, it only serves to help digest her unpalatable rise. Such a gruesome destiny was never more deserved. Ms Gregory has worked hard at researching her historical references. Daily life at court is described in fascinating detail—from the relentless leisure pursuits, masques and banquets laid on for the easily bored King to the complex hierarchies and machinations of the courtiers. However, the fall of Queen Katherine of Aragon and her only child, the Princess Mary, and the politics of the competing European courts and the break with Rome are seen only as a backdrop to the bawdy goings-on of the Boleyns and their fateful race for the crown. —Carey Green

Philippa Gregory The bitter enmity between Elizabeth the First and Mary Tudor, the daughters of Henry VIII (not to mention the conflict between their mothers Anne Boleyn and Katherine of Aragon) makes the squabbles between modern-day royals seem small beer indeed. This is particularly clear after reading something as enjoyable as Philippa Gregory's The Queen's Fool, which treats the period and its turbulent sweep with an almost operatic grandeur. In The Other Boleyn Girl, Gregory delivered a tremendous popular success and lifted this kind of popular historical writing from the realms of romantic fiction to something rich in authentic drama and convincing historical verisimilitude.

Mary and Elizabeth, the two young princesses, have a common goal: to be Queen of England. To achieve this, they need both to win the love of the people and learn how to negotiate dangerous political pitfalls. Gregory recreates this era with tremendous colour, and she makes the court an enticing but danger-fraught place. Into this setting comes the eponymous fool, the youthful Hannah, who (despite her air of guileless religiousness) is not naive. She soon finds herself having to deal with the beguiling but treacherous Robert Dudley. Dispatched to report on Princess Mary, Hannah discovers in her a passionate religious conviction (to return England to the rule of Rome and its pope) that will have fatal consequences.

From Tolstoy's War and Peace onwards, historical novelists have set fictitious characters among real-life personages with mixed success; the author's creations can often pale beside the historical figures. That is emphatically not the case here, and Gregory ensures that all her characters have a full and teeming life. Expect a major movie: something as colourful and exuberant as The Queen's Fool is a natural for screen adaptation. —Barry Forshaw

Philippa Gregory

Philippa Gregory

Philippa Gregory

Jacob Grimm Wilhelm Grimm

Jacob Grimm Wilhelm Grimm

Jon Courtenay Grimwood Another high-energy cyberpunk romp set in the alternative future of Jon Courtenay Grimwood's previous novel reMix. Here he pushes gore and mutilation to almost farcical extremes, with medical nanotechnology meaning that ghastly injuries aren't for keeps—one character loses both eyes but is soon painfully seeing again, if only in black and white. The back-story: Pope Joan looted the Vatican's riches for good causes before her assassination, and now the powerful, corrupt Cardinal of Mexico hopes to claw back the money. A top-class though emotionally wrecked professional killer becomes his emissary, hunting Joan's legacy on Samsara, the vast space habitat and prayer wheel which the Dalai Lama and a Buddhist-pacifist AI have established as the UN dumping-ground for all the world's refugees. Other characters include Pope Joan's former lover, a chatty AI built into an advanced handgun, a Japanese child prostitute into whom some remnant of Joan has been downloaded, an illegal warrior clone, and a bunch of military "PaxForce" heavies whose sadistic female leaders defMoma and momaDef provide more tasty torture scenes and weird capitaLisation. Grimwood drives his story at unrelenting speed, with bursts of extreme violence disguising the less logical leaps, while literal background music plays in the wired-up assassin's head. Dizzying, gruesome and slightly tongue-in-cheek action. —David Langford

Jon Courtenay Grimwood Effendiis as impressive as Pashazade, Jon Courtenay Grimwood's first novel of crime and punishment in an alternate-world Alexandria. Now the chief of police of El Iskandryia rather than a hunted fugitive seeking refuge there, the electronically and otherwise augmented Ashraf finds himself investigating both terror attacks against tourists and charges of long-ago crimes against humanity levelled against Hamzah, the man whose daughter he might have married. With the help of his equally odd and talented niece, the child Hani, Ashraf pursues his own unorthodox investigatory methods and his own social and political agendas; he is sympathetic neither to the elite who suck the blood of his city nor to the fanatics who seek to replace them. His and Grimwood's city is a place where past and future meet—where mediaeval barbarism and high-tech go hand in hand and every so often the reader is brought face to face with the ways in which this world is both the same as our own and radically different. Grimwood effortlessly plays by several sets of rules at once and is as accomplished a thriller writer—doing noir as well as he does courtrooms—as he is as a writer of his own, sometimes quite strange, brand of commercial SF. —Roz Kaveney

Jon Courtenay Grimwood Ashraf Bey is not who he seems—a rich Ottoman aristocrat to whom the Iskandryia of a rather different 21st century is more or less his oyster—nor is he simply what he thinks he is—a minor street criminal shipped off to North Africa when he fell foul of his employers. Accused yet again of murders he did not commit, he finds out on the run that he is better than he thinks he is—smarter and more capable and also someone whom people trust and love.

Set in a mildly different alternate world, Pashazadeis a thriller with a solidly imagined mystery at its core; it is also a novel about a man finally and belatedly growing up. Ashraf's sense of responsibility for an orphaned girl and for the woman with whom he has refused an arranged marriage are part of what makes him admirable; he has learned the hard way not to treat people as disposable. The details of this alternate near future—an Arab world that remained Turkish after a 1914 war that never quite became important, and into which some slick cybertechnology and genetic gadgetry have slotted without changing anything fundamental—are effectively imagined, but never more important than the people. —Roz Kaveney

Jon Courtenay Grimwood

Jon Courtenay Grimwood

Jon Courtenay Grimwood

Jon Courtenay Grimwood

White T. H.

Peter Haining

Martin Hallet, Barbara Karasek

Edith Hamilton

Thomas Hardy

W Harmon

Karen Harper

Karen Harper

Scott Cunningham David Harrington

Charlaine Harris

Charlaine Harris

Charlaine Harris

Thomas Harris The Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris, is even better than the successful movie. Like his earlier Red Dragon, the book takes us inside the world of professional criminal investigation. All the elements of a well-executed thriller are working here—driving suspense, compelling characters, inside information, publicity-hungry bureaucrats thwarting the search, and the clock ticking relentlessly down toward the death of another young woman. What enriches this well-told tale is the opportunity to live inside the minds of both the crime fighters and the criminals as each struggles in a prison of pain and seeks, sometimes violently, relief.

Clarice Starling, a precociously self-disciplined FBI trainee, is dispatched by her boss, Section Chief Jack Crawford, the FBI's most successful tracker of serial killers, to see whether she can learn anything useful from Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Lecter's a gifted psychopath whose nickname is "The Cannibal" because he likes to eat parts of his victims. Isolated by his crimes from all physical contact with the human race, he plays an enigmatic game of "Clue" with Starling, providing her with snippets of data that, if she is smart enough, will lead her to the criminal. Undaunted, she goes where the data takes her. As the tension mounts and the bureaucracy thwarts Starling at every turn, Crawford tells her, "Keep the information and freeze the feelings." Insulted, betrayed, and humiliated, Starling struggles to focus. If she can understand Lecter's final, ambiguous scrawl, she can find the killer. But can she figure it out in time? —Barbara Schlieper

Thomas Harris The Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris, is even better than the successful movie. Like his earlier Red Dragon, the book takes us inside the world of professional criminal investigation. All the elements of a well-executed thriller are working here—driving suspense, compelling characters, inside information, publicity-hungry bureaucrats thwarting the search, and the clock ticking relentlessly down toward the death of another young woman. What enriches this well-told tale is the opportunity to live inside the minds of both the crime fighters and the criminals as each struggles in a prison of pain and seeks, sometimes violently, relief.

Clarice Starling, a precociously self-disciplined FBI trainee, is dispatched by her boss, Section Chief Jack Crawford, the FBI's most successful tracker of serial killers, to see whether she can learn anything useful from Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Lecter's a gifted psychopath whose nickname is "The Cannibal" because he likes to eat parts of his victims. Isolated by his crimes from all physical contact with the human race, he plays an enigmatic game of "Clue" with Starling, providing her with snippets of data that, if she is smart enough, will lead her to the criminal. Undaunted, she goes where the data takes her. As the tension mounts and the bureaucracy thwarts Starling at every turn, Crawford tells her, "Keep the information and freeze the feelings." Insulted, betrayed, and humiliated, Starling struggles to focus. If she can understand Lecter's final, ambiguous scrawl, she can find the killer. But can she figure it out in time? —Barbara Schlieper

Thomas Harris

Thomas Harris

Harry Harrison

Harry Harrison

Harry Harrison

Harry Harrison

Harry Harrison

Harry Harrison

Harry Harrison

Harry Harrison

Harry Harrison

Joe Hayes

Robert Asprin Peter J. Heck

Robert Asprin Peter J. Heck

Robert Heinlein Stranger in a Strange Land,winner of the 1962 Hugo Award, is the story of Valentine Michael Smith, born during, and the only survivor of, the first manned mission to Mars. Michael is raised by Martians, and he arrives on Earth as a true innocent: he has never seen a woman and has no knowledge of Earth's cultures or religions. But he brings turmoil with him, as he is the legal heir to an enormous financial empire, not to mention de facto owner of the planet Mars. With the irascible popular author Jubal Harshaw to protect him, Michael explores human morality and the meanings of love. He founds his own church, preaching free love and disseminating the psychic talents taught him by the Martians. Ultimately, he confronts the fate reserved for all messiahs. The impact of Stranger in a Strange Landwas considerable, leading many children of the sixties to set up households based on Michael's water-brother nests. Heinlein loved to pontificate through the mouths of his characters, so modern readers must be willing to overlook the occasional sour note ("Nine times out of ten, if a girl gets raped, it's partly her fault."). That aside, Stranger in a Strange Landis one of the master's best entertainments, and provocative, as he always loved to be. Can you grok it? —Brooks Peck

Robert A Heinlein

Robert A Heinlein

Robert A. Heinlein

ROBERT A. HEINLEIN

Robert A. Heinlein

Robert A. Heinlein Stranger in a Strange Land,winner of the 1962 Hugo Award, is the story of Valentine Michael Smith, born during, and the only survivor of, the first manned mission to Mars. Michael is raised by Martians, and he arrives on Earth as a true innocent: he has never seen a woman and has no knowledge of Earth's cultures or religions. But he brings turmoil with him, as he is the legal heir to an enormous financial empire, not to mention de facto owner of the planet Mars. With the irascible popular author Jubal Harshaw to protect him, Michael explores human morality and the meanings of love. He founds his own church, preaching free love and disseminating the psychic talents taught him by the Martians. Ultimately, he confronts the fate reserved for all messiahs. The impact of Stranger in a Strange Landwas considerable, leading many children of the sixties to set up households based on Michael's water-brother nests. Heinlein loved to pontificate through the mouths of his characters, so modern readers must be willing to overlook the occasional sour note ("Nine times out of ten, if a girl gets raped, it's partly her fault."). That aside, Stranger in a Strange Landis one of the master's best entertainments, and provocative, as he always loved to be. Can you grok it? —Brooks Peck

Robert A. Heinlein

Robert A. Heinlein

Carl-Heldin Heldin, Mary Purton

Ashley Hendricks

Howard V. Hendrix

Sam Llewellyn Willis Hill

Anna Hodson

Benjamin Hoff

Ellen Evert Hopman

William Horwood

William Horwood

William Horwood

William Horwood

William Horwood

William Horwood

William Horwood

William Horwood

Paul R. Hume

Roberson Jennifer

Marie-Louise Jensen

Christopher Jones, Peter Clamp

Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan The Eye of the World and its sequels in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series show the extent to which one can go with a traditional fantasy framework, with added gusto. Stock elements are abound: a reluctant hero—in fact five humble village folk—plucked from wholesome obscurity to fight dark powers; an eternal evil enemy who can be defeated but not destroyed, until the end of the world, which is fast approaching; a mysterious sisterhood with vast powers and who love to manipulate thrones and kingdoms from the shadows (think of the Bene Gesserit of the Dune series); a ferocious battle-hardened warrior race (echoes of the Fremen of Dune, or the Haruchai of the Thomas Covenant novels).

Jordan didn't become a bestselling author merely by mixing up traditional ingredients; a master storyteller, he ingeniously gives unusual twists to these conventional fantasy elements. He also excels in the descriptive and narrative skills needed to create a detailed and coherent imaginary world. The many lands he portrays are vast in scope and contain amazingly varied countries and peoples, while retaining the inner coherence needed to make them satisfying places for a fantasy fan to roam around in. However, Jordan's writing never attains the subtlety or sophistication of, say, George RR Martin and there are some annoying stylistic tics: he seems unable to introduce a female character without commenting on her neckline and thereafter has them forever smoothing their dresses.

To his publisher's credit, Jordan's books are fortunate among fantasy novels in not having covers that look like an explosion of a teenager's bedroom. The absence of such lurid artwork is, perhaps, part of their appeal. —David Pickering

Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan Robert Jordan has created a rich and intricate tapestry of characters in his Wheel of Time series. In this seventh volume, Rand al'Thor—the Dragon Reborn—draws ever closer to the Last Battle as a stifling heat grips the world.

Robert Jordan Robert Jordan's bestselling Wheel of Time epic is one of the most popular fantasy series of all time for a reason. Jordan's world is rich and complex, and he's assembled an endearing, involving core of characters while mapping out an ambitious and engaging story arc.

But with the previous book, Crown of Swords, and now with Path of Daggers, the series is in a bit of a holding pattern. Path continues the halting gait of the current plot line: Rand is still on the brink of losing it, all the while juggling the political machinations around him and again taking to the field against the Seanchan. The rest of the Two Rivers kids and company don't seem to be moving much faster. Egwene continues to slowly consolidate her hold as the "true" Amyrlin (finally getting closer to Tar Valon and the inevitable confrontation with Elaida), and Nynaeve and Elayne keep on wandering toward the Lion Throne, again on the run from the Seanchan. Mat Cauthon is barely mentioned and fellow ta'veren Perrin keeps busy with politics in Ghealdan. The ending does provide promise, though, that book nine might match the pace and passion of the previous books.

If you're already hooked, you could sooner overcome a Weave of Compulsion than avoid picking up a copy of Path of Daggers. But if you're new to the series, start at the beginning with the engrossing, much-better-paced Eye of the World. —Paul Hughes

Robert Jordan Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time" sequence is one of the more ambitious current fantasy epics; its ninth volume Winter's Heart advances a conclusion by fundamentally changing the rules of its war between overwhelming evil and deeply crippled good. Rand Al-Thor, in some sense a doomed hero born again, continues to travel the world seeking allies—as before, he finds himself caught up disastrously in the local politics of small city states and has to sort them out at some cost to himself. His fellow villagers—now the paladins of his crusade—deal with their own local problems; the agents of evil are abroad everywhere and have started to take this coterie of magically gifted youths seriously as a threat to their power and the return of their Dark master. The well-intentioned but over-reaching Aes Sedai nuns have started at last to deal with the infiltrators in their midst, and the invading Seanchan start to pursue goals beyond their strange cultural games of dominance and submission. And now Rand finally does something drastic—he attempts to cleanse male magic of the taint of madness that has crippled his world. Jordan's many fans will be enthralled by this latest volume. —Roz Kaveney

Robert Jordan With Crossroads of Twilight, Jordan's gargantuan fantasy sequence The Wheel of Time reaches its tenth huge volume and hits some of the consequences of its own sheer scale. Jordan is running so many story lines—the struggle with the covert agents of evil, the creation of a male magic that is not polluted, the war with magic-using dragon-riders from across the sea, the adventures of a travelling circus—that he has to spend almost all of this book just keeping us in touch with the movements of his characters and how they are getting on.

This is a book with a fair amount of incident, but nothing you could really call a climax. One of Jordan's strengths has always been his ability to send things off at interesting and imaginative tangents, revealing that his is a stranger world than we have begun to know—there is not enough of that here, and rather too much in the way of confrontations and kidnappings and dilemmas of conscience that recapitulate things he has done before. His decent, lumbering "grey" style means that there are no moments when the writing thrills us either—this is a book for those who have committed to Jordan's sequence for the long haul rather than one for new readers to sample. —Roz Kaveney

Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson

Santos Julia

George Lucas Donald F. Glut James Kahn

James Kahn Although Return of the Jediis considered by many to be the weakest of the three original Star Wars films, this is by far the best of the three novelisations. James Kahn's powers of description are stylish and assured and he plays to the strengths of the novel format, taking the opportunity to explore the inner thoughts and emotions of his characters in amongst the action sequences.

Of course, there is plenty of action, and Kahn handles the main set-pieces well. The struggle above the Sarlacc pit as Han Solo is rescued from Jabba the Hutt, the speeder bike chase amongst the giant trees of Endor, and the final extended battle as it intercuts between the two space fleets, the surface of the forest moon of Endor and Luke's struggle with Darth Vader and the evil Emperor, all of these are fast-paced and evocative, bringing back memories of forgotten visual details from the film. This is an entertaining way to relive the adventure, and provides a fine conclusion to the trilogy. —Elizabeth Sourbut

Susan Kantor

Bram Stoker Edward Gorey Marvin Kaye

Christopher Kendris

Steve Kenson

Yehuda Bauer Nili Keren

Pelham Grenville Wodehouse Kerr

Stephen King

STEPHEN KING A kingdom is in turmoil as the old king dies and his successor must do battle for the throne. Pitted against an evil wizard and a would-be rival, Prince Peter makes a daring escape and rallies the forces of Good to fight for what is rightfully his. This is a masterpiece of classic dragons-and-magic fantasy that only Stephen King could have written!

Tabitha King

Rudyard Kipling

Caroline Knapp The remarkable final book from bestselling author Caroline Knapp underlines her gift of leveraging her life experiences into provocative lessons. On the surface, Appetitesmay appear to be about eating—complete with Knapp's unflinching account of her anorexia. In fact, Knapp is writing about how every woman can decipher her hunger and loneliness by connecting with her desire to experience pleasure. She illuminates the ways in which cultural taboos about women who desire create vulnerability to disorders of appetite including food and alcohol addictions, compulsive shopping and promiscuous sex. In this expansive view, "one woman's tub of cottage cheese is another woman's maxed-out Master Card". Readers will nod in recognition as the author seamlessly weaves autobiography and anthropology, describing her family of origin, profiling women of appetite and countering what she calls "the culture of No!" that curbs and disguises women's desires. Knapp gets to yes by urging readers to ask: "what gives me delight and fully engages me?". Knowing that 42-year-old Knapp died of lung cancer makes this question all the more poignant. Such questions suggest Knapp's brave and generous legacy. —Barbara Mackoff, Amazon.com

Lawrence M. Krauss

J. Krishnamurti

Andrew Lang

P Lavin

Benjamin Lewin

Jill Lewis

Jeannie Oakes Martin Lipton

Llewellyn

Jack London

George Long

Sir Thomas Malory

Elizabeth Martin

Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

Anne McCaffrey

T.A. McCahill

Edain McCoy

Edain McCoy

Will McDermott

Ian McEwan

Fiona McIntosh

Fiona McIntosh

Fiona McIntosh

Andy McNab

Andy McNab

Andy McNab Crisis Fouris Andy McNab's fourth book and his second work of fiction, but he has already established himself as a brand name. His trademark is the SAS and dirty operations, so it will come as no surprise to anyone that the hero, Nick Stone, is a hard but fair ex-SAS man, now working for £250 per day as a freelance agent for British Intelligence on undercover missions which will be denied if they go wrong. The basic story is relatively straightforward. Stone undertook a mission to Afghanistan in the late 80s with a mysterious femme fatale, the posh Sarah; they had a fling and she promptly dumped him on her return. In 1995, they meet up briefly on another undercover mission to Syria which starts to go horribly wrong as Sarah appears to be working to a different briefing. Then, in 1998, Stone gets a summons on his pager to meet his bosses at Gatwick. Sarah has gone AWOL from her apartment in Washington DC and Stone's job is to find her. This he ingeniously achieves quite quickly and there then follows a long, tense chase across the US. Sarah's true past, and the secret that she holds, is gradually revealed and the ending is truly gripping.

For all McNab's authentic detail—we get lots of information on how to kill people and survive attacks—reading Crisis Fouris a bit like playing Tombraideron the computer. It's a compelling other world, where reality is only paid lip service to, but the action comes so thick and fast that you can't help turning the page. And this is what marks Crisis Fouras a cut above the average thriller. It is an unashamedly blokeish book—you won't find much in the way of subtlety of characterisation—though compared to Dick Francis McNab is positively Henry James—and you have to put up with the odd few pages that read more like instruction manuals for military hardware than narrative, but these are relatively minor quibbles. So many times you get to the end of a thriller only to wonder why on earth you bothered;Crisis Fourdelivers on its promises. —John Crace

Andy McNab All freelances have problems when work dries up, but Nick Stone, hero of Andy McNab's second adventure thriller Firewallhas worse problems than most of us. Expensively trained by the SAS, he now works for British Intelligence as a deniable operative, and he needs a regular income to take care of his responsibilities, which include psychiatric care for a traumatised orphan. He takes a lucrative mercenary job kidnapping a leading Chechen Mafioso; when the job goes sour, his victim is impressed by his grace under pressure and hires him to baby-sit a computer espionage expert on a jaunt into Finland. Not all is as it seems—Nick was engaged in wishful thinking to believe it was—and he finds himself adrift with little money and no weapons in Estonia in the dead of winter with a friend to rescue, the interests of the West to retrieve and, if possible, money to earn... This is an effective thriller because of the clash between its hero's competence and his less than entire brightness—Nick gets himself into messes and then gets out of them because of skills in combat, disguise and survival. This is a book filled with adrenaline-pumping excitement and a sense of bitterly cold places. —Roz Kaveney

Andy McNab Andy McNab's thrillers have been enormously successful, and Dark Winterwill no doubt allow his publishers to add more noughts to his already impressive sales figures. McNab's secret is reliability. He always delivers the kind of high-octane thrills his readers expect and seems immune to the hit-or-miss syndrome that afflicts so many thriller writers.

Dark Winterhas the tough (and battered) Nick Stone back in business, still parleying the skills he learnt in the SAS into his new role as a Special Intelligence Service operative. Al-Qaeda are concentrating their forces in south-east Asia (McNab is as topical as ever), and Nick is sent by the CIA to deal with one of Osama bin Laden's most dangerous biochemists. But Nick is given a female partner, and the mission takes unexpected turns. Back in the US, and struggling with the problems of being guardian to an orphaned girl, Nick finds a whole nest of terrorists plotting atrocities in both the US and the UK, and his involvement becomes (against his will) very personal indeed.

As always, the mixture here is incandescent, punctuating steadily accelerating narrative trajectory with stunningly orchestrated bursts of action at frequent intervals. McNab's characterisation of anyone other than the resourceful Nick is serviceable rather than detailed, but this is a strategy to ensure that the principal ingredient here—bone-crunching action—is always foregrounded. It may be a while since McNab was an SAS man himself, but the tradecraft is always coolly plausible, and McNab fans can count on getting their money's worth. —Barry Forshaw

Andy McNab

Andy McNab

Andy McNab

Jane Medwell

Melody

Melody

MERRIAM-WEBSTER

Stephenie Meyer

Karen Miller

Karen Miller

Karen Miller

Karen Miller

Karen Miller

Spike Milligan

K.E. Mills

K.E. Mills

Aerie Mm

Anne McCaffrey Elizabeth Moon

Cherrie Moraga

Sarah L. Morrison

Jim Mortimore

Ann Moura

Ann Moura

Ann Moura

Burleigh Muten

John De Graaf David Wann Thomas H. Naylor Affluenzais an eye-opening, soul-prodding look at the wretched excess of today's American society. John De Graaf, David Wann and Thomas Naylor define it as something akin to "a painful, contagious, socially-transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more". Having begun life as two US TV programmes co-produced by De Graaf, this book takes a hard look at the symptoms of affluenza, the history of its development into an epidemic, and the options for treatment. In making its readers aware of this pervasive disease in an age when "the urge to splurge continues to surge", the first section is the book's most provocative. According to figures the authors quote and expound upon, Americans each spend more than $21,000 per year on consumer goods, average rates of saving have fallen from about 10 per cent of income in 1980 to zero in 2000, credit card indebtedness tripled in the 1990s and more people file for bankruptcy each year than graduate from college. "To live, we buy," explain the authors. They present many of the historical, political and socio-economic reasons that affluenza has taken such strong root in American society and, in the final section, offer practical ideas for change. These use the intriguing stories of those who have already opted for simpler living and are creatively combating the disease, through simple habit alterations to more in-depth environmental considerations and from living lightly to managing wealth responsibly.

Many books make you think the author has crammed everything they know into a one-hit wonder attempt at knowledge transfer. The feeling you get reading Affluenzais quite different; the authors appear well-read, well-rounded and intelligent, knowledgable beyond the content of their book but smart enough to realise that we need a short, sharp jolt to recognise our current ailment. It's obviously a cliché that money can't buy happiness, but this book will strike a resounding chord with anyone who realises that time is more valuable than toys. Affluenzais a clarion call for those interested in being part of the healing solution. —S Ketchum

Bruce L. Mallory Rebecca S. New

John Nichols

Anne McCaffrey Jody Lynn Nye

Beverly W. Otto

Marion Zimmer Bradley Diana L. Paxson

Dave Pelzer "Winter 1970, Daly City, California—I—I'm alone. I'm hungry and I'm shivering in the dark. I sit on the top of my hands at the bottom of the stairs in the garage. My head is tilted backward. My hands became numb hours ago. My neck and shoulder muscles begin to throb. But that's nothing new—I—I've learned to turn off the pain. I'm Mother's prisoner." In The Lost Boy, the sequel to Dave Pelzer's bestselling A Child Called It, Dave recounts the final days with his "family" before the intervention of a schoolteacher led to his being removed from hell and taken into foster care. As Pelzer explains, A Child Called It was told from the perspective of a child aged from 4 to 12; The Lost Boy recounts his years from 12 to 18. The earlier account documents the extraordinary, painful and moving story of this young boy's "lifeless" existence with his alcoholic, abusive mother and a father who was so cowed by his sadistic wife that he could not help his son. Like its predecessor, Pelzer's account of his adolescant years is no easy read, as he takes us through the mixed, mixed-up world of the US care system, relentlessly pursued by his mother, to a final peace of sorts with a caring series of foster parents. An important, raw and exposing book, the Lost Boy's message is, as Pelzer quotes, that "it takes a community to save a child". —Kate Weaver

Sharon Kay Penman

Sharon Kay Penman

Sharon Kay Penman

Sharon Kay Penman

Steve Perry

Ellis Peters

Ellis Peters

Ellis Peters

W.R. Pickering, E.J. Wood

Marianne De Pierres

Marianne De Pierres

Marianne De Pierres

M. Pipher

Robert Pirsig

Beatrix Potter

Terry Pratchett There are strange goings-on at the Opera House in Ankh-Morpork. A ghost in a white mask is murdering, well, quite a lot of people, and two witches (it really isn't wise to call them "meddling, interfering old baggages"), or perhaps three, take a hand in unravelling the mystery. Fans of the popular Discworld series will be happy to see some old friends again in Maskerade, the 18th novel in the series.

Terry Pratchett What could more genuinely embody the spirit of Christmas (or Hogswatch, on the Discworld) than a Terry Pratchett book about the holiday season? Every secular Christmas tradition is included. But as this is the 21st Discworld novel, there are some unusual twists.

This year the Auditors, who want people to stop believing in things that aren't real, have hired an assassin to eliminate the Hogfather. (You know him: red robe, white beard, says, "Ho, ho, ho!") Their evil plot will destroy the Discworld unless someone covers for him. So someone does. Well, at least Death tries. He wears the costume and rides the sleigh drawn by four jolly pigs: Gouger, Tusker, Rooter and Snouter. He even comes down chimneys. But as fans of other Pratchett stories about Death know, he takes things literally. He gives children whatever they wish for and appears in person at Crumley's in The Maul.

Fans will welcome back Susan, Death of Rats (the Grim Squeaker), Albert and the wizardly faculty of Unseen University and revel in new personalities like Bilious, the "oh god of Hangovers." But you needn't have read Pratchett before to laugh uproariously and think seriously about the meanings of Christmas. —Nona Vero, Amazon.com

Terry Pratchett Jingo is the 20th of Pratchett's Discworld novels, and the fourth to feature the City Guard of Ankh-Morpork. As Jingo begins, an island suddenly rises between Ankh- Morpork and Al-Khali, capital of Klatch. Both cities claim it. Lord Vetinari, the Patrician, has failed to convince the Ruling Council that force is a bad idea, despite reminding them that they have no army——"I believe one of those is generally considered vital to the successful prosecution of a war." Samuel Vimes, Commander of the City Watch, has to find out who shot the Klatchian envoy, Prince Khufurah, and set fire to their embassy, before war breaks out.

Pratchett's characters are both sympathetic and outrageously entertaining, from Captain Carrot, who always finds the best in people and puts it to work playing football, to Sergeant Colon and his sidekick, Corporal Nobbs, who have "an ability to get out of their depth on a wet pavement". Then there is the mysterious D'reg, 71-hour Ahmed. What is his part in all this, and why 71 hours? Anyone who doesn't mind laughing themselves silly at the idiocy of people in general and governments in particular will enjoy Jingo. —Nona Vero

Terry Pratchett Terry Pratchett's 22nd Discworld novel, The Last Continent, is a lighthearted tour of the fantasy land of Fourecks, a very Australian sort of place, with brief courses in theoretical physics and evolution thrown in for good measure. Pratchett returns to his first Discworld protagonist, the inept and cowardly wizard Rincewind, who habitually runs into trouble as fast as he flees. Rincewind's arrival in Fourecks has distorted the space-time continuum, and he has to sort it out before the whole place dries up and blows away. The situation is complicated because the actual problem is located 30,000 years in the past—just where the Faculty of the Unseen University currently are. Pretty frightening, given "the true wizard's instinct to amble aimlessly into dangerous places," and then "stop and argue ... about exactly what kind of danger it [is]."

If you're baffled by all this, no worries, mate. You needn't have read Pratchett before—not even the five previous Discworld novels starring Rincewind (The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Sourcery, Eric, and Interesting Times)—to enjoy this latest romp. Nor to have visited Australia. When you finish, however, you'll likely want to rush out and do both. —Nona Vero

Terry Pratchett Carpe Jugulumis the 23rd Discworld novel, and with it this durable series continues its juggernaut procession onwards. Pratchett is an author who inspires such devotions that his fans will fall on the novel with cries of joy. Non-fans, perhaps, will want to know what all the fuss is about; and that's something difficult to put into a few words. The best thing to do for those completely new to Pratchett is to sample him for themselves, and this novel is as good a place to start as any. But fans have a more precise question. They know that Discworld novels come in one of two varieties: the quite good, and the brilliant. So, for instance, where Hogfatherand Maskeradewere quite good, Feet of Clayand Jingowere brilliant. While true fans wouldn't want to do without the former, they absolutely live for the latter. And with Carpe JugulumPratchett has hit jackpot again. This novel is one of the brilliant ones.

The plot is a version of an earlier Discworld novel, Lords and Ladies, with the predatory elves of that novel being replaced here by suave and deadly vampires, and the tiny kingdom of Lancre being defended by its witches. But plot is the least of Pratchett's appeal, and Carpe Jugulum is loaded with marvellous characters (not least the witches themselves, about whom we learn a deal more here), comic touches and scenes of genius, and even some of the renowned down-to-earth Pratchett wisdom (here about the inner ethical conflicts we all face, and the wrongness of treating people as things). Pratchett's vampires are elegant Bela Lugosi types, and they come up against an unlikely but engaging alliance of witches, blue-skinned pixies like Rob Roy Smurfs, a doubting priest with a boil on his face and a magical house-sized Phoenix in a seamless, completely absorbing and feel-good-about-the-universe mixture. Highly recommended. —Adam Roberts

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett Terry Pratchett has a seemingly endless capacity for generating inventively comic novels about the Discworld and its inhabitants but there is in the hearts of most of his admirers a particular place for those novels which feature the hard-bitten captain of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch Samuel Vimes. Sent as ambassador to the Northern principality of Uberwald where they mine gold, and iron and fat, but never silver, he is caught up in an uneasy truce between dwarfs, werewolves and vampires, in the theft of the Scone of Stone (a particularly important piece of dwarf bread) and in the old werewolf custom of giving humans a short start in the hunt and then cheating...

Pratchett is always at his best when the comedy is mixed with a real sense of jeopardy that even favourite characters might be hurt if there was a good joke in it. As always the most unlikely things crop up as the subjects of gags—Chekhov, grand opera, the Caine Mutiny—and as always there are remorselessly funny gags about the inevitability of story: "They say that the fifth elephant came screaming and trumpeting through the atmosphere of the young world all those years ago and landed hard enough to split continents and raise mountains.

No one actually saw it land, which raised the interesting philosophical question: when millions of tons of angry elephant come spinning through the sky, and there is no one to hear it, does it—philosophically speaking—make a noise?

As for the dwarfs, whose legend it is, and who mine a lot deeper than other people, they say that there is a grain of truth in it". All this, the usual guest appearances and Gaspode the Wonder Dog... — Roz Kaveney

Terry Pratchett The Truthis Terry Pratchett's 25th novel about Discworld in general and the dirt-encrusted metropolis of Ankh-Morpork in particular—home of the sinister Patrician, the Unseen University of magicians and guilds for everything from Assassins to Thieves, taking in Clowns (but not mimes) along the way. Ankh-Morpork has weathered several influxes of technology in its time—a demon-inspired invention of the movies, the brief fad for Music with Rocks in it—and now it has acquired a free press, dedicated newshounds, dwarf printers with not especially nasty tempers (for dwarves), and people who want to see their amusing vegetables in the "On a Lighter Note" section. The business of politics (attempts by the old aristocracy to unseat the Patrician) is ratcheted up a notch and Vimes, of the City Watch, is in a worse temper than usual. William de Worde, editor, reporter and investigator, is another attractive Pratchett hero, captured for us in the middle of wonderfully parodied routines from old movies and fiction that he, in his world, is doing for the first time. This is inventive farce with touches of high seriousness and ethical good sense, and two of the nastiest doomed hitmen outside Tarantino. —Roz Kaveney

Terry Pratchett In Thief of Timein the great stinking metropolis of Ankh Morpork, an obsessed clockmaker receives an unusual commission from an excessively beautiful woman whose feet do not touch the ground; strict school-teacher Susan finds herself summoned by her grandfather, Death, to do him a favour; the monks who manage the even distribution of Time find themselves with a recalcitrant novice; and dairyman Ronnie Soak muses on his glory days, when he was the Fifth Rider of the Apocalypse, the one who left before they got famous.

Terry Pratchett's Thief of Time, confronts Discworld and a variety of its defenders with an insidious menace; never before has the phrase "The End of History" had quite so sinister a sound. As always, the sometimes startlingly surrealistically original, sometimes comfortingly groan-worthy, jokes are underlain by some intensely complex ideas and tight plotting. Susan makes a reappearance as one of Pratchett's more interesting heroines; the sinister Lady LeJean is one of Pratchett's most interesting villains, particularly once we learn the answer to the mystery about her.

There is an attractive darkness to much of the humour here—Pratchett is often at his best when at his darkest.—Roz Kaveney

Terry Pratchett The new Discworld novel Night Watch has the power and energy that characterizes Terry Pratchett at his occasional best, as well as the wild surreal humour he always gives us. Sam Vimes, running hero of the Guards sequence, finds himself cast back in time to the Ankh-Morpork of his youth—a much nastier city, with an actively deranged Patrician and a sadistic secret police—and finding himself filling in for Keel, the tough honest copper who teaches the young Vimes everything he knows. And, more worryingly, who dies heroically in the insurrection Vimes knows to be imminent. With a psychopath from his own time rising in the vile ranks of the Cable Street Unmentionables complicating things, Vimes has to ensure that history takes its course so that he will have the right future to go back to, and to keep his younger self alive—this is Pratchett's plotting at its most thoroughly constructed and wonderfully devious. Ankh-Morpork has for a long time been one of the most thoroughly imagined cities in fantasy—here Pratchett gives us a fascinating gloomy glimpse of its past and of the younger selves of some of his best-loved characters, and of the brief-lived People's Republic of Treacle-Mine Road. —Roz Kaveney

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett, Stephen Briggs

Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, Jack S. Cohen Terry Pratchett needs no introduction. Ian Stewart has written fine nonfiction books on mathematics, and he and Jack Cohen collaborated on the quirkily inventive pop-science titles The Collapse of Chaos and Figments of Reality. What on earth, or on Discworld, are they all doing in the same book? Pratchett provides a very funny 30,000-word novella about Discworld science, beginning in the High Energy Magic faculty of Unseen University and leading his eccentric wizards to investigate an alien cosmos where there's no magic to keep things going. This is the Roundworld universe—ours. The key point: much that's true only on Discworld (eg: that suns orbit planets and not vice-versa) was once believed on Earth and the wizards' comic misunderstandings echo the history of real science ... Unusually, Pratchett's story is split into chapters and in between his chapters Stewart and Cohen wittily discuss the concepts underlying the fiction, from the Big Bang through stellar formation to life and evolution. Much of the science we know, they cheerfully insist, is "lies-to-children": good stories that are mostly untrue, like thinking of atoms as tiny solar systems. Discworld operates by narrative plausibility and so does human thought even when our Roundworld universe disagrees. Between the laughs, The Science of Discworld is a provocative, informative book that'll make you think about what you think you know. —David Langford

Jack Prelutsky

Prescott

Anne Rampling

Eileen Ramsden

Eileen Ramsden

Ronne Randall THIS IS EXTRODINARY STORIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD RETOLD BY RONNIE RANDALL

Melanie Rawn

Melanie Rawn

Melanie Rawn

Melanie Rawn

Piers Paul Read

Andy Remic

Anne Rice

Jennifer Roberson

Jennifer Roberson

Jennifer Roberson

Adam Roberts

Jennifer Robertson

Jennifer Robertson

Michael Robinson

Norman Rockwell

Ivan M. Roitt, D. Male, J. Brostoff

J. K. Rowling The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Standard Edition
In December 2007, J.K. Rowling unveiled The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a very special book of five fairy tales illustrated by the bard herself, embellished with silver ornaments and mounted moonstones. Amazon was fortunate to come into possession of one of the original copies, and it was our privilege to share images and reviews of this incredible artifact. Now J.K. Rowling is giving millions of Harry Potter fans worldwide cause for celebration with a new edition of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, available December 4, 2008.

Offering the trademark wit and imagination familiar to Rowling's legions of readers—as well as Aesop's wisdom and the occasional darkness of the Brothers Grimm—each of these five tales reveals a lesson befitting children and parents alike: the strength gained with a trusted friendship, the redemptive power of love, and the true magic that exists in the hearts of all of us. Rowling's new introduction also comments on the personal lessons she has taken from the Tales, noting that the characters in Beedle's collection "take their fates into their own hands, rather than taking a prolonged nap or waiting for someone to return a lost shoe," and "that magic causes as much trouble as it cures."

But the true jewel of this new edition is the enlightening and comprehensive commentary (including extensive footnotes!) by Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, who brings his unique wizard's-eye perspective to the collection. Discovered "among the many papers which Dumbledore left in his will to the Hogwarts Archives," the venerable wizard's ruminations on the Tales allow today's readers to place them in the context of 16th century Muggle society, even allowing that "Beedle was somewhat out of step with his times in preaching a message of brotherly love for Muggles" during the era of witch hunts that would eventually drive the wizarding community into self-imposed exile. In fact, versions of the same stories told in wizarding households would shock many for their uncharitable treatment of their Muggle characters.

Professor Dumbledore also includes fascinating historical backstory, including tidbits such as the history and pursuit of magic wands, a brief comment on the Dark Arts and its practitioners, and the struggles with censorship that eventually led "a certain Beatrix Bloxam" to cleanse the Tales of "much of the darker themes that she found distasteful," forever altering the meaning of the stories for their Muggle audience. Dumbledore also allows us a glimpse of his personal relationship to the Tales, remarking that it was through "Babbity Rabbity and Her Cackling Stump" that "many of us [wizards] first discovered that magic could not bring back the dead."

Both a wise and delightful addition to the Harry Potter canon, this new translation of The Tales of Beedle the Bard is all that fans could hope for and more—and an essential volume for the libraries of Muggles, wizards, and witches, both young and old.

The Children's Voice Campaign
The Tales of Beedle the Bard is published by The Children's High Level Group (CHLG), registered charity number 1112575, a charity co-founded in 2005 by J.K. Rowling and Emma Nicholson MEP to make life better for vulnerable children.

All net proceeds* from the sale will be donated to The Children's Voice campaign.

The Children's Voice campaign is run by CHLG. It campaigns for child rights across Europe, particularly in Eastern Europe where over a million children and teenagers are growing up in institutions, often in unacceptable conditions. In most cases they are without adequate human or emotional contact and stimulation, while many only just survive without life's basics such as adequate shelter and food.

CHLG's Children's Voice campaign helps around a quarter of a million children each year through education activities; outreach work in institutions; and a dedicated telephone and email help line.

*We estimate that £20 GBP per unit from the sale of the Collector's Edition from Amazon.co.uk will be donated to CHLG.

Also Available: The Collector's Edition, Offered Exclusively by Amazon
Amazon is thrilled to be the exclusive seller of the Collector's Edition of The Tales of Beedle the Bard featuring an exclusive reproduction of J.K. Rowling's handwritten introduction, 10 new illustrations, metalwork and clasp, replica gemstones, and tucked in its own case disguised as a wizarding textbook from the Hogwarts library. (Available in limited quantities)

Standard Edition Product Features:
• All five fairy tales from the original The Tales of Beedle the Bard
• A new introduction by J.K. Rowling
• Illustrations reproduced from the original handcrafted book
• Commentary on each of the tales by Professor Albus Dumbledore

Amazon Reviews the Original Handcrafted Edition of The Tales of Beedle the Bard
The following is Amazon's original December 2007 review. Please note that the review and images below pertain to the handmade book purchased at auction:

There is no easy way to define the experience of seeing, holding, or reading J.K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard, so let's just start with one word: "Wow." The very fact of its existence (an artifact pulled straight out of a novel) is magical, not to mention the facts that only seven copies exist in all the world and each of the never-before-told tales is handwritten and illustrated by J.K. Rowling herself (and it's quite clear from the first few pages that she has some skill as an artist). Rowling's handwriting is like the familiar scrawl of a favorite aunt—it—it's not hard to read, but it does require attention—allowing you to take it slow and savour the mystery of each next word.

So how do you review one of the most remarkable tomes you've ever had the pleasure of opening? You just turn each page and allow yourself to be swept away by each story. You soak up the simple tales that read like Aesop's fables and echo the themes of the series; you follow every dip and curve of Rowling's handwriting and revel in every detail that makes the book unique—a slight darkening of a letter here, a place where the writing nearly runs off the page there. You take all that and you try and bring it to life, knowing that you will never be able to do it justice. With that, let's dig in and begin at the beginning, shall we? —Daphne Durham

Caution: the full reviews contain spoilers!
Please note that the review and images below pertain to the handmade book purchased at auction in December 2007. "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot" "The Fountain of Fair Fortune" "The Warlock's Hairy Heart" "Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump" "The Tale of the Three Brothers"

More images from the original handcrafted edition of The Tales of Beedle the Bard
Please note that these are images of the handcrafted book purchased at auction in December 2007. Click thumbnails to open full-size images in a new window. See more on our original The Tales of Beedle the Bard pages.

The Beedle the Bard Ballad Writing Contest
Amazon customers have spoken, and out of thousands of entrants, you have chosen Rhiannon D. of Australia as the winner of the Beedle the Bard Ballad Writing Contest, sending her and a friend on a trip for two to London, England and a weekend with The Tales of Beedle the Bard. See her Grand Prize winning entry, as well as all of the other delightful semifinalist submissions.

Magic, Mystery, and Mayhem: A Conversation with J.K. Rowling
"I am an extraordinarily lucky person, doing what I love best in the world. I’m sure that I will always be a writer. It was wonderful enough just to be published. The greatest reward is the enthusiasm of the readers." —J.K. Rowling

Find out more about Harry's creator in our exclusive interview with J.K. Rowling.

Rediscover the Complete Harry Potter Series
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Hardcover
Paperback
Special Edition Hardcover Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Hardcover
Paperback
Special Edition Hardcover Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Hardcover
Paperback
Special Edition Hardcover Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Hardcover
Paperback
Special Edition Hardcover Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Hardcover
Paperback
Special Edition Hardcover Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Hardcover
Paperback
Special Edition Hardcover Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Hardcover
Paperback
Special Edition Hardcover

Why We Love Harry: Our Favorite Moments from the Series
There are plenty of reasons to love Rowling's wildly popular series—no doubt you have several dozen of your own. Our list features favorite moments, characters, and artifacts from the first five books. Keep in mind that this list is by no means exhaustive (what we love about Harry could fill ten books!) and does not include any of the spectacular revelatory moments that would spoil the books for those (few) who have not read them. Enjoy.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
* Harry's first trip to the zoo with the Dursleys, when a boa constrictor winks at him.
* When the Dursleys' house is suddenly besieged by letters for Harry from Hogwarts. Readers learn how much the Dursleys have been keeping from Harry. Rowling does a wonderful job in displaying the lengths to which Uncle Vernon will go to deny that magic exists.
* Harry's first visit to Diagon Alley with Hagrid. Full of curiosities and rich with magic and marvel, Harry's first trip includes a trip to Gringotts and Ollivanders, where Harry gets his wand (holly and phoenix feather) and discovers yet another connection to He-Who-Must-No-Be-Named. This moment is the reader's first full introduction to Rowling's world of witchcraft and wizards.
* Harry's experience with the Sorting Hat.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
* The de-gnoming of the Weasleys' garden. Harry discovers that even wizards have chores—gnomes must be grabbed (ignoring angry protests "Gerroff me! Gerroff me!"), swung about (to make them too dizzy to come back), and tossed out of the garden—this delightful scene highlights Rowling's clever and witty genius.
* Harry's first experience with a Howler, sent to Ron by his mother.
* The Dueling Club battle between Harry and Malfoy. Gilderoy Lockhart starts the Dueling Club to help students practice spells on each other, but he is not prepared for the intensity of the animosity between Harry and Draco. Since they are still young, their minibattle is innocent enough, including tickling and dancing charms.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
* Ron's attempt to use a telephone to call Harry at the Dursleys'.
* Harry's first encounter with a Dementor on the train (and just about any other encounter with Dementors). Harry's brush with the Dementors is terrifying and prepares Potter fans for a darker, scarier book.
* Harry, Ron, and Hermione's behavior in Professor Trelawney's Divination class. Some of the best moments in Rowling's books occur when she reminds us that the wizards-in-training at Hogwarts are, after all, just children. Clearly, even at a school of witchcraft and wizardry, classes can be boring and seem pointless to children.
* The Boggart lesson in Professor Lupin's classroom.
* Harry, Ron, and Hermione's knock-down confrontation with Snape.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
* Hermione's disgust at the reception for the veela (Bulgarian National Team Mascots) at the Quidditch World Cup. Rowling's fourth book addresses issues about growing up—the dynamic between the boys and girls at Hogwarts starts to change. Nowhere is this more plain than the hilarious scene in which magical cheerleaders nearly convince Harry and Ron to jump from the stands to impress them.
* Viktor Krum's crush on Hermione—and Ron's objection to it.
* Malfoy's "Potter Stinks" badge.
* Hermione's creation of S.P.E.W., the intolerant bigotry of the Death Eaters, and the danger of the Triwizard Tournament. Add in the changing dynamics between girls and boys at Hogwarts, and suddenly Rowling's fourth book has a weight and seriousness not as present in early books in the series. Candy and tickle spells are left behind as the students tackle darker, more serious issues and take on larger responsibilities, including the knowledge of illegal curses.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

* Harry's outburst to his friends at No. 12 Grimmauld Place. A combination of frustration over being kept in the dark and fear that he will be expelled fuels much of Harry's anger, and it all comes out at once, directly aimed at Ron and Hermione. Rowling perfectly portrays Harry's frustration at being too old to shirk responsibility, but too young to be accepted as part of the fight that he knows is coming.
* Harry's detention with Professor Umbridge. Rowling shows her darker side, leading readers to believe that Hogwarts is no longer a safe haven for young wizards. Dolores represents a bureaucratic tyrant capable of real evil, and Harry is forced to endure their private battle of wills alone.
* Harry and Cho's painfully awkward interactions. Rowling clearly remembers what it was like to be a teenager.
* Harry's Occlumency lessons with Snape.
* Dumbledore's confession to Harry.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

* The introduction of the Horcrux.
* Molly Weasley asking Arthur Weasley about his "dearest ambition. "Rowling has always been great at revealing little intriguing bits about her characters at a time, and Arthur’s answer "to find out how airplanes stay up" reminds us about his obsession with Muggles.
* Harry's private lessons with Dumbledore, and more time spent with the fascinating and dangerous pensieve, arguably one of Rowling’s most ingenious inventions.
* Fred and George Weasley’s Joke Shop, and the slogan: "Why Are You Worrying About You-Know-Who? You Should Be Worrying About U-NO-POO—the Constipation Sensation That's Gripping the Nation!"
* Luna's Quidditch commentary. Rowling created scores of Luna Lovegood fans with hilarious and bizarre commentary from the most unlikely Quidditch commentator.
* The effects of Felix Felicis.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

* The revelation of Snape's nature (especially Snape's Patronus and the emotion behind it). It serves as a reminder that it is love (requited or not) in all its forms  that drives many of our actions.
* Harry asking if the conversation with Dumbledore was real or happening in his head, and Dumbledore responding "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"
* Ron gifting Harry a book on dating witches, a subtle reminder that they are still teens, after all.

Visit the Harry Potter Store
Can't get enough of Harry, Ron, and Hermione? Our Harry Potter Store features all things Harry, including books, audio CDs and cassettes, DVDs, soundtracks, games, and more.

Edward Rutherfurd

Chris Ryan

Chris Ryan

Chris Ryan

Chris Ryan Ex-commando, Chris Ryan, did three extensive tours with the SAS as an "assaulter", "sniper" and "Sniper Team Leader" before becoming a bestselling thriller writer. His hands-on field experience makes a definitive mark in his writing and is personified in the character of Geordie Sharp, an everyman's Rambo.

In the fifth episode, Tenth Man Down, Sharp finds himself on his toughest assignment yet: to reclaim a lucrative African diamond mine held by Kamangan rebels and escape the evil spell of a Sin'ganga or witch doctor. To make matters worse, as Sharp and his men move in, they discover the rebels are being supported by ex-US Navy SEAL mercenaries. As they try and uncover the hidden agenda, Sharp is taken prisoner with comrade-in-arms, Whinger. In line with the Sin'ganga's predictions, Whinger is brutally slaughtered, leaving Sharp to break the conspiracy and reunite with his team alone.

Ryan's mean, lean, fast-moving prose is filled with colourful military descriptors and salute- inducing narrative: "I wanted to introduce him to Pen-y-Fen, the mountain whose silhouette is supposed to be graven on every Special Forces man's heart." And for those not familiar with military jargon and the Kamangan dialect, there's also a glossary to guide you through thorny verbiage. Akin to reading a solider's diary, the action in The Tenth Man Down is gritty, straightforward and believable. —Susan Queue

Chris Ryan Despite a derivative plot, The Hit List has a solid backbone derived from author (and ex-SAS) Ryan's explicit knowledge of death-laden situations. Armed with the vivid technical detail of raw experience, danger is omnipresent, evaded only by finely tuned intuition and training, rather than by well-worn cliché. This is marvellously evident in Neil Slater, the Ex-SAS serviceman whose chances at a peaceful life are shattered when he is approached by elite assassination squad "The Cadre", who need his anti-social skills in dispatching "enemies of the State". Slater is under no illusion about what he is and, as such, is a perfect vessel for Ryan's hardened brand of realism, thrust into situations where each act of violence is measured to provoke an exact response. Ryan's tale translates well to audio format, losing little of the tension and thrills that are so abundant in the novel. Christian Rodska's gravelly tones and enthusiastic reading certainly evoke the tension a tale like this demands. However, you might question Rodska's penchant for providing all the characters with their relevant accents. Mostly, it works, but it's unfortunate that his interpretation of an Eastern European woman sounds like a splicing of Monty Python and Zsa Zsa Gabor. However, that's forgivable, hardly detracting from this gripping, intense glimpse into an all-too-possible underworld of intrigue and extreme violence. —Danny Graydon

Pam Munoz Ryan

Richard Scarry

Rob Scotton

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

Shel Silverstein

Marc Simmons

Jacqueline Simpson, Terry Pratchett

Cameron Spence

Cameron Spence

Art Spiegelman

Joel Spring

Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem

Neal Stephenson From the opening line of his breakthrough cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson plunges the reader into a not-too-distant future. It is a world where the Mafia controls pizza delivery, the United States exists as a patchwork of corporate-franchise city states, and the Internet—incarnate as the Metaverse—looks something like last year's hype would lead you to believe it should. Enter Hiro Protagonist—hacker, samurai swordsman and pizza-delivery driver. When his best friend fries his brain on a new designer drug called Snow Crash and his beautiful, brainy ex-girlfriend asks for his help, what's a guy with a name like that to do? He rushes to the rescue. A breakneck-paced 21st-century novel, Snow Crashinterweaves everything from Sumerian myth to visions of a postmodern civilization on the brink of collapse. Faster than the speed of television and a whole lot more fun, Snow Crashis the portrayal of a future that is bizarre enough to be plausible. —Acton Lane

Neal Stephenson Decades into the future, near the ancient city of Shanghai, a brilliant nanotechnologist named John Percival Hackworth has broken the rigorous moral code of his tribe, the powerful neo-Victorians, by making an illicit copy of a state-of-the-art interactive device called "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer". Seattle Weeklycalled Stephenson's Snow Crash"The most influential book since ... Neuromancer."

William Gibson Bruce Sterling

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Janice Anderson & Edmund Swinglehurst Britain Yesterday and Today looks at every aspect of British life over the last 150 years contrasting beautiful black and white images with colour photographs from the twenty-first century of the same scenes and activities. From sport and leisure to the workplace, from the countryside to the city and from shore to shore witness the amazing changes that have taken place in British society over the last 150 years, as well as those things that have reassuringly remained the same. Contrast crowds waiting in the rain desperate to catch a glimpse of their new Queen at her coronation in 1952 with the flag-waving crowds jostling to see her Golden Jubilee procession fifty years later. Marvel at the beauty of our untouched countryside, discover our power stations transformed into museums and our docks into modern commercial enterprises, as well as witnessing the mistakes that have been made in the name of progress. See how our patterns of work have changed as well as how Britons choose to spend their free time. Britain Yesterday and Today combines illuminating and informative text and over 200 fascinating black and white and colour photographs to provide a unique window on Britain's past and present.

Andrew S. Tanenbaum Now in its third edition, Professor Andrew Tanenbaum's 800-page book is the classic treatise on computer networking. Since its inception, Computer Networks has been the all-time best-selling overview of computer networks by one of the key computer science authors. It's a complete guide to computer networking, covering everything from LANs to satellite networks. The seven-layer OSI model underpins all modern networking technologies and this standard work from the award-winning Professor Tanenbaum devotes most of its chapters to in-depth descriptions of each layer. Protocols, network architecture and software are examined in detail, from the physical layer, through the data link, network, transport, session and presentation layers to the application layer. This book dissects very difficult material with ease.

But Computer Networks isn't without its faults—an eternity in Internet time has elapsed since publication and the book is a little stale as a result. It's also very much a textbook and its layout looks very dated and scholarly—for example, each chapter concludes with a mass of sample questions.

Oft found in countless bibliographies and on the recommended reading list for IT and networking students, Computer Networks is nevertheless an excellent textbook and a good reference book. It's also one of the best-written and easy to read technical books around. For the IT student and networking professionals alike, it's probably essential reading. If you can afford only one networking book, this is the one you should get. —Roger Gann

Andrew S. Tanenbaum For software development professionals and computer science students, Modern Operating Systems gives a solid conceptual overview of operating system design, including detailed case studies of Unix/Linux and Windows 2000.

Readers familiar with Tanenbaum's previous text, Operating Systems, know the author is a great proponent of simple design and hands-on experimentation. His earlier book came bundled with the source code for an operating system called Minux, a simple variant of Unix and the platform used by Linus Torvalds to develop Linux. Although this book does not come with any source code, he illustrates many of his points with code fragments (C, usually with Unix system calls).

The first half of Modern Operating Systems focuses on traditional operating systems concepts: processes, deadlocks, memory management, I/O, and file systems. There is nothing ground-breaking in these early chapters, but all topics are well covered, each including sections on current research and a set of student problems. It is the second half of the book that differentiates itself from older operating systems texts. Here, each chapter describes an element of what constitutes a modern operating system—awareness of multimedia applications, multiple processors, computer networks, and a high level of security. The chapter on multimedia functionality focuses on such features as handling massive files and providing video-on-demand. Included in the discussion on multiprocessor platforms are clustered computers and distributed computing. Finally, the importance of security is discussed—a lively enumeration of the scores of ways operating systems can be vulnerable to attack, from password security to computer viruses and Internet worms.

Included at the end of the book are case studies of two popular operating systems: Unix/Linux and Windows 2000. There is a bias toward the Unix/Linux approach, not surprising given the author's experience and academic bent, but this bias does not detract from Tanenbaum's analysis. Both operating systems are dissected, describing how each implements processes, file systems, memory management, and other operating system fundamentals.

Tanenbaum's mantra is a simple, accessible operating system design. Given that modern operating systems have extensive features, he is forced to reconcile physical size with simplicity. Towards this end, he makes frequent references to the Frederick Brooks classic The Mythical Man Month for wisdom on managing large, complex software development projects. He finds both Windows 2000 and Unix/Linux guilty of being too complicated—with a particular skewering of Windows 2000 and its "mammoth Win32 API". A primary culprit is the attempt to make operating systems more "user-friendly," which Tanenbaum views as an excuse for bloated code. The solution is to have smart people, the smallest possible team, and well-defined interactions between various operating systems components. Future operating system design will benefit if the advice in this book is taken to heart. —Pete Ostenson

Patricia Telesco

Patricia Telesco

Paul Theroux

Henry David Thoreau

Lois Tilton

J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien

Kathy Tyers

Joan C. Verniero

Kurt Vonnegut

John Vornholt

John Vornholt

Vox

Weaver

Robert Franklin Weaver

Brent Weeks

Brent Weeks

Brent Weeks

Jordan Weisman

Eudora Welty

Kate West

Robert Westall

Bill Whitcomb

T.H. White

Lady Wilde

Oscar Wilde LEATHER BOUND book accented in 22kt gold!

Tad Williams

Tad Williams

Tad Williams

Tad Williams

Tennessee Williams

Michael Williamson

Tom Wilson

P.G. Wodehouse

P.G. Wodehouse

P.G. Wodehouse

White Wolf

Jane Yolen

Timothy Zahn

Timothy Zahn

Timothy Zahn

Jose Zorrilla