Художественная литература

Larry Niven created his popular "Magic Goes Away" universe in 1967, and it has been a source of delight and inspiration ever since. By asking the simple question, What if magic were a finite resource?, Niven brought to life a mesmerizing world of wonder and loss, of hope and despair. The success of his first story collection, The Magic Goes Away, birthed two sequel anthologies, The Magic May Return and More Magic. All three volumes are collected here for the first time, with stories by Niven himself, as well as contributions by such luminaries of fantasy as Roger Zelazny, Fred Saberhagen, Steven Barnes, and Poul Anderson. Featuring a brand-new introduction by Larry Niven, The Magic Goes Away Collection gives readers insight into the breathtaking world of Niven and Jerry Pournelle's The Burning City and Burning Tower and stands on its own as a landmark in fantasy fiction.

Hobbits and wizards and Sauron--oh, my! Mild-mannered Oxford scholar John Ronald Reuel Tolkien had little inkling when he published The Hobbit; Or, There and Back Again in 1937 that, once hobbits were unleashed upon the world, there would be no turning back. Hobbits are, of course, small, furry creatures who love nothing better than a leisurely life quite free from adventure. But in that first novel and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the hobbits Bilbo and Frodo and their elfish friends get swept up into a mighty conflict with the dragon Smaug, the dark lord Sauron (who owes much to proud Satan in Paradise Lost ), the monstrous Gollum, the Cracks of Doom, and the awful power of the magical Ring. The four books' characters--good and evil--are recognizably human, and the realism is deepened by the magnificent detail of the vast parallel world Tolkien devised, inspired partly by his influential Anglo-Saxon scholarship and his Christian beliefs. (He disapproved of the relative...

On January 15, 1947, the tortured body of a beautiful young woman was found in a vacant lot in Hollywood. Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, a young Hollywood hopeful, had been brutally murdered. Her murder sparked one of the greatest manhunts in California history.In this fictionalized treatment of a real case, Bucky Bleichert and Lee Blanchard, both LA cops obsessed with the Black Dahlia, journey through the seamy underside of Hollywood to the core of the dead girl's twisted life."Passionate, violent, frustrating...imaginative and bizarre." (Los Angeles Times)"Building like a symphony, this is a wonderful, complicated, but accessible tale of ambition, insanity, passion and deceit." (Publishers Weekly)

England in the sixteenth century: a nation at a fatal fork in time, leading to two possible futures forseen by the Sidhe of Elfhame Avalon. Either an evil queen will join forces with the Inquisition and rule with a blood-spattered iron hand, threatening humans and elves alike-or a benevolent, red-haired queen named Elizabeth will rule wisely and well. But the evil Unseleighe Sidhe, who feed on human suffering and dark emotions, are determined that the little girl Elizabeth shall never grow up to take the throne. Opposing them are the good Sidhe of elfland, who have so far managed to protect the young girl. Denoriel had foiled one attempt to kidnap both Elizabeth and her half-brother and replace them with changelings, almost at the cost ofhis own life. But a few years have passed, and Denoriel has healed and returned to guard the young princess, now all of eight years old, secure in the knowledge that his enemy Vidal, leader of the evil Unseleighe, is dead, killed with an iron bolt...

Book Description When she hears that her younger brother Danny has committed suicide, Sayre Lynch relents from her vow never to return to Destiny, the small Louisiana town in which she grew up. She plans to leave immediately after the funeral, but instead soon finds herself drawn into the web cast by Huff Hoyle, her controlling and tyrannical father, the man who owns the town's sole industry, an iron foundry, and in effect runs the lives of everyone who lives there. As she feared, Sayre learns that nothing has changed. Her father and older brother, Chris, are as devious as ever, and now they have a new partner-in-crime, a canny and disarming lawyer named Beck Merchant, who appears to be their equal in corruption. Soon, Sayre is thrown in closer contact with Beck and becomes convinced that something more sinister is at play than her father's usual need to dominate people and events. As she sets out to learn just what did happen to Danny, she comes to realize that there are...

NEW ADVENTURES BASED ON THE WORLD’S BESTSELLING VIDEO GAME After completing a near-fatal mission in the mysterious cloud forests of Peru, Lara Croft flies to Warsaw to tackle her next assignment–and finds herself in the middle of an epic battle for the ultimate power. Reuben Baptiste needs Lara Croft’s help transporting precious cargo. But before Reuben can reveal any details, he is murdered–and Lara signs on with Reuben’s employer, the mysterious Order of the Bronze, to avenge his death. The Order shares with Lara its greatest treasure: a bronze android, thousands of years old, with uncanny abilities. But the android is crippled, missing a leg, and whoever finds that leg will gain astonishing powers. Hot on the trail is Lara’s nemesis, Lancaster Urdmann, now working for an unknown employer with strange abilities. As Lara jets from Siberia to Australia to Rio de Janiero, she is drawn into an age-old conflict of secret societies, intrigue, and death. . . .

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) spent much of his life at sea, and his experiences as a mariner deeply influenced his fiction. He set many of his finest stories aboard ship, where his characters - closely confined, enduring the rigors of the sea - might struggle more intensely with the psychological and moral issues that engaged him. This volume contains three of Conrad's most powerful stories in this genre: `Youth: A Narrative` (1898), `Typhoon` (1902) and `The Secret Sharer` (1910). In each of these exciting tales, Conrad's celebrated prose style, rich in the cadences of the sea, draws readers into a story that probes deeply, often suspensefully, into the mysteries of human character. Here are adventures of the sea and of the soul, related by a novelist considered one of the greatest writers in the language, reprinted from authoritative editions.

Join Douglas Adams's hapless hero Arthur Dent as he travels the galaxy with his intrepid pal Ford Prefect, getting into horrible messes and generally wreaking hilarious havoc. Dent is grabbed from Earth moments before a cosmic construction team obliterates the planet to build a freeway. You'll never read funnier science fiction; Adams is a master of intelligent satire, barbed wit, and comedic dialogue. The Hitchhiker's Guide is rich in comedic detail and thought-provoking situations and stands up to multiple reads. Required reading for science fiction fans, this book (and its follow-ups) is also sure to please fans of Monty Python, Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and British sitcoms.

Book DescriptionWith more than 5,100 map updates?including new roads and interstate exits?you can count on America's #1 trucking atlas for the most comprehensive highway and industry information available. Features include: Over 500 changes to low clearance, weigh station, and restricted route listings Updated 22-page mileage directory with more than 40,000 city-to-city, route-specific mileages Coverage of state-designated truck routes as well as national truck network routes Updated coverage of hazardous materials regulations Web and hotline resources for industry-specific information including revised road construction and conditions State and provincial permit agency chart with phone numbers and websites Coverage: United States, Canada, and Mexico 208 pages; 15.375" x 11"

Ken Follett has 90 million readers worldwide. The Pillars of the Earth is his bestselling book of all time. Now, eighteen years after the publication of The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett has written the most-anticipated sequel of the year, World Withot End. In 1989 Ken Follett astonished the literary world with The Pillars of the Earth, a sweeping epic novel set in twelfth-century England centered on the building of a cathedral and many of the hundreds of lives it affected. Critics were overwhelme--"it will hold you, fascinate you, surround you" (Chicago Tribune)--and readers everywhere hoped for a sequel. World Without End takes place in the same town of Kingsbridge, two centuries after the townspeople finished building the exquisite Gothic cthedral that was at the heart of The Pillars of the Earth. The cathedral and the priory are again at the center of a web of love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge, but this sequel stands on its own. This time the men and...

Wyaaatt Horseman and his family must once again confront the murderous pirate from the past, Wyatt's ancestor Fracis McCabe.

Book DescriptionIn this fascinating and informative exploration of the relationship between drugs and literature, the reader will discover the lives and writings of three celebrated "beat" writers: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs. In examining the drugs they used and the consequent effects on how they lived, what they wrote about, and how they wrote, the author offers an intriguing study of the role of drugs in the creative process. No literary movement had ever explored such a variety of drugs (heroin, morphine, alcohol, amphetamines, marijuana, LSD, etc.) with such such intensity as these three iconic writers. As precursors to and models for a whole generation of "flower children," they had a profound impact not only inliterature but on the whole of society.