A dazzling quest whose outcome will raise humanity to unparalleled heights of glory--or ring down a curtain of endless night . . .

1681: When Sir Isaac Newton turns his restless mind to the ancient art of alchemy, he unleashes Philosopher's Mercury, a primal source of matter and a key to manipulating the four elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Now, as France and England battle for its control, Louis XIV calls for a new weapon--a mysterious device known only as Newton's Cannon.

Half a world away, a young apprentice named Benjamin Franklin stumbles across a dangerous secret. Pursued by a deadly enemy--half scientist, half sorcerer--Ben makes his fugitive way to England. Only Newton himself can help him now. But who will help Sir Isaac? For he was not the first to unleash the Philosopher's Mercury. Others were there before him. Creatures as scornful of science as they are of mankind. And burning to be rid of both . . .

384p

When Sir Isaac Newton uncovered the secrets of alchemy, he could never have imagined the tragic results. Dark sorcery rules. Europe is lost and the American colonists have been driven south. The demonic creatures known as the Malekim won’t tolerate even a flicker of hope. Any who oppose them– Franklin, Voltaire, even the mysterious daughters of Lilith–will be swept away. However Benjamin Franklin and his secret society, the Junto, manage a precarious existence founded on the mutual trust of Native Americans, whites, and freed blacks. And as armies and alchemy clash, the Choctaw shaman Red Shoes witnesses a vision of an ancient, implacable evil–and of a young boy who shines as brightly as an angel... the fallen, avaricious kind.

416p

In the twenty-fifth century, humankind has spread throughout the galaxy, monitored by the watchful eye of the U.N. While divisions in race, religion, and class still exist, advances in technology have redefined life itself. Now, assuming one can afford the expensive procedure, a person’s consciousness can be stored in a cortical stack at the base of the brain and easily downloaded into a new body (or “sleeve”) making death nothing more than a minor blip on a screen.

Ex-U.N. envoy Takeshi Kovacs has been killed before, but his last death was particularly painful. Dispatched one hundred eighty light-years from home, re-sleeved into a body in Bay City (formerly San Francisco, now with a rusted, dilapidated Golden Gate Bridge), Kovacs is thrown into the dark heart of a shady, far-reaching conspiracy that is vicious even by the standards of a society that treats “existence” as something that can be bought and sold. For Kovacs, the shell that blew a hole in his chest was only the beginning...

384p

Explore the marvelous complexity of Lovecraft's writing—including his use of literary allusions, biographical details, and obscure references in this rich, in-depth exploration of great horror fiction from the acknowledged master of the weird, including the stories "Herbert West—Reanimator", "Pickman's Model", "The Call of Cthulhu", "The Thing on the Doorstep", "The Horror at Red Hook" and more.

Did Lovecraft believe in ghosts or paranormal phenomena? In what story does the narrator fear riding the Boston T?

A pathfinder in the literary territory of the macabre, H.P. Lovecraft is one of America's giants of the horror genre. Now, in this second volume of annotated tales, Lovecraft scholars S. T. Joshi and Peter Cannon provide another rare opportunity to look into the mind of a genius. Their extensive notes lift the veil between real events in the writer's life—such as the death of his father—and the words that spill out onto the page in magnificent grotesquerie. Mansions, universities, laboratories, and dank New England boneyards appear also as the haunts where Lovecraft's characters confront the fabulous and fantastic, or—like the narrator in "Herbert West—Reanimator"—dig up fresh corpses.

Richly illustrated and scrupulously researched, this extraordinary work adds exciting levels of meaning to Lovecraft's chilling tales... and increases our wonder at the magic that transforms life into a great writer's art.

368p
Edited by S. T. Joshi

Kim Stanley Robinson, who took us around the solar system with his award-winning Mars trilogy, brings readers to an equally alien setting — this one on our own world. In Antarctica, it's the near future, the world is overpopulated, and Antarctica is at the heart of an environmental war over who can lay claim to the beautiful continent's natural resources. But in addition to a slew of countries eager to lay their hands on Antarctica's natural assets, there's a growing supply of nature-loving terrorists who value the South Pole more than human lives, and there's no easy answer to the question of who provides the biggest threat. One thing is for sure — Antarctica's intelligent and gripping story is guaranteed to keep you cool through the brutal summer heat.

672p

A complete short novel, AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS is a tale of terror unilke any other. The Barren, windswept interior of the Antarctic plateau was lifeless--or so the expedition from Miskatonic University thought. Then they found the strange fossils of unheard-of creatures... and the carved stones tens of millions of years old...and, finally, the mind-blasting terror of the City of the Old Ones. Three additional strange tales, written a s only H.P. Lovecraft can write, are also included in this macabre collection of the strange and the weird.

192p

In a heartbeat, a crowded auditorium or a city street can become a kill zone, where life and death are separated by a split second. For Atticus Kodiak, professional bodyguard, the object is to keep people alive, and there is no margin for error. Now Kodiak faces his toughest challenge: to protect a woman and her daughter from a killer with a fanatic agenda of his own....

Tense, taut, and as brutally real as this morning's headlines, Keeper marks the debut of a talented young writer of tough, unflinching prose—and the beginning of an electrifying new series.

332p

As a bodyguard, Atticus Kodiak knows danger is part of the job. But he still can't shake his guilt over his best friend's death in their last assignment. As a bouncer at a hard-core club on the Lower West Side, Atticus is responsible for nothing more than keeping the scene under control. Until he sees Erika Wyatt, the teenage daughter of an Army colonel Atticus once guarded. Stalked by a cold-eyed commando fondling a wicked knife, Erika draws Atticus back into the protection business. In a case built on lies, vengeance, and sins of the past, Atticus is pulled into a vortex of treachery and violence, and learns that a promise can be the most dangerous weapon of all....

352p

In Smoker, Greg Rucka's entertaining new pulse pounder, it appears that down-and-out bodyguard Atticus Kodiak is in way over his head, especially when he's matched against one of the most deadly, efficient, and skilled assassins in the world. The last principal Atticus was responsible to protect ended up with a bullet in the head. When your business is keeping people safe, that's certainly not a prudent career move. Then Elliot Trent, the man who runs the largest security firm in Manhattan, offers him an apparently piece-of-cake assignment. Even though Atticus smells a rat, he accepts the job. Then the hit goes down, and Trent's hard-driving daughter, Natalie, is forced to administer the killing blow. Now Atticus is convinced he was set up. Smoker is a taut, gripping, and suspenseful jackhammer of a thriller. Action, action, and more action await the reader of this well-crafted blockbuster-to-be.

432p

Greg Rucka has earned a devoted following for his edgy Atticus Kodiak thrillers, Finder, Keeper, and Smoker. Now, in an electrifying new suspense novel, Rucka puts us in the heart and brain of Kodiak's friend and lover, Bridgett Logan, a young woman living life on her own terms—and living it on the edge. Shooting at Midnight.

It began with a promise made to a friend, made when they were both teenagers. Now, years later, the friend wants to collect. All Bridgett Logan has to do is keep her word and the vow she made: Commit a murder. Now two men are desperately trying to find Bridgett.

One to save her. The other—to kill her.

400p

The acclaimed author of Shooting at Midnight has penned a thriller like no other ... the no-holds-barred story of a bodyguard with the ultimate assignment: protecting a woman who also happens to be the most hunted killer in the world...

528p

Love your country.
Fear your government.
Know your enemy.

Greg Rucka is back with a vengeance in this electrifying thriller starring suspense fiction’s most dangerous hero: Atticus Kodiak. This time the bodyguard turned fugitive must go underground to protect the woman he loves and a country he may have to betray to defend.

“You cannot learn what you have learned and remain unchanged.”

As a bodyguard, Atticus Kodiak once protected his clients against professional killers like Alena Cizkova, a.k.a. Drama. Now he is taking lessons from the world’s premier assassin.

“I am not a murderer.”

It begins with a shocking betrayal, a brutal ambush, and the murder of a friend. Atticus is about to discover that he’s been falsely identified as one of The Ten–a short list of the world’s most wanted assassins. And to survive, he’s going to have to become exactly what they’re accusing him of being: a stone-cold killer.

“Yes, you are. You have only to meet your first victim....”

416p

Atticus Kodiak knows where people go to hide. That’s why he and Alena Cizkova have come to a secluded Georgian town in the former U.S.S.R. What he doesn’t know is what his friend and neighbor Bakhar Lagidze was hiding from. Bakhar and his entire family have been viciously murdered—all except for Lagidze’s fourteen-year-old daughter, whose nightmare is just beginning. To rescue her, Atticus must enter a lethal web that stretches from Russia to Istanbul, from Dubai to Las Vegas, and into the very heart of evil. But what troubles Atticus the most is that Alena, once one of the world’s most fearless assassins, is clearly terrified of what Atticus will uncover—and what he’ll become when he does.

400p

From celebrated comic artist Mike Mignola and award-winning novelist Christopher Golden comes a work of gothic storytelling like no other. Reminiscent of the illustrated tales of old, here is a lyrical, atmospheric novel of the paranormal—and a chilling allegory for the nature of war.

When Lord Henry Baltimore awakens the wrath of a vampire on the hellish battlefields of World War I, the world is forever changed. For a virulent plague has been unleashed—a plague that even death cannot end.

Now the lone soldier in an eternal struggle against darkness, Baltimore summons three old friends to a lonely inn—men whose travels and fantastical experiences incline them to fully believe in the evil that is devouring the soul of mankind.

As the men await their old friend, they share their tales of terror and misadventure, and contemplate what part they will play in Baltimore’s timeless battle. Before the night is through, they will learn what is required to banish the plague—and the creature who named Baltimore his nemesis—once and for all.

Hardcover, 304pp

One of Spectra's most imaginative and talented authors now takes us on a phantasmagoric journey into a strange future fueled by haunt-tech: a technology which works by harnessing energy from of the realm of the dead. But who are the mysterious race known as the Kami who brought haunt-tech to earth? Saviors from another world, or something else entirely? And how does the child named Lunae who can manipulate time with a thought fit into the puzzle? It is up to the Martian warrior Dreams-of-War to answer these questions before life as she knows it comes to an end.

464 p

Robert E. Howard is one of the most famous and influential pulp authors of the twentieth century. Though largely known as the man who invented the sword-and-sorcery genre–and for his iconic hero Conan the Cimmerian–Howard also wrote horror tales, desert adventures, detective yarns, epic poetry, and more. This spectacular volume, gorgeously illustrated by Jim and Ruth Keegan, includes some of his best and most popular works.

Inside, readers will discover (or rediscover) such gems as “The Shadow Kingdom,” featuring Kull of Atlantis and considered by many to be the first sword-and-sorcery story; “The Fightin’est Pair,” part of one of Howard’s most successful series, chronicling the travails of Steve Costigan, a merchant seaman with fists of steel and a head of wood; “The Grey God Passes,” a haunting tale about the passing of an age, told against the backdrop of Irish history and legend; “Worms of the Earth,” a brooding narrative featuring Bran Mak Morn, about which H. P. Lovecraft said, “Few readers will ever forget the hideous and compelling power of [this] macabre masterpiece”; a historical poem relating a momentous battle between Cimbri and the legions of Rome; and “Sharp’s Gun Serenade,” one of the last and funniest of the Breckinridge Elkins tales.

These thrilling, eerie, compelling, swashbuckling stories and poems have been restored to their original form, presented just as the author intended. There is little doubt that after more than seven decades the voice of Robert E. Howard continues to resonate with readers around the world.

Format: Trade Paperback, 528 pages

This compilation of Robert E. Howard's most famous and well-received stories spans all of the characters and genres he scribed in - all restored to the earliest, most definitive versions available today.

The classic pulp magazines of the early twentieth century are long gone, but their action-packed tales live on through the work of legendary storyteller Robert E. Howard. From his fecund imagination sprang an army of larger-than-life heroes–including the iconic Conan the Cimmerian, King Kull of Atlantis, Solomon Kane, and Bran Mak Morn–as well as adventures that would define a genre for generations. Now comes the second volume of this author’s breathtaking short fiction, which runs the gamut from sword and sorcery, historical epic, and seafaring pirate adventure to two-fisted crime and intrigue, ghoulish horror, and rip-roaring western.

Kull reigns supreme in “By This Axe I Rule!” and “The Mirrors of Tuzan Thune”; Conan conquers in one of his most popular exploits, “The Tower of the Elephant”; Solomon Kane battles demons deep in Africa in “Wings in the Night”; and itinerant boxer Steve Costigan puts up his dukes of steel inside and outside the ring in “The Bulldog Breed.” In between, warrior kings, daring knights, sinister masterminds, grizzled frontiersmen–even Howard’s stunning heroine, Red Sonya–tear up the pages in stories built to thrill by their masterly creator.

And in such epic poems as “Echoes from an Anvil,” “Black Harps in the Hills,” and “The Grim Land,” the author blends his classic characters and visceral imagery with a lyricism as haunting as traditional folk balladry. Lavishly illustrated by Jim and Ruth Keegan, here is a Robert E. Howard collection as indispensable as it is unforgettable.

Format: Trade Paperback, 544 pages

Winner of Philip K Dick Award 2010

An Imploding Star System.
A Murdered Galactic Spy.
A Woman Seeking the Truth—and Finding the Unbelievable…

The Erasmus System is a sprawling realm of slavery, smugglers, spies—and constant, creeping decrepitude. Here everyone who is not part of the ruling Four Families is a slave of one kind or another. But the Guardians, a special-forces branch inside the United World Government for Earth, have deemed Erasmus a “hot spot.” Somehow, it is believed, this failing colony intends to launch a war upon the solar system.

Ex-Field Commander Terese Drajeske, now a mother of three, has been called back to active duty and sent to Erasmus, ostensibly to investigate the murder of her colleague—and friend—Bianca Fayette. At first blush, the death defies explanation: Bianca was immortal. But beneath that single murder lies a twisted foundation of deceptions. Suddenly Terese is plunged into a vortex of shattered lives, endemic deceit, and one dreadful secret. In this society without hope, someone has put into motion a plan that will cast humanity into chaos. And Terese, who has given up her family and her sanity to prevent war, may be asked to make the ultimate sacrifice...

448

From one of the most acclaimed creators of fantasy fiction comes the epic tale of the Black Throne, a stirring saga of tumultuous conflict set in a magical world, in a powerful family, and in the tortured and divided mind of its monarch.

The Fey Empire has been at peace for fifteen years. But Queen Arianna, who holds the Black Throne, has become increasingly troubled by a mysterious presence that is waking in her mind. It is a force of ruthless power, determined to seize the throne even if it means destroying Arianna''s very essence in the process. And when the queen''s body is not her own, it spells trouble for a warlike empire already beginning to chafe under the strictures of peace.

Worse, it seems that the only person who can help Arianna is her brother, Gift, the legitimate heir to the Black Throne--and the one the Throne itself has chosen as ruler. To refuse its summoning could bring disaster, but to accept it could be more dire still. So while his sister is locked in a battle to save her very soul, Gift must use his incomplete knowledge of magic in a desperate fight to discover a solution. At stake is the fate of the entire world--which stands poised on the brink of unimaginable chaos.

448 p