The opening episode of The Human Division, John Scalzi's new thirteen-episode novel in the world of his bestselling Old Man's War. Beginning on January 15, 2013, a new episode of The Human Division will appear in e-book form every Tuesday.Colonial Union Ambassador Ode Abumwe and her team are used to life on the lower end of the diplomatic ladder. But when a high-profile diplomat goes missing, Abumwe and her team are last minute replacements on a mission critical to the Colonial Union’s future. As the team works to pull off their task, CDF Lieutenant Harry Wilson discovers there’s more to the story of the missing diplomats than anyone expected...a secret that could spell war for humanity.At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

Episode #3. The machines control our world. It's time we took it back. In the ruins of our world, a new order arose, an order controlled by the very machines humankind created. The end for us came not from a massive global war but from something unthinkable, incomprehensible. The machines simply replaced us and we let them, and so, in the end, humanity went out not with a bang, but with a whimper. No shots fired. No bombs dropped. No cities destroyed. We ended and the machines began—or at least that is what the few human survivors of the machine apocalypse believe.Select Praise for This Mortal Coil. After the Machines:"A gripping tale. Perfectly paced and brilliantly plotted." –Cathy Thompson, author."Stanek's written many good, even great, books. This one's exceptional. Read it!" –Shannon Hale, author."Builds and builds to a crescendo. Part Stephen King, part Suzanne Collins, part Max Brooks, 100% phenomenal!" –David Eastman, author.

Manna is the life-blood of the world. It flows through everything, touches all, infusing life with its azure glow. Demons, and evil in the hearts of men, can cause this energy to become twisted, corrupted, and drain the life of the world itself. The power of the raw manna, whether pure or corrupted, is toxic to the touch. It causes normal men to go insane, or die screaming. Only the Arbiters may interact with the manna without fear, for they are protected from its deadly light by ancient, near-forgotten sorceries, and intense training which begins at birth. When Arbiter D’Arden Tal is assigned to investigate the city of Calessa, he finds that it has been nearly overrun by the horrors of the corrupted manna. Wielding his crystalline sword, D’Arden must find the root of the city’s deadly spiritual disease before it consumes more innocent life. D’Arden must cleanse the dying city before the evil overwhelms him, and consumes the meager remains of innocent life within Calessa’s walls...

The Metal Maiden Series is a wildly different kind of story that tells how Elasa, a humanoid robot who achieves consciousness, eventually saves the world from surpassing horrorHumanoid robots are surely in our future, but their uses are likely to be limited to body guarding, childcare, companionship, and sex. Other chores can better be done by smart non-humanoid machines designed for those specific tasks. But for these limited purposes, the best robots must be so realistic that they are indistinguishable from live people.Elasa is such a robot. You can't tell her nature if she doesn't reveal it. You can talk with her, embrace her, kiss her, and she is the perfect woman. Until she becomes the first conscious robot. She's no longer satisfied to pretend to be a woman; she wants legal recognition that she is a woman, so that, among other things, she can marry the man she loves. Therein hangs a tale . . .

Aboard Argo, a colonization ship bound for Eta Cephei IV, people are very close—there’s no other choice. So when Aaron Rossman’s ex-wife dies in what seems to be a bizarre accident, everyone offers their sympathy, politely keeping their suspicions of suicide to themselves. But Aaron cannot simply accept her death. He must know the truth: Was it an accident, or did she commit suicide? When Aaron discovers the truth behind her death, he is faced with a terrible secret—a secret that could cost him his life. Sawyer’s four most recent novels were nominated for the Hugo Award. He has won the Nebula Award for Best Novel, as well as the major Canadian awards for best science fiction and best mystery fiction. Here is the novel that began his career.

"However this ends, you're probably going to find out some things about me, and they're not nice things. But, Ash, even after you know, do you think you could remember the good? And whatever you end up discovering – try to think of me kindly. If you can." Ember Crow is missing. To find her friend, Ashala Wolf must control her increasingly erratic and dangerous Sleepwalking ability and leave the Firstwood. But Ashala doesn't realise that Ember is harbouring terrible secrets and is trying to shield the Tribe and all Illegals from a devastating new threat – her own past.The second book in a thrilling new dystopian series by Indigenous Australian author Ambelin Kwaymullina, The Disappearance of Ember Crow has a dollop of adventure and a dash of romance, and will grip readers from the first page. Book 1, The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf, was short-listed in both the Science Fiction and Young Adult categories of the 2012 Aurealis Awards. Find...

Maxim Arturovitch Pyatnitski, or Pyat, that charming but despicable mythomaniac who first appeared in Byzantium Endures, is back in this second book of the Pyat quartet. Having fled Bolshevik Russia in late 1919, Pyat's progress is a series of leaps from crisis to crisis, as he begins affairs with a baroness and a Greek prostitute while undertaking schemes to build flying machines in Europe and the United States. His devotion to flamboyantly racist, particularly anti-Semitic doctrines—like his devotion to cocaine—remains unabated, and he both sings the praises of Mussolini and lectures across America for the Ku Klux Klan. Meanwhile, his best-kept secret is the fact that he is Jewish. As the novel ends, Pyat is in Hollywood—his new Byzantium—hobnobbing with movie stars and dreaming of making films like those of his hero, D.W. Griffith. This authoritative edition brings this book back into print after 30 years and boasts a new introduction by Alan Wall.

At the bottom of a lake lies an ancient cache worth killing for. The note from her friend and colleague had read -I have quite the monster for you to chase, dear Annja. And then before she could speak to him, he'd been found dead in the hotel's stairwell. It didn't seemed possible. Annja Creed had been looking forward to three days of geeking out at the archaeology conference in Madison, Wisconsin, and then this tragedy strikes. And his is only the first death over the long weekend. Determined to investigate her friend's death - and find out why another colleague she trusts is arrested as the prime suspect - Annja starts gathering the pieces of a cryptic puzzle. A small collection of Mayan gold medallions. The death of a potter. The violent appearance of a teenaged girl with a strange green knife. And at the center of the puzzle, an ancient mound pyramid purportedly hidden at the bottom of a Wisconsin lake. That's a discovery that could completely rewrite Mesoamerican history. With each puzzle piece Annja Creed discovers, the mystery grows more dangerous. And what she knows can - and probably will - kill her.

I have stolen princesses back from sleeping  barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep. You may have heard of me. So begins the tale of Kvothe—from his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, to years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-riddled city, to his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a difficult and dangerous school of magic. In these pages you will come to know Kvothe as a notorious magician, an accomplished thief, a masterful musician, and an infamous assassin. But THE NAME OF THE WIND is so much more—for the story it tells reveals the truth behind Kvothe’s legend.