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The
Fellowship of the Ring
by J. R. R. Tolkien
Here begins the story of that great war in Middle Earth
with the discovery of the nature of the Ring of Power, forged by the dark
lord Sauron, and the flight of Frodo — the unwilling heir of the
One Ring — from his own land, closely pursued by the Dark Riders
of the Enemy. It tells of the great Council at which it was decided that
the Ring must be destroyed. Frodo is appointed the Ringbearer, and he
and eight companions set forth on a long and perilous journey, beset by
terrible dangers, not least of which is the temptation to use the power
of the Ring and so be corrupted by it. For their task is to return the
Ring to Mordor, the country of the Enemy himself, and there destroy it
in the only way possible: by casting it back into the Fire from which
it came.
The Two Towers
The Return of the King
The
Moon is a Harsh Mistressby Robert A. Heinlein
A tale of revolution, of the rebellion of the former Lunar penal colony against the Lunar Authority that controls it from Earth. It is the tale of the disparate people — a computer technician, a vigorous young female agitator, and an elderly academic — who become the rebel movement's leaders. And it is the story of Mike, the supercomputer whose sentience is known only to this inner circle, and who for reasons of his own is committed to the revolution's ultimate success.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is one of the high points of modern science fiction, a novel bursting with politics, passion, innovative technical speculation, and a firm belief in the pursuit of human freedom.
Stranger in a Strange Land
Friday
by Patricia A. McKillip
In a land where wizards have long since vanished, Morgon, Prince of Hed, is confronted with a challenge much different from that faced by Hed's land-bound rulers before him. Although he wants only to rule and work the land of his birth, Morgon must search out a very different destiny — given to him by the stars imprinted on his forehead since he was born. He must wander strange, foreign lands full of untamed magic in the form of riddling wraiths, mysterious harpists, a lost crown, a magical sword, and an all-knowing High One who rules over all. But in his quest for a new life for himself and his people, he must face great dangers — not only to himself, but to his promised bride, his land, and his very way of life...
The Tower at Stony Wood
Song for the Basilisk
by Andrew Vachss
She came into Burke's office on a steamy city morning, a small blond angel bent on revenge. Her name is Flood, and she wants Burke to find a child murderer called The Cobra — so she can kill him with her bare hands. In New York's underworld of drugs, hustlers and kiddie porn, Burke's dragnet closes in. The hunt is on — for a psycho the police can't get, for one last chance to even the score.
"A fast-paced private-eye novel. ... the wild plotting never lets down for a second."
— People
"Chandleresque, laced with authentic details. ... Vachss never flinches from the horror. ... An extraordinary thriller!"
— The Washington Post
***
by Sue Townsend
"Part Woody Allen, part a kindred spirit to the heroes of Philip Roth's early novellas, Adrian inspires a rare warmth and affection... as sad and devastating as it is laugh-out-loud funny... a delight!"
— The New York Times
"Adrian Mole is... the truth behind the dream we shared when we read The Catcher in the Rye and discovered that we were all Holden Caulfields. A phenomenon..."
— The Washington Post
The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole
Brown
Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkins
The rich and privileged have fled the city, barricaded it behind roadblocks, and left it to crumble. The inner city has had to rediscover the old ways — farming, barter, herb lore. But now the monied need a harvest of bodies, and so they prey upon the helpless of the streets. With nowhere to turn, a young woman must open herself to ancient truths, eternal powers, the tragic mystery surrounding her mother and grandmother. She must bargain with gods, and give birth to new legends.
Midnight Robber
by Christopher Moore
In Christopher Moore's ingenious debut novel we meet one of the most memorably mismatched pairs in the annals of literature. The good-looking one is one-hundred-year-old ex-seminarian and "road" scholar Travis O'Hearn. The green one is Catch, a demon with a nasty habit of eating most of the people he meets. Behind the fake Tudor facade on Pine Cove, California, Catch sees a four-star buffet. Travis, on the other hand, thinks he sees a way of ridding himself of his toothy traveling companion. The winos, Neo-pagans, and deadbeat Lotharios of Pine Cove, meanwhile, have other ideas. And none of them is quite prepared when all hell breaks loose.
Bloodsucking Fiends
Island of the Sequined Love Nun
Coyote Blue
by Iain M. Banks
It was one of the less glorious incidents of a long-ago war. It led to the destruction of two suns and the billions of lives they supported. Now, eight hundred years later, the light from the first of those ancient mistakes has reached the Culture Orbital, Masaq'. The light from the second may not.
Consider Phlebas
Excession
Inversions
Loved Reindeer
by Tamora Pierce
In a wintery land where two moons shine, a young woman named Caribou falls in love with a man who isn't a man at all... When the seasons change he becomes a reindeer and leaves, breaking her heart. Part mortal man, part golden stag, he is a shapechanger who cannot remain in the human world for long.
But when fire and earthquakes ravage Caribou's land, threatening the survival of her people, Reindeer returns. Though untrustworthy and wild, Reindeer alone knows the way out, and Caribou and her people must rely on him to lead them across otherworldly realms, past the horrors of the trollwomen's hedge, into the hall of the Firekings, and beyond — to a place they hope to call home.
Darkangel
A Gathering of Gargoyles
by Barry Hughgart
When the children of his village were struck with a mysterious illness, Number Ten Ox sought a wiseman to save them. He found master Li Kao, a scholar with a slight flaw in his character. Together they set out to find the Great Root of Power, the only possible cure.
The quest led them to a host of truly memorable characters, multiple wonders, incredible adventures — and strange coincidences which were really not coincidences at all. And it involved them in an ancient crime that still perturbed the serenity of Heaven. Simply and charmingly told, this is a wry tale, a sly tale, a story of wisdom delightfully askew. Once read, its marvels and beauty will not easily fade from the mind.
The author claims that this is a novel of an ancient China that never was. But oh... it should have been!
by Thomas Ligotti
In the realm of the supernatural, Thomas Ligotti is the master of stylish, eerie writing of the highest quality. This new edition brings together his collected short stories with "Teatro Grottesco", a sequence of new stories not published before.
"The most startling and unexpected literary discovery since Clive Barker"
— Washington Post
"Ligotti offers interesting and original ideas ... with provocative images, and a style that is both entertaining and lyrical."
— New York Times Book Review
Noctuary
Grimscribe
by Peter Straub
Everyone has been afraid sometime. Everyone has felt fear close a cold hand around the heart, tug at the scalp and send the blood racing wildly. Everyone has been afraid.
But none so afraid as the terror-stricken men and women of Milburn.
Called by a supernatural force to answer for a supernatural sin.
Sentenced in the evil heart of darkness to live out a Ghost Story.
If You Could See Me Now
Julia
by James Tiptree Jr.
Sixteen humans have come together on Damien, a distant world where, once, dreams were stolen and atrocities took place. They have gathered to view the last rising of a manmade nova, the testament to a war none can forget. Soon time will warp and masks will fall. Soon violence will erupt anew — along with treachery, horror, murder, release, and love. Soon some will find justice ... and others, judgment. Soon. Now, sixteen humans have gathered — to await the light of the Murdered Star.
The Color of Neanderthal Eyes
Crown of Stars
The Starry Rift
by Lane Smith
This is a book about the Hocky family. In this book you will read stories about them and airplanes, balloons, tubas, boats, chores, skateboards, dishes, naps, ants, birthdays, toys, and Cousin Stinky.
"If you combined 'Dick and Jane' with the Addams Family, you might end up with a family like the one in Smith's wickedly funny new book."
— School Library Journal
The Big Pets
Glasses (Who Needs 'Em?)
by Jonathan Lethem
Conrad Metcalf has problems. He has a monkey on his back, a rabbit in his waiting room, and a trigger-happy kangaroo on his tail. (Maybe evolution therapy is not such a good idea.) He's been shadowing Celeste, the wife of an affluent Oakland urologist. Maybe falling in love with her a little at the same time. When the doctor turns up dead, Metcalf finds himself caught in a crossfire between the boys from the Inquisitor's Office and the gangsters in the back room of the Fickle Mouse.
The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye
Girl in Landscape
Motherless Brooklyn
The
Bad Beginningby Lemony Snicket
A Dark Carnival Favorite! This book tells an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children. Even though they are charming and clever, the Baudelaire siblings lead lives filled with misery and woe. From the very first page of this book when the children are at the beach and receive terrible news, continuing on through the entire story, disaster lurks at their heels. One might say they are magnets for misfortune...
The Reptile Room
The Wide Window
by Ursula Le Guin
Ged was the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, but once he was called Sparrowhawk, a reckless youth, hungry for power and knowledge, who tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.
The Tombs of Atuan
The Farthest Shore
Tehanu
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Lathe of Heaven
by Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley first envisioned Frankenstein's monster — "the hideous phantasm" — in a dream. In 1816, while touring the Alps with her future husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and their friend Lord Byron, she wrote Frankenstein in response to Byron's suggestion that they have a ghost story competition. In the novel, Victor Frankenstein, a Swiss university student of natural philosophy, resolves to "unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation" by constructing a human being and endowing it with life. When he succeeds, Frankenstein realizes that he has created a mockery of man. Both man and monster are linked in a relentless pursuit, each reviling himself and each dedicated to the other's destruction.
by Michael Moorcock
Enter a decaying far, far future society, a time when anything and everything is possible. Where words like "conscience" and "morality" are meaningless and where heartfelt love blossoms mysteriously between Mrs. Amelia Underwood, an unwilling time-traveller, and Jherek Carnelian, a bemused denizen of the End of Time. Full of wild romance and rich, dark decadence, it is a world nearing its end. Yet, despite being separated by millennia, by impossibly different cultures, and with multiverse collapsing around them, the lovers are eventually reconciled and the world itself is pulled back from the brink. In this brilliant homage to the golden 1890s of Wilde, Beardsley, and the fin de siecle decadents, The Dancers at the End of Time is satire at its sharpest and most colorful.
Von Bek
The Brothel in Rosenstrasse
by Gregory Maguire
When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious Witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?
Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivd that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability, and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who grew up to become the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly, and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.
Confession of an Ugly Stepsister
Lost
by Theodore Sturgeon
There's Lone, the simpleton who can hear other people's thoughts and make a man blow his brains out just by looking at him. There's Janie, who moves things without touching them, and there are the teleporting twins, who can travel ten feet or ten miles. There's Baby, who invented an antigravity engine when still in the cradle, and Gerry, who has everything it takes to run the world except for a conscience. Separately, they are talented freaks. Together, they compose a single organism that may represent the next step in evolution, and the final chapter in the history of the human race.
In this genre-bending novel — among the first to have launched sci fi into the arena of literature — one of the great imaginers of the twentieth century tells a story as mind blowing as any controlled substance and as affecting as a glimpse into a stranger's soul.
The Dreaming Jewels
To Marry Medusa
Godbody
by Phillip Kerr
The year is 2013. The place is London. The death penalty has been replaced by the more economical alternative "punitive coma," a popular musical of the day is called "The Yorkshire Ripper," and serial killers have reached epidemic proportions. The government has found that the best detectives are women. Of them, none is better than Inspector Isadora "Jake" Jacowicz, an iron-willed beauty with cadmium-green eyes. Serial killers know her skill. Fellow officers fear her contempt. Men cringe before her wrath. And only her therapist suspects the demons that drive her.
Berlin Noir
Snow
Crash by Neil Stephenson
In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo's CosaNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he's a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that's striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about Infocalypse. Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous... you'll recognize it immediately.
The Diamond Age
Zodiac: the Eco-thriller
The Cobweb
