Fiction

Adam Roberts turns his attention to answering the Fermi Paradox with a taut and claustrophobic tale that echoes John Carpenters' The Thing.

They say you can forgive but you can never forget. Virgil Bougard takes that saying to heart. Four years ago Kara Goshay believed a vicious lie about him and ended their relationship. And even after her apology, Virgil is still bitter. He doesn't intend to make things easy for Kara when his family's firm hires her PR company to revamp his playboy image. But faking a liaison with Kara for the media backfires when the line between fantasy and reality is blurred by strong sexual attraction.

David Copperfield is the eighth novel by Charles Dickens. The novel's full title is The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant to Publish on Any Account). It was first published as a serial in 1849–50, and as a book in 1850. Many elements of the novel follow events in Dickens's own life, and it is often considered his veiled autobiography. It was Dickens' favourite among his own novels. In the preface to the 1867 edition, Dickens wrote, "like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is David Copperfield." The novel describes the journey of the protagonist David Copperfield; modeled after Dickens himself, from impoverished and miserable childhood to becoming a successful and famous author. Like some of his other novels, it contains disturbing descriptions of child abuse.

Contemporary Fiction If you were told the date of your death, how would it shape your present? It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children-four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness-sneak out to hear their fortunes.

Science Fiction Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he's alive-and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

Crime Fiction Two girls go missing, decades apart. What would you do if one was your daughter? When eight-year-old Grace goes missing from a sweetshop on the way home from school, her mother Emma is plunged into a nightmare. Her family rallies around, but as the police hunt begins, cracks begin to emerge.

DON'T PANIC: collected together in the Hitchhiker's Guide Trilogy are the five titles that comprise Douglas Adams' wildly popular and wholly remarkable comedy science fiction series.

The Universe isn't always as it appears, something that Salchar and the Free Fleet know only too well. When the black's own creatures come tearing out from children's nightmares. The Free Fleet will be there. Some might call those that make up the Free Fleet insane, might call them lunatics. But in this universe, it's good to have some lunatics on your side

Utilizing an innovative mashup of genres, ranging from pulp fiction, dark comedy, and metafiction, This Book Is Not for You charts the actions of nineteen-year-old Neptune, a misfit and punk haunted by the death of his parents. Having fallen in with an anarchist group determined to blow up a university building, he steals the dynamite instead, igniting an entirely different brand of trouble: the murder of his mentor; a three-way manhunt; and the mystery of the Ghost Machine, a walkman that replays snippets from his own twisted past. Told in a nonstop chain of Chapter Ones, Daniel A. Hoyt's debut novel explores the clash between chaos and calm, the instinct for self-destruction and the longing for redemption.

A girl goes missing - but has she been lost, or taken? Her frantic mother begs for help from the one man with the ruthless skills to track her down. Alex Rafter, former sniper, sees Madeleine Finch as a bad, erratic mother, and is reluctant to go back to a life he is trying to forget. But his own nightmares compel him to search, for the girl's sake.

One Christmas morning, while young Amish twins Henry and Harvey are sledding, they find a big black dog wandering in a field. They adopt the Newfoundland and name him Lucky, and he soon becomes their best friend and playmate. When tragedy strikes and Harvey drowns in a spring creek, Henry's only source of comfort is his furry companion. To make matters worse, the Depression is especially hard on Henry's parents who have more children than they can care for. He is sent to live with another family, where he becomes enchanted with Katie Stoltzfus. Eventually, Lucky passes away, leaving a hole in Henry's heart, and he wonders if he will ever find another friend as faithful and loving. As Henry grows up, he has other dogs, but none are as special as the Newfoundland he and his brother once cherished. When Katie marries another man, it seems Henry will never be happy again. Every passing Christmas reminds him of the people and animal friends now missing from his life. Though, no holiday story is complete without a miracle. In A Dog for Christmas, bestselling author Linda Byler delivers a beautiful Christmas story of quiet triumph in the face of lifelong adversity. After years of loneliness and longing, Henry is finally rewarded with a hard-won love, a family to call his own, and a new best friend. Could there possibly be a better gift than that?

BAX 2016: Best American Experimental Writing is the third volume of this annual literary anthology compiling the best experimental writing in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. This year's volume, guest-edited by Charles Bernstein and Tracie Morris, features seventy-five works by some of the most exciting American poets and writers today, including established authors-like Sina Queyras, Tan Lin, Christian B?k, Myung Mi Kim, Juliana Spahr, Samuel R. Delany, and even Barack Obama-as well as emerging voices. Intended to provoke lively conversation and debate, Best American Experimental Writing is an ideal literary anthology for contemporary classroom settings.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and the only things on Birds & Bees owner Amy Simms's wish list are peace, quiet, and birding beside her beau. But in small town Ruby Lake, 'tis the season to solve murders . . .

The sparkling new Christmas novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author Heidi Swain! When Anna takes on the role of companion to the owner of Wynthorpe Hall, on the outskirts of Wynbridge, she has no idea that her life is set to change beyond all recognition. A confirmed `bah humbug' when it comes to Christmas, Anna is amazed to find herself quickly immersed in the eccentric household, and when youngest son Jamie unexpectedly arrives home it soon becomes obvious that her personal feelings are going all out to compromise her professional persona.Jamie, struggling to come to terms with life back in the Fens, makes a pact with Anna - she has to teach him to fall back in love with Wynthorpe Hall, while he helps her fall back in love with Christmas. But will it all prove too much for Anna, or can the family of Wynthorpe Hall warm her heart once and for all? Join Anna for a festive journey festooned with sleigh rides and silver bells and help her discover her happy-ever-after.~*~ What everyone is saying about Sleigh Rides and Silver Bells at the Christmas Fair ~*~ 'Give yourself a Christmas treat and curl up with this magical book!' Sue Moorcroft, author of The Little Village Christmas 'More Christmassy than a week in Lapland - we loved it!' heat magazine 'A real Christmas cracker of a read!' Penny Parkes, author of Practice Makes Perfect 'Cosy, Christmassy and deeply satisfying! Another wonderful read!' Mandy Baggot, author of One Christmas Kiss in Notting Hill

Sit! Stay! Speak! author Annie England Noblin's novel takes one woman starting over, adds an aging pug named Teddy Roosevelt, and proves the power of a well-baked dog treat.

Thirty-year-old Piotr Alekseevich Marakulin lives a contented, if humdrum life as a financial clerk in a Petersburg trading company. He is jolted out of his daily routine when, quite unexpectedly, he is accused of embezzlement and loses his job. This change of status brings him into contact with a number of women-the titular "sisters of the cross"-whose sufferings will lead him to question the ultimate meaning of the universe.

Love. Honor. Protect. As an Environmental Studies major, Allie knows the planet is in trouble-a series of natural disasters recently rocked the northern hemisphere, and species across the globe are going extinct. What Allie doesn't know is that her world's decline is a result of an ancient battle called the Night War-the Norse goddess Nott's crusade to control the weakest of the light realms. And Allie most definitely doesn't know that her existence is the only thing stopping Nott from dragging the earth into total darkness. When four gorgeous guys show up claiming to be Allie's Asgardian protectors, she thinks they're delusional. And when they order her to hunt down the pieces of an immortal weapon, she's convinced they're insane. But when Allie's attacked, the guys' crazy stories of demigods and dark elves begin coming together. And Allie's not sure what scares her more-losing her life to the Goddess of Night . . . or losing her heart to one of her protectors. Let the hunt begin.

This is a Dark romance for 18 years and over. Evi Devil. Yes, that is really my name. The irony is not lost on me. I was created from two evil souls and have the name to prove it. Devil worshipers, perverts, murderer. Is all terms used to describe the parents I refuse to remember. My mind will not allow me to. And why would I want to? One born with dirty blood running through her veins can never truly be clean from its murky hue. No matter what they try to tell me happened in my past, my mind denies me access, therefore how can I know it is true? How can I believe that is what I am born from? Glimpses of my past haunt me, the screams of terror echo in the silent darkness of my memories, trying to remind me that my Mother went from room to room butchering our family. I have learned from scars that I suffered abuse and that my Father and siblings were not my Mother's only victims. Hearing what they tell me. Reading the words printed in the papers. None of it can prepare me for what's to come. My biggest lesson is learning that some memories we suppress for a reason.

The holidays always seem brighter at Whisper Beach

Disillusioned with his life and the mundane stress of living to pay your rent that plagues young people in London, our narrator, a struggling actor in his early 20's, travels to Peru where he embarks on a perilous journey to discover the secret Inca temple Quyllur-Wasi. With the towering Andes and sprawling Amazon before him he seeks an escape from 'real life', an adventure to make the explorers of old proud. However, being completely unprepared for the whole thing, events start to go a little sideways. Miles from civilisation, and with no contact with the wider world, he must fend for himself in a land getting more dangerous by the minute. Alone in the wild, and pursuing a goal he isn't even sure exists, he is left with ample time and opportunity to reflect on quite what it is he is doing with his life.