Drinkwater, in his fight to bring a half-armed ship safely to the Cape of Good Hope, is best with personal enmity and the violence of the sea.

Asimov at his best! A 21-story salute About Nothing • (1975) A Perfect Fit • (1981) Belief • (1953) Death of a Foy • (1980) Fair Exchange? • (1978) For the Birds • (1980) Found! • (1978) Good Taste • (1976) How It Happened • (1979) Ideas Die Hard • (1957) Ignition Point! • (1981) It Is Coming • [Multivac] • (1979) The Last Answer • (1980) The Last Shuttle • (1981) Lest We Remember • (1982) Nothing for Nothing • (1979) One Night of Song • [Azazel] • (1982) The Smile That Loses • [Azazel] • (1982) Sure Thing • (1977) To Tell at a Glance • (1983) The Winds of Change • (1982)

Amid the Cuban Missile Crisis, an ex-CIA man finds himself on the brink—in a novel by an author who "has jumped into the front rank of thriller writers" (The Irish Times). In the summer of 1962, the world is on tenterhooks as Kennedy and Khrushchev square off over plans to place nuclear weapons in Cuba. At the same time, Helm Rust, ex-CIA operative and now small-time smuggler in the Florida Keys, receives two messages. One is a cry for help from his long-lost father in the Soviet Union. The other is allegedly from the desk of Castro himself. Heading for Russia, he becomes involved in a plot of espionage so deep he doesn't know which way to turn. Confiding in former allies leaves a trail of corpses and Rust is utterly cut off from any friends he ever had. The lack of trust drives him into the arms of the beautiful—and deceptive—Yelena, who attempts to embroil him in a violent web of international intrigue....

Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here The vendetta in space had started centuries before "Mouse" Storm was born with his grandfather's raid on the planet Prefactlas, the blood bath that freed the human slaves from their Sangaree masters. But one Sangaree survived - the young Norborn heir, the man who swore vengeance on the Storm family and their soldiers, in a carefully mapped plot that would take generations to fulfill. Now Mouse's father Gneaus must fight for an El Dorado of wealth on the burning half of the planet Blackworld. As the great private armies of all space clash on the narrow Shadowline that divides inferno from life-sheltering shade, Gneaus' half- brother Michael plays his traitorous games, and a man called Deeth pulls the deadly strings that threaten to entrap them all - as the Starfishers Trilogy begins.

To rise from commoner to king would seem a remarkable stroke of luck. But King Jorian of Xylar had reason to dispute that. For in Xylar a new king was chosen every five years - by decapitating the old one and throwing his head to a waiting crowd. Jorian had reached the end of his reign, yet he faced death with courage and rather unseemly good humor. He neither broke down at the weeping of his favorite wife, nor begged for help from spectators. Because, clearly, the only help for King Jorian now lay with his spiritual adviser. Of course, things would have been different if the crowd had realized that Jorian's spiritual adviser was, in truth, a wizard. . . .

Malaria can't slow them down. A stockade can't keep them penned up. Tanks can't stop them. They're the most blood-hungry platoon of killers in the jungle. The enemy fears them. Their own army hates them. When they're on their red meat rampage of terror, you'd better steer clear of The Rat Bastards!

Think carefully... That's the advice Jean Wainwright always gets from her beloved Aunt Constance, Jean's guardian and headmistress at the boarding school where she lives. It's advice that proves valuable when Jean finds herself spending the summer far from home, sorting out family papers for the reclusive Mr. Thiel, a trustee of Aunt Constance's school and the widower of her childhood friend Irene Callender. At Mr. Thiel's isolated country estate, Jean is surrounded by bewildering questions from the past. Why is there such hatred between Mr. Thiel and his late wife's brother? Was her death an accident? And what happened to their child, who disappeared after Irene Thiel's death? Do the answers lie in the Callender papers? And will searching for the answers put Jean's own life in jeopardy?

European and Arab versions of the Crusades have little in common. For Arabs, the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were years of strenuous efforts to repel a brutal and destructive invasion by barbarian hordes. Under Saladin, an unstoppable Muslim army inspired by prophets and poets finally succeeded in destroying the most powerful Crusader kingdoms. The memory of this greatest and most enduring victory ever won by a non-European society against the West still lives in the minds of millions of Arabs today. Amin Maalouf has sifted through the works of a score of contemporary Arab chroniclers of the Crusades, eyewitnesses and often participants in the events. He retells their stories in their own vivacious style, giving us a vivid portrait of a society rent by internal conflicts and shaken by a traumatic encounter with an alien culture. He retraces two critical centuries of Middle Eastern history, and offers fascinating insights into some of the forces that shape Arab and Islamic consciousness today. 'Well-researched and highly readable.' Guardian 'A useful and important analysis adding much to existing western histories ... worth recommending to George Bush.' London Review of Books 'Maalouf tells an inspiring story ... very readable ... warmly recommended.' Times Literary Supplement 'A wide readership should enjoy this vivid narrative of stirring events.' The Bookseller 'Very well done indeed ... Should be put in the hands of anyone who asks what lies behind the Middle East's present conflicts.' Middle East International

In this novel of Nevèrÿon, a girl takes off on a dragon’s back for an adventure of amazement and wonder One of the few in Nevèrÿon who can read and write, pryn has saddled a wild dragon and taken off from a mountain ledge. Self-described as an adventurer, warrior, and thief, in her journey pryn will meet plotting merchants, sinister aristocrats, half-mad villagers, and a storyteller who claims to have invented writing itself. The land of Nevèrÿon is mired in a civil war over slavery, and pryn will also find herself—for a while—fighting alongside Gorgik the Liberator, from whom she will learn the cunning she needs as she journeys further and further south in search of a sunken city; for at history’s dawn, some dangers even dragons cannot protect you from. The second volume in Samuel R. Delany’s Return to Nevèrÿon cycle, Neveryóna is the longer of its two full-length novels. (The other is The Tale of Plagues and Carnivals.) An intriguing meditation on the power of language, the rise of cities, and the dawn of myth, markets, and money, it is a truly wonder-filled adventure. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Samuel R. Delany including rare images from his early career.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Larry McMurtry writes novels set in the American heartland, but his real territory is the heart itself. His gift for writing about women -- their love for reckless, hopeless men; their ability to see the good in losers; and their peculiar combination of emotional strength and sudden weakness -- makes The Desert Rose the bittersweet, funny, and touching book that it is. Harmony is a Las Vegas showgirl. At night she's a lead dancer in a gambling casino; during the day she raises peacocks. She's one of a dying breed of dancers, faced with fewer and fewer jobs and an even bleaker future. Yet she maintains a calm cheerfulness in that arid neon landscape of supermarkets, drive-in wedding chapels, and all-night casinos. While Harmony's star is fading, her beautiful, cynical daughter Pepper's is on the rise. But Harmony remains wistful and optimistic through it all. She is the unexpected blossom in the wasteland, the tough and tender desert rose. Hers is a loving portrait that only Larry McMurtry could render.

The Secret: Everybody in Jessica's English class makes fun of Daphne. She never says a word to anyone -- just walks around with her nose in a book, with her long straggly hair hanging over her face. Now the worst thing has happened. The teacher has assigned Jessica to be partners with Daphne in the Write-A-Book contest! But being forced to work with the class "weirdo", Jessica gets an even bigger surprise. Not only does Daphne talk to her, but she tells Jessica a terrible secret...one that Jessica knows could be very dangerous to keep.