A science fiction mystery with a political twist. The investigation of blackmail and murder on two planets uncovers an interstellar plot that jeopardizes the political balance between the human dominated Republic and the two major alien dominated governments. Set both in Polar City on Hagar and on the capital planet of Sarah POLAR CITY NIGHTMARE explores the universe of katharine Kerr's previous bestseller, POLAR CITY BLUES, digs into its history, and takes a closer look at the interstellar confederation, one of its major cultures. It develops themes first sounded in the original book: machine intelligence, prejudice, and human relationships, along with a look at what is truly 'alien'. It is a major work of SF imagination.

In some ways Polar City Blues is my tribute to the classic SF I read as a teenager. In other ways, it's a heavily Revisionist book, where the Hero is female and the Object of Desire is male. Mostly, however, it's a fast-paced adventure story complete with dead bodies, hookers, drugs, mysterious aliens, and several high-speed chases both on the ground and elsewhere.

A guide to series fiction lists popular series, identifies novels by character, and offers guidance on the order in which to read unnumbered series.

For as long as humans have gathered in cities, those cities have had their shining—or shadowy—counterparts. Imaginary cities, potential cities, future cities, perfect cities. It is as if the city itself, its inescapable gritty reality and elbow-to-elbow nature, demands we call into being some alternative, yearned-for better place. This book is about those cities. It’s neither a history of grand plans nor a literary exploration of the utopian impulse, but rather something different, hybrid, idiosyncratic. It’s a magpie’s book, full of characters and incidents and ideas drawn from cities real and imagined around the globe and throughout history. Thomas More’s allegorical island shares space with Soviet mega-planning; Marco Polo links up with James Joyce’s meticulously imagined Dublin; the medieval land of Cockaigne meets the hopeful future of Star Trek. With Darran Anderson as our guide, we find common themes and recurring dreams, tied to the seemingly ineluctable problems of our actual cities, of poverty and exclusion and waste and destruction. And that’s where Imaginary Cities becomes more than a mere—if ecstatically entertaining—intellectual exercise: for, as Anderson says, “If a city can be imagined into being, it can be re-imagined.” Every architect, philosopher, artist, writer, planner, or citizen who dreams up an imaginary city offers lessons for our real ones; harnessing those flights of hopeful fancy can help us improve the streets where we live. Though it shares DNA with books as disparate as Calvino’s Invisible Cities and Jane Jacobs’s Death and Life of Great American Cities, there’s no other book quite like Imaginary Cities. After reading it, you’ll walk the streets of your city—real or imagined—with fresh eyes.

This encyclopedia is the most up-to-date, concise, clear and affordable guide to all aspects of science fiction, from its background to generic themes and devices, from authors (established and new) to films. Science fiction has evolved into one of the most popular, cutting-edge and exciting fiction geners, with a proliferation of modern and classic authors, themes and ideas, movies, TV series and awards. Arranged in an A-Z format, and featuring a comprehensive index and cross-referencing system, The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Science Fiction is also the most accessible and easy to use encyclopedia of its kind currently available.

AMAZONS 'R US Continuing a great tradition, Chicks 'n Chained Males is not what you think. That place is down the block, on another street, in another city. In fact, if that's what you're looking for one of our Chicks, Helga her name is, will be over shortly to give you a send-off you won't soon forget. (The term Bouncer takes on a whole new meaning....) All we have here is a bunch of perfectly healthy babes in brass bras and chain-link bikinis, bearing broad swords and filled with good intentions. Never would such as they stoop to the exploitation of those poor chained males who have suddenly found themselves under their protection and succor. Never would they force those poor boys to do anything they did not wish to do; perish that thought on the nearest sharp blade! No-no¾these chicks are here to rescue these victims of male-abuse from any number of Fates Worse Than Death.... Right here. Right now. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

“One of the most intriguing future cities in years.” —Charlie Jane Anders “Simmers with menace and heartache, suspense and wonder.” —Ann Leckie A Best Book of the Month in Entertainment Weekly The Washington Post Tor.com B&N Sci-Fi Fantasy Blog Amazon After the climate wars, a floating city is constructed in the Arctic Circle, a remarkable feat of mechanical and social engineering, complete with geothermal heating and sustainable energy. The city’s denizens have become accustomed to a roughshod new way of living, however, the city is starting to fray along the edges—crime and corruption have set in, the contradictions of incredible wealth alongside direst poverty are spawning unrest, and a new disease called “the breaks” is ravaging the population. When a strange new visitor arrives—a woman riding an orca, with a polar bear at her side—the city is entranced. The “orcamancer,” as she’s known, very subtly brings together four people—each living on the periphery—to stage unprecedented acts of resistance. By banding together to save their city before it crumbles under the weight of its own decay, they will learn shocking truths about themselves. Blackfish City is a remarkably urgent—and ultimately very hopeful—novel about political corruption, organized crime, technology run amok, the consequences of climate change, gender identity, and the unifying power of human connection.

A handbook for beating nightmares from the New York Times bestselling authors of the Nightmares! series, Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller. Nightmares. They come in all shapes and sizes—from gargantuan lizards to teensy creepy-crawlies. No matter their form, we know all too well, they are truly terrifying. The good news is that every Nightmare, no matter how ferocious, mysterious, or hairy, can be defeated. And this book will tell you how. Everything You Need to Know About NIGHTMARES! and How to Defeat Them is your one-stop guide to battling anything that goes bump in the night. Whether you’re being chased by zombies or stalked by evil twins, this handy book will give you all the tools and tips you need to put your bad dreams to bed for good! Keep a copy under your pillow and you’ll never fear Nightmares again! Praise for the Nightmares! series “Charlie Laird, who learns fear will eat you alive if you feed it, makes an impression, and . . . readers will want to accompany him again.” —The New York Times Book Review “A touching comical saga . . . about facing things that go bump in the night.” —US Weekly “Coraline meets Monsters, Inc. in this delightfully entertaining offering from actor [Jason] Segel and co-author [Kirsten] Miller.” —Publishers Weekly

1908. New Venice - the pearl of the Arctic' - a place of ice palaces and pneumatic tubes, a steampunk paradise of long nights and vistas of ice. But as the city prepares for spring, there is an overriding sense that something is about to explode. Local 'poletics' are wracked by tension as local Eskimos circle the city, with suffragette riots led by an underground music star, with drugs round-ups by the local police force known as 'The Gentlemen of the Night' heightening the anxiety. What transpires is a literary adventure unlike any before in the beginning of a great new series.'

His stories and essays celebrate those rare individuals (famous and obscure) whose creative resilience and mere existence oppose the mechanization of minds and souls.