When Roka joined the Realms of Valeron, he was a fledgling elven cleric with only a minor healing spell and a dingy brown robe to his name. But that was just fine, since it was the hottest fantasy MMORPG, with over a million players, and Roka could not resist the allure of this rich, bright fantasy world, eccentric NPCs, and ravenous monsters. And best of all, he met his friends—a wild and eccentric band of misfits who would change his life forever! Join Roka and his newfound guild as they face devastating Razor-Squirrels, confront the Labyrinths of Ancient Storylines, and rush to max level in order to take part in end-game content (while probably not reading any of the quest text as they go!). But the real treasure that they find isn't the Bejewelled Anklets of Monster-Commanding or even the mythical Pointy Stick—it's the friendship they make along the way. Enter the Realms of Valeron, a tale of high humor and eager adventuring like nothing before!

As the mighty spaceship Skylark roamed the intergalactic spaceways, scientist Richard Seaton and his companions found a world of disembodied intelligences. A world of four dimensions where time was insanely distorted and matter obeyed no terrestrial laws - where three-dimensional human intellects had to fight hard to thwart malevolent invisible mentalities...

Subterranean Realms is a unique book that surveys underground and rock cut structures created in the past. It is the third book in Mutton’s trilogy on mysterious realms, the others being Sunken Realms and Water Realms. We know who built some of these astonishing and mysterious structures, but others were built by unknown civilizations in prehistory for reasons that are debated among researchers. Some subterranean structures may have been built for initiation ceremonies or perhaps for acoustic reasons, or both. Mutton discusses such interesting sites as: Derinkuyu, an underground city in Cappadocia, Turkey that housed 20,000 people; Roman catacombs of Domitilla; Palermo Capuchin catacombs; Alexandria catacombs; Paris catacombs; Maltese hypogeum; Rock-cut structures of Petra; Treasury of Atreus, Mycenae; Elephanta Caves, India; Lalibela, Ethiopia; Tarquinia Etruscan necropolis; Hallstatt salt mine; Beijing air raid shelters; Japanese high command Okinawa tunnels; more. There are tons of illustrations in this fascinating book!

Lord Tedric of the Marshes, ex-Corpsman and interplanetary warrior, faces a crucial mission: to crush the threat of the Destructive Forces by capturing their agent on the Bioman sphere, the ruthless Black Knight Fra Villion Tedric's crew are bound together by the strong loyalty of outcasts: Yod Cartwright, ex-pirate; Juvi, a prostitute turned expert pilor; Ky-shan the exiled Wykzl; Wilson, the renegade robot; and Pal Galmain, brave but banished Knight of the noble order of Vemplars. Tedric mjust warn the Bio,en that their castle is a gatewhile for the annihilation gathering in the grey depths of space, but who will believe the word of a barbarian against the lightning whipsword of Fra Villion?

After Maeve O’Neill’s rash decision to free magic, Boston is under lockdown as it spreads across the city. The whole world is in shock. Maeve must prove that normal people can control their new abilities before DODSI, the secret government agency overseeing magic, makes good on its threats of imprisonment or possibly worse. But she isn’t making progress as the New Alliance questions her decision to unbind Earth’s magic and she’s forced to cover for Silas while the Fates send him on mysterious errands. When Maeve accidentally releases a creature from another realm onto the city streets, her face is splashed all over the news and DODSI demands that she figure out a way to rebind magic or face dire consequences. Maeve has to find a way to keep magic free while protecting her people, but she realizes someone is working against her when unexplained tears between realms open all around Boston, spewing unearthly creatures into the city. She can’t trust the government or her own people, and thanks to their deal with the Fates, she can’t even trust Silas. The only option left? Turning to old enemies.

This omnibus features two classic, long-unavailable Darkover novels-Darkover Landfall and Two to Conquer-in one volume for the first time.

Bound Magic: Book 2 After defeating the Brotherhood, Maeve O’Neill is ready to reunite her scattered people. She has three days to convince the splinter groups it’s safe to come home, but their summit isn’t off to a good start. Maeve’s romantic ties with the Aeternal Council’s newest member, Silas Valeron, are raising questions about her allegiances. The splinter groups are making unreasonable demands. And worst of all, an old flame shows up uninvited, and everyone expects them to rekindle their romance. Maeve holds everything together as best she can until a mysterious Fate reveals a series of events that will lead to Silas’s death. She can prevent the disastrous future by stopping key events, but hidden enemies are sabotaging her every move, and the summit is on the verge of falling apart. If Maeve can’t figure out a way to change their fate, everything she loves might end up broken.

The future of mankind is in the hands of the legendary Corps of One Hundred, an elite body of warriors, selected and trained for the greatest honours in the empire of man. But there is something different about Tedric, the strange Corpsman who is not of this earth. The Scientists, the guardians of peace in the universe, have chosen him to play a special role. He knows he has lived before. He has braved the terrors of primordial magic, and he knows there are greater battles to come. When a miners' revolt threatens the vital Dalkanium supplies and a dreaded Wykzl warship looms on the horizon, Tedric knows his moment of glory is at hand...

When physicist Robert Goddard, whose career was inspired by H. G. Wells's War of the Worlds, published "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes," the response was electric. Newspaper headlines across the country announced, "Modern Jules Verne Invents Rocket to Reach Moon," while people from around the world, including two World War I pilots, volunteered as pioneers in space exploration. Though premature (Goddard's rocket, alas, was only imagined), the episode demonstrated not only science's general popularity but also its intersection with interwar popular and commercial culture. In that intersection, the stories that inspired Goddard and others became a recognizable genre: science fiction. Astounding Wonder explores science fiction's emergence in the era's "pulps," colorful magazines that shouted from the newsstands, attracting an extraordinarily loyal and active audience. Pulps invited readers not only to read science fiction but also to participate in it, joining writers and editors in celebrating a collective wonder for and investment in the potential of science. But in conjuring fantastic machines, travel across time and space, unexplored worlds, and alien foes, science fiction offered more than rousing adventure and romance. It also assuaged contemporary concerns about nation, gender, race, authority, ability, and progress—about the place of ordinary individuals within modern science and society—in the process freeing readers to debate scientific theories and implications separate from such concerns. Readers similarly sought to establish their worth and place outside the pulps. Organizing clubs and conventions and producing their own magazines, some expanded science fiction's community and created a fan subculture separate from the professional pulp industry. Others formed societies to launch and experiment with rockets. From debating relativity and the use of slang in the future to printing purple fanzines and calculating the speed of spaceships, fans' enthusiastic industry revealed the tensions between popular science and modern science. Even as it inspired readers' imagination and activities, science fiction's participatory ethos sparked debates about amateurs and professionals that divided the worlds of science fiction in the 1930s and after.

THE LADY A OFFERS AN ALLIANCE Devastated by alien invasion, one of the Empire's far-flung planets - Omicron - is the destination for an astonishing mission. For the first time in many years, top SOTE agents Yvette Babol and Jules d'Alembert agree to co-operate with the treacherous and dangerous Lady A. it is strictly an alliance of convenience. Together with the Empire's deadliest enemy and two of her followers, the two SOTE agents set off for Omicron - easily the most distant planet ever settled. With them is Captain Paul Fortier of Naval Intelligence. And what they find on Omicron could lead to intergalactic war...