Will Carys and Carl let a little bit of Necromancy get in the way of their relationship? What drove Ellis Straylight become a Forward Scout? Who was Derek, before he was Void's arch-nemesis? These questions and more are answered in these five stories, set in the years and months before Superdome. Fans of Casca Green's Superdome will find more intense action and adventure in Tales from the Dome: Villains, the second of two companion anthologies to the Shadeshifter Chronicles, an LGBT-friendly series of superhero-centric science fiction oriented toward older teens and adults. For people just discovering the Shadeshifter Chronicles, Tales from the Dome is also a great introduction to the world and lives of these dynamic characters, exploring their origins without giving up all their secrets. In a world where everybody is dangerous, and the powerful make the rules, what defines a Villain?

How did Impulse and Seer discover their superpowers? What happens when a disillusioned Shadowmancer comes home from active military duty? How did Void become Rosie's adoptive father, and how did Carys become Mind Melter's pet Necromancer? These questions and more are answered in these six stories, set in the years and months before Superdome. Fans of Casca Green's Superdome will find more intense action and adventure in Tales from the Dome: Heroes, the first of two companion anthologies to the Shadeshifter Chronicles, an LGBT-friendly series of superhero-centric science fiction oriented toward older teens and adults. For people just discovering the Shadeshifter Chronicles, Tales from the Dome is also a great introduction to the world and lives of these dynamic characters, exploring their origins without giving up all their secrets. In a world where everybody is dangerous, and the powerful make the rules, what defines a Hero?

The conclusion to King's tale of Chester's Mill, Maine, a town that's inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field, and which inspired a CBS TV drama.

"Who do you become in the dark?" Mind Melter, an esper who fully embraces his over-the-top name, has everything he wants, including the unquestioning loyalty of his protégé Rosie, until he sets his sights on the Bogeyman. After pushing Rosie too far, Mind Melter?s enemies prepare to strike back and take everything away from him. Ellis Straylight is many things: soldier, shadowmancer, oldest sibling. In the chaotic world of the Dome, Ellis will learn how identity can destroy you and trust can put you back together.? In a place of false suns, alter egos, and rampant inequality, what does it mean to be a hero, and what will it take to survive? Find out in Superdome: Volume 1 of The Shadeshifter Chronicles, a series featuring diverse characters, including MOGAI and neuroatypical characters central to the main narrative.

The Hate U Give meets Internment in this pulse-pounding thriller about an impenetrable dome around Baltimore that is keeping the residents in and information from going out during a city-wide protest. Jamal Lawson just wanted to be a part of something. As an aspiring journalist, he packs up his camera and heads to Baltimore to document a rally protesting police brutality after another Black man is murdered. But before it even really begins, the city implements a new safety protocol...the Dome. The Dome surrounds the city, forcing those within to subscribe to a total militarized shutdown. No one can get in, and no one can get out. Alone in a strange place, Jamal doesn't know where to turn...until he meets hacker Marco, who knows more than he lets on, and Catherine, an AWOL basic-training-graduate, whose parents helped build the initial plans for the Dome. As unrest inside of Baltimore grows throughout the days-long lockdown, Marco, Catherine, and Jamal take the fight directly to the chief of police. But the city is corrupt from the inside out, and it's going to take everything they have to survive.

“Much like Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, M. L. Rio’s sparkling debut is a richly layered story of love, friendship, and obsession...will keep you riveted through its final, electrifying moments.” —Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, New York Times bestselling author of The Nest "Nerdily (and winningly) in love with Shakespeare...Readable, smart.” —New York Times Book Review On the day Oliver Marks is released from jail, the man who put him there is waiting at the door. Detective Colborne wants to know the truth, and after ten years, Oliver is finally ready to tell it. A decade ago: Oliver is one of seven young Shakespearean actors at Dellecher Classical Conservatory, a place of keen ambition and fierce competition. In this secluded world of firelight and leather-bound books, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingénue, extras. But in their fourth and final year, good-natured rivalries turn ugly, and on opening night real violence invades the students’ world of make-believe. In the morning, the fourth-years find themselves facing their very own tragedy, and their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, each other, and themselves that they are innocent. If We Were Villains was named one of Bustle's Best Thriller Novels of the Year, and Mystery Scene says, "A well-written and gripping ode to the stage...A fascinating, unorthodox take on rivalry, friendship, and truth."

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when -- or if -- it will go away. Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens -- town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing -- even murder -- to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out.

25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION • From the bestselling author of The Passenger and the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Road: an epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, brilliantly subverting the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the Wild West. Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, Blood Meridian traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into the nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving. Look for Cormac McCarthy's latest bestselling novels, The Passenger and Stella Maris.

Acclaimed author Michael Grant’s globally bestselling Gone series continues with Villain, where old foes return and new ones rise, with action-packed scenes, gory battles, and plot twists that will leave readers scrambling for more. It’s been four years since the events of GONE. The Perdido Beach dome is down, but the horrors within have spread. The alien virus-infested rock that created the FAYZ is creating monsters—monsters that walk the cities and countryside, terrorizing all. There are tanks in the street and predator drones in the sky, doomed efforts to stop the disintegration of civilization. Into this chaos comes a villain with the power to control anyone with just the sound of his voice. Dillon Poe wanted to be a comedian once . . . but everyone made fun of him. Dillon the loser. Dillon the freak. Now he’s sending thousands to their death. Who’s laughing now? The only people who can stop a superpowered villain are superpowered heroes. Dekka, Shade, Cruz, Malik, Armo, and a new mutant with unmatched powers, are all that stand in Dillon’s way. But when the lines begin to blur between hero and villain—some begin to wonder who’s really the monster. Praise for Monster: “Ratchets up the gore and action, and features a diverse cast of characters. An evocative, intricately plotted companion series.” –ALA Booklist Read the entire series: Gone Hunger Lies Plague Fear Light Monster Villain Hero

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Martin Dressler—hailed by The New Yorker as “a virtuoso of waking dreams”—comes a dazzling collection of darkly comic stories united by their obsession with obsession. "Remarkable ... Not just brilliant but prescient." —The New York Times Book Review In Dangerous Laughter, Steven Millhauser transports us to unknown universes that uncannily resemble our own. The collection is divided into three parts that fit seamlessly together as a whole. It opens with a bang, as “Cat ’n’ Mouse” reimagines the deadly ritual between cartoon rivals in a comedy of dynamite and anvils—a masterly prologue that sets the stage for the alluring, very grown-up twists that follow. Part one, “Vanishing Acts,” features stories of risk and escape: a lonely woman disappears without a trace; a high school boy becomes entangled with his best friend’s troubled sister; and a group of teenagers play a treacherous game that pushes them deep into “the kingdom of forbidden things.” Excess reigns in the vivid, haunting places of Part two’s “Impossible Architectures,” where domes enclose whole cities, and a king’s master miniaturist creates objects so tiny that soon his entire world is invisible. Finally, “Heretical Histories” presents startling alternatives to the remembered past. “A Precursor of the Cinema” proposes a new, enigmatic form of illusion. And in the astonishing “The Wizard of West Orange” a famous inventor sets out to simulate the sense of touch—but success brings disturbing consequences. Sensual, mysterious, Dangerous Laughter is a mesmerizing journey through brilliantly realized labyrinths of mortal pleasures that stretch the boundaries of the ordinary world to their limits—and occasionally beyond.