The Gabble and Other Stories

The Gabble and Other Stories
Author: Neal Asher
Publisher: Start Publishing LLC
Total Pages: 407
Release: 2013-11-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 159780522X

In the eight years since his first full-length novel Gridlinked was published by Pan Macmillan, Neal Asher has firmly established himself as one of the leading British writers of Science Fiction, and his novels are now translated in many languages. Most of his stories are set in a galactic future-scape called ‘The Polity’, and with this collection of marvellously inventive and action-packed short stories, he takes us further into the manifold diversities of that amazing universe. No one does monsters better than Neal Asher, so be prepared to revisit the lives and lifestyles of such favourites as the gabbleduck and the hooder, to savour alien poisons, the walking dead, the Sea of Death, and the putrefactor symbiont.

Orbus: Spatterjay 3

Orbus: Spatterjay 3
Author: Neal Asher
Publisher: Tor UK
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2009-08-19
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1743036175

In charge of an old cargo spaceship, the Old Captain Orbus flees a violent and sadistic past, but he doesn't know that the lethal war drone, Sniper, is a stowaway, and that the past is rapidly catching up with him. His old enemy the Prador Vrell, mutated by the Spatterjay virus into something powerful and dangerous, has seized control of a Prador dreadnought, murdering its crew, and is now seeking to exact vengeance on those who tried to have him killed. Their courses inexorably converge in the Graveyard, the border realm lying between the Polity and the Prador Kingdom, a place filled with the ruins left by past genocides and interplanetary war. But this is the home of the Golgoloth, monster to a race of monsters, the place where a centuries-long cold war is being fought. Meanwhile, the terrifying Prador King is coming, prepared to do anything to ensure Vrell's death and keep certain deadly secrets buried ... and somewhere out there something that has annihilated civilizations is stirring from a slumber of five million years. The cold war is heating up, fast.

The Line of Polity

The Line of Polity
Author: Neal Asher
Publisher: Start Publishing LLC
Total Pages: 512
Release: 2013-12-18
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1597805157

Outlink station Miranda has been destroyed by a nanomycelium, and the very nature of this sabotage suggests that the alien bioconstruct Dragon - a creature as untrustworthy as it is gigantic - is somehow involved. Sent out on a titanic Polity dreadnought, the Occam Razor, agent Cormac must investigate the disaster. Meanwhile, on the remote planet Masada, the long-term rebellion can never rise above-ground, as the slave population is subjugated by orbital laser arrays controlled by the Theocracy in their cylinder worlds, and by the fact that they cannot safely leave their labour compounds. For the wilderness of Masada lacks breathable air ... and out there roam monstrous predators called hooders and siluroynes, not to mention the weird and terrible gabbleducks.

Too Much Happiness

Too Much Happiness
Author: Alice Munro
Publisher: Douglas Gibson Books
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2009-08-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1551993058

This stunning collection of stories demonstrates once again why Alice Munro is celebrated as a pre-eminent master of the short story. While some of the stories are traditional, set in “Alice Munro Country” in Ontario or in B.C., dealing with ordinary women’s lives, others have a new, sharper edge. They involve child murders, strange sex, and a terrifying home invasion. By way of astonishing variety, the title story, set in Victorian Europe, follows the last journey from France to Sweden of a famous Russian mathematician. This daring, superb collection proves that Alice Munro will always surprise you.

Gridlinked

Gridlinked
Author: Neal Asher
Publisher: Start Publishing LLC
Total Pages: 467
Release: 2018-02-27
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 159780648X

In outer space you can never feel sure that your adversary is altogether human. The runcible buffers on Samarkand have been mysteriously sabotaged, killing many thousands and destroying a terraforming project. Agent Cormac must reach it by ship to begin an investigation. But Cormac has incurred the wrath of a vicious psychopath called Pelter, who is prepared to follow him across the galaxy with a terrifying android in tow. Despite the sub-zero temperature of Samarkand, Cormac discovers signs of life: they are two 'dracomen', alien beasts contrived by an extra-galactic entity calling itself 'Dragon', which is a huge creature consisting of four conjoined spheres of flesh each a kilometre in diameter. Caught between the byzantine wiles of the Dragon and the lethal fury of Pelter, Cormac needs to skip very nimbly indeed to rescue the Samarkand project and protect his own life. Gridlinked is the first sci-fi thriller in Neal Asher's compelling Agent Cormac series.

The Gabble and Other Stories

The Gabble and Other Stories
Author: Neal L. Asher
Publisher: Tor Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2008
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780230709256

Features action-packed short stories that takes us into the manifold diversities of the amazing universe. This title features such favourites as the gabbleduck and the hooder, to savour alien poisons, the walking dead, the Sea of Death, and the putrefactor symbiont.

Runcible Tales

Runcible Tales
Author: Neal Asher
Publisher:
Total Pages: 116
Release: 2018-06-06
Genre:
ISBN: 9781983094347

This is a 'chapbook' of five short stories so not very long (about 30,000 words). It consists of: Always With You - Webster engages on a mission to destroy a Prador planet breaker. It helps if you have Horace Blegg on your side, and an internal medic, but are these enough to overcome overwhelming odds?Blue Holes and Bloody Waters - marine biologist Karl finds that humans haven't quite adapted enough - or have they? Features the first mention of the retro Anti-Grav cars featured in "Gridlinked" that I have come acrossDragon in the Flower - Ian Cormac's first encounter with Dragon - this is printed word-for-word in "Gridlinked", so this should be the Runcible Tale most familiar to Neal Asher readersThe Gire and the Bibrat - Telepath John Tennyson is given more than a helping hand by Agent Prime Cause in his search for the location of a scream...Walking John and Bird - John Walker consults Horace Blegg and Dragon with questions concerning his link with Bird, a seemingly invincible entity. Trouble is, especially where Dragon is concerned, he may not like the answers.

The Dirty Dust

The Dirty Dust
Author: Máirtín Ó Cadhain
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2015-03-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 030021359X

Máirtín Ó Cadhain’s irresistible and infamous novel The Dirty Dust is consistently ranked as the most important prose work in modern Irish, yet no translation for English-language readers has ever before been published. Alan Titley’s vigorous new translation, full of the brio and guts of Ó Cadhain’s original, at last brings the pleasures of this great satiric novel to the far wider audience it deserves. In The Dirty Dust all characters lie dead in their graves. This, however, does not impair their banter or their appetite for news of aboveground happenings from the recently arrived. Told entirely in dialogue, Ó Cadhain’s daring novel listens in on the gossip, rumors, backbiting, complaining, and obsessing of the local community. In the afterlife, it seems, the same old life goes on beneath the sod. Only nothing can be done about it—apart from talk. In this merciless yet comical portrayal of a closely bound community, Ó Cadhain remains keenly attuned to the absurdity of human behavior, the lilt of Irish gab, and the nasty, deceptive magic of human connection.

Darkwater Hall

Darkwater Hall
Author: Catherine Fisher
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
Total Pages: 165
Release: 2011-01-06
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1444902970

It is 1900, and Sarah Trevelyan, a pupil-teacher, is desperate to reclaim her family home, Darkwater Hall. Lost by her grandfather in a gambling wager, its present owner, John Azrael, is a mysterious man who draws her into a bizarre bargain ... the fulfilment of her dreams ... if she will only give up her soul. In 2000, Darkwater Hall is a private school for boys. Tom Hughes longs for the education found within its walls, but instead goes to the local school and has trouble with unpleasant bullies. His twin brother, Simon, who died at birth, is his constant companion, unseen or heard by anyone else. When Tom meets the strange girl Sarah, and a new teacher, Azrael, he finds himself embroiled in their deadly deal ...

The Poison Eaters

The Poison Eaters
Author: Holly Black
Publisher: Small Beer Press
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2010-04-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1931520879

Pick your poison: Vampires, devils, werewolves, faeries, or . . . ? Find them all here in Holly Black’s amazing first collection. In her debut collection, New York Times best-selling author Holly Black returns to the world of Tithe in two darkly exquisite new tales. Then Black takes readers on a tour of a faerie market and introduces a girl poisonous to the touch and another who challenges the devil to a competitive eating match. Some of these stories have been published in anthologies such as 21 Proms, The Faery Reel, and The Restless Dead, and many have been reprinted in many “Best of ” anthologies. The Poison Eaters is Holly Black’s much-anticipated first collection, and her ability to stare into the void—and to find humanity and humor there—will speak to young adult and adult readers alike. A Junior Library Guild Pick. Illustrated by Theo Black. Holly Black is the author of Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale (an ALA Best Book for Young Adults) and two related novels, Valiant (Norton Award winner) and New York Times bestseller Ironside. Her latest novel, Black Heart is the third of a new series, The Curseworkers. She and Tony DiTerlizzi created the best-selling Spiderwick Chronicles. Holly lives in Massachusetts with her husband, Theo, in a house with a secret library.