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The Poison Belt by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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The Poison Belt by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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Second book narrating the adventures of the Professor Challenger started in the classic The lost world by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The team of explorers from The Lost World reunites to face the end of the world in this adventure by the creator of Sherlock Holmes.

Prof. George Challenger has made a troubling discovery: The Earth is about to pass through a belt of poisonous gas. He quickly summons his three friends—Professors Summerlee, Lord John Roxton, and Edward Malone—to his home in Sussex with a request to bring tanks of oxygen.

Once the men arrive, Professor Challenger leads them and his wife to a sealed room where they can wait out the crisis and observe the chaos outside. But when the poisonous cloud finally dissipates, there is no telling what they will find . . .

The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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part of a trilogy of novel following the adventures of the Professor Challenger, followed by The Poison Belt and The Land of Mist

The Lost World is a novel released in 1912 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle concerning an expedition to a plateau in the Amazon basin of South America where prehistoric animals (dinosaurs and other extinct creatures) still survive. It was originally published serially in the popular Strand Magazine and illustrated by New-Zealand-born artist Harry Rountree during the months of April–November 1912. The character of Professor Challenger was introduced in this book. The novel also describes a war between indigenous people and a vicious tribe of ape-like creatures.

Edward Malone, a young reporter for the Daily Gazette, asks his editor for a dangerous assignment to impress the woman he loves, Gladys, who wishes for a great man capable of brave deeds and actions. His task is to approach the notorious Professor Challenger, who dislikes the popular press intensely and physically assaults intrusive journalists. The subject is to be his recent South American expedition which, surrounded by controversy, guarantees a hostile reaction. As a direct approach would be instantly rebuffed, Malone instead masquerades as an earnest student.

On meeting the professor he is startled by his overwhelming intellect – his intimidating physique too – but believes his ruse is succeeding. Seeing through the masquerade, then confirming Malone’s scientific knowledge is non-existent, Challenger erupts in anger and forcibly throws him out. Malone earns his respect by refusing to press charges with a policeman who saw his violent ejection into the street. Challenger ushers him back inside and, extracting promises of confidentiality, eventually reveals he has discovered living dinosaurs in South America.

At a tumultuous public meeting in which Challenger experiences further ridicule, Malone volunteers for an expedition to verify the discoveries. His companions are to be Professor Summerlee, and Lord John Roxton, an adventurer who helped end slavery on the Amazon; the notches on his rifle showing how many slavers he killed doing so.

Valentia: (Victorinus Book 1)

Valentia: (Victorinus Book 1)
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The first book in a thrilling new series of adventures set in Roman Britain. Perfect for fans of Simon Scarrow, Ben Kane, SJA Turney and Gordon Doherty.

Meet Tribune Sixtus Victorinus. Drunken soldier. Absent father. Unlikely hero.

Wall of Hadrian, Britannia, AD 367

It’s just another day, until it isn’t. Tribune Sixtus Victorinus is scouting north of the Wall when he first sees the smoke. Little does he know it’s about to change his life forever. Riding south he finds a province in chaos, the local populace in flight, the soldiers absent.

For rebellion is in the air at the far reaches of empire. The land is ablaze, overrun with barbarians, ‘Valentia’, is the word on everyone’s lips. And no one seems to have the first clue what to do about it.

And so Victorinus must act. He has let his life run to ruin, drunk his youth away. Now he must forge himself into the soldier he always wanted to be, the hero his children think he is.

Because his family are among the missing, and traitors lurk much closer than he could ever believe.

To save his family, he must first save an empire.

Praise for Adam Lofthouse and Valentia:

“Flawed characters seeking redemption. Honour, courage, sacrifice, bloody battles and deadly betrayals, Valentia has it all. Adam Lofthouse goes from strength to strength and this novel is up there with the best in the genre.” – Matthew Harffy

“Lofthouse takes one of the most shadowy and intriguing events in Roman history and turns it into a rampantly-paced, intense adventure. Simply masterful.” – Gordon Doherty

“The author delivers a lesson in how to depict a frontier world at the edge of a crumbling empire and how to populate it with believable and very likeable characters.” – Mark Knowles

The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson

The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson
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This acclaimed fantasy classic of men, elves, and gods is at once breathtakingly exciting and heartbreakingly tragic.

Published the same year as The Fellowship of the Ring, Poul Anderson’s novel The Broken Sword draws on similar Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon sources. In his greed for land and power, Orm the Strong slays the family of a Saxon witch—and for his sins, the Northman must pay with his newborn son. Stolen by elves and replaced by a changeling, Skafloc is raised to manhood unaware of his true heritage and treasured for his ability to handle the iron that the elven dare not touch. Meanwhile, the being who supplanted him as Orm’s son grows up angry and embittered by the humanity he has been denied. A pawn in a witch’s vengeance, the creature Valgard will never know love, and consumed by rage, he will commit a murderous act of unspeakable vileness.

It is their destiny to finally meet on the field of battle—the man-elf and his dark twin, the monster—when the long-simmering war between elves and trolls finally erupts with a devastating fury. And only the mighty sword Tyrfing, broken by Thor and presented to Skafloc in infancy, can turn the tide in a terrible clashing of faerie folk that will ultimately determine the fate of the old gods.

Along with such notables as Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury, multiple Hugo and Nebula Award winner Poul Anderson is considered one of the masters of speculative fiction.

The Corridors of Time

The Corridors of Time
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A young man from the twentieth century is recruited to fight in a war that rages throughout time in this classic science fiction adventure from a multiple Hugo and Nebula Award–winning master.

College student, ex-marine, and martial artist Malcolm Lockridge is in prison awaiting his trial for murder when he receives an unexpected visit from an extraordinarily beautiful woman named Storm. Claiming to be a representative of the Wardens, a political faction from two thousand years in the future, Storm offers the astonished young man a proposition: freedom in return for his assistance in recovering an unspecified lost treasure. But it is not long before Malcolm realizes that, in truth, he’s been recruited as a soldier in the Wardens’ ongoing war against their rivals, the Rangers.

And this war is different from any that has ever been fought, because the battlefield is not a place but time itself.

Traveling backward and forward through corridors connecting historical epochs separated by thousands of years, Malcolm is soon embroiled in a furious conflict between the forces of good and minions of evil. But the deeper he is pulled into this devastating time war, the clearer Malcolm’s ultimate role in humankind’s destiny becomes, causing the troubled young soldier from the twentieth century to question whether he’s been chosen to fight on the side of good or evil . . . and if such a distinction even exists.

Tau Zero

Tau Zero
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This Hugo Award finalist, “justifiably regarded as a classic” (SFReviews.net), is the tale of an epic space voyage where time dilation goes horribly wrong.

Aboard the spacecraft Leonora Christine, fifty crewmembers, half men and half women, have embarked on a journey of discovery like no other to a planet thirty light-years away. Since their ship is not capable of traveling faster than light, the crew will be subject to the effects of time dilation and relativity. They will age five years on board the ship before reaching their destination, but thirty-three years will pass on Earth. Experienced scientists and researchers, they have come to terms with the time conditions of their space travel.

Until . . . the Leonora Christine passes through an uncharted nebula, which damages the engine, making it impossible to decelerate the ship on the second half of their trip. To survive, the crewmembers have no choice but to bypass their destination and continue to accelerate toward the speed of light. But how will they keep hope alive and maintain order as they hurtle deeper into space with time passing more and more rapidly, and their ultimate fate unknown?

With its combination of mind-blowing hard science and compelling human drama, Tau Zero is “the ultimate hard science novel” (Mike Resnick).

Conan The Rebel by Poul Anderson

Conan The Rebel by Poul Anderson
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A grand adventure of the mighty thewed barbarian, from one of Fantasy’s biggest names

Conan, The name has inspired generations, one that resounds through time immemorial. Yet it all began with a handful of stories from Robert E. Howard. In the decades since, there have been feature films, television and comic book series, and numerous spin-off novels. In 1979, Poul Anderson—winner of a staggering eight Hugo and three Nebula Awards—wrote what is regarded as one of the finest adventures in the canon of Conan:

Conan the Rebel.

Conan the barbarian and Belit, his raven-haired beauty, lead a band of savage pirates striving to free Belit’s people from the iron grip of an evil reptile god and its cruel minions. Striking at the heart of tyranny, Conan must break the chains of oppression before eternal darkness claims them all.

The High Crusade by Poul Anderson

The High Crusade by Poul Anderson
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In the year of grace 1345, as Sir Roger Baron de Tourneville is gathering an army to join King Edward III in the war against France, a most astonishing event occurs: a huge silver ship descends through the sky and lands in a pasture beside the little village of Ansby in northeastern Lincolnshire. The Wersgorix, whose scouting ship it is, are quite expert at taking over planets, and having determined from orbit that this one was suitable, they initiate standard world-conquering procedure. Ah, but this time it’s no mere primitives the Wersgorix seek to enslave—they’ve launched their invasion against free Englishmen! In the end, only one alien is left alive—and Sir Roger’s grand vision is born. He intends for the creature to fly the ship first to France to aid his King, then on to the Holy Land to vanquish the infidel. Unfortunately, he has not allowed for the treachery of the alien pilot, who instead takes the craft to his home planet, where, he thinks, these upstart barbarians will have no choice but to surrender. But that knavish alien little understands the indomitable will and clever resourcefulness of Englishmen, no matter how great the odds against them…

The Right to Arm Bears

The Right to Arm Bears
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2 novels and a short storie : Spacial Delivery, Spacepaw, “The Law-Twister Shorty collected in one omnibus

HUMANS OR HEMNOIDS:
AN UNBEARABLE CHOICE!

Planet Dilbia is in a crucial location for both humans and their adversaries, the Hemnoids. Therefore making friends with the Dilbians and establishing a human presence there is of the utmost importance, which may be a problem, since the bearlike Dilbians; stand some nine feet tall, and have a high regard for physical prowess. They’re not impressed by human technology, either. A real man, er, bear doesn’t need machines to do his work for him.

But Dilbians are impressed by sharp thinking, and some have expressed a grudging admiration for the logical (and usually sneaky) mental maneuvers that the human “shorties” have used to get themselves out of desperate jams. Just maybe that old human craftiness will win over the Dilbians; to the human side. If not, we lose a nexus, and the Dilbians will learn just how unbearable Hemnoids can be….

The Dragon and the George: The Dragon Cycle

The Dragon and the George: The Dragon Cycle
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One minute he was a college teacher, the next he was a dragon!

Jim Eckert leads a peaceful, happy campus life. He’s a college basketball player and an expert in mediaeval history. But his life has been disrupted by the disappearance of his girlfriend Angie. While taking part in a laboratory experiment on astral projection she just vanished.

In an attempt to find out what’s happened he submits himself to the equipment. A very unwise move.

Next thing he knows he’s in the Middle Ages. Worse, he’s no longer human. He’s in the body of a dragon. Worse still, Angie has been nabbed by another dragon and taken to the Loathly Tower. Obviously, Jim has no option but to give chase . . .

This first volume in Gordon R. Dickson’s hilarious fantasy series is perfect for fans of Piers Anthony and Terry Pratchett.