MainCategory: CONTEMPORARY

Anthem

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Anthem
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Anthem is a novella by Russian-American writer Ayn Rand. This dystopian fiction was written in 1937 and first published in 1938 in the UK. The story takes place at an undesignated future date when mankind has entered another Dark Age. Technological advancement is now carefully planned and the concept of individuality has been eliminated. Equality 7-2521, a 21-year-old man, rebels by doing secret scientific research. He commits several transgressions. But his activity is discovered. He flees into the wilderness with the girl he loves and both plan to establish a new society based on rediscovered individualism.
The plot of the novella revolves around this young man who exclusively uses plural pronouns such as ‘we’, ‘our’ and ‘they’ to refer to himself and others. The girl he meets is Liberty 5-3000, a 17-year-old Peasant girl who works in the fields. When he speaks to her, he discovers that she also thinks of him. Anthem was published in the US only after author’s next novel, The Fountainhead, became a best seller.

Atlas Shrugged

Atlas Shrugged
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Peopled by larger-than-life heroes and villains, charged with towering questions of good and evil, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand’s magnum opus: a philosophical revolution told in the form of an action thriller—nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

Who is John Galt? When he says that he will stop the motor of the world, is he a destroyer or a liberator? Why does he have to fight his battles not against his enemies but against those who need him most? Why does he fight his hardest battle against the woman he loves?

You will know the answer to these questions when you discover the reason behind the baffling events that play havoc with the lives of the amazing men and women in this book. You will discover why a productive genius becomes a worthless playboy…why a great steel industrialist is working for his own destruction…why a composer gives up his career on the night of his triumph…why a beautiful woman who runs a transcontinental railroad falls in love with the man she has sworn to kill.

Atlas Shrugged, a modern classic and Rand’s most extensive statement of Objectivism—her groundbreaking philosophy—offers the reader the spectacle of human greatness, depicted with all the poetry and power of one of the twentieth century’s leading artists.

Doomsday Morning

Doomsday Morning
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A classic, post-apocalyptic vision of America created by C. L. Moore, an undisputed master of science fiction’s golden age.

In the wake of a nuclear war, the totalitarian system known as Comus has restored order in a shattered America. Comus controls every aspect of American life, from communications to transportation to law enforcement, but cracks are beginning to show: rumors of a rebellion in California are brewing, and Comus’s leadership is aging. History is at a crossroads, and the man who will decide the outcome is a washed-up actor named Howard Rohan.

Leading a troupe of theatre players to perform in the heart of rebel territory, Howard’s true mission is to gather intelligence on a device that could bring down Comus. But Rohan finds himself slipping between his roles as a double agent and supposed revolutionary sympathizer, to the point where even he isn’t sure where he stands. As America edges closer to its reckoning, Rohan will need to decide who he’s been lying to: the rebels, Comus, or himself.

“A finely wrought dystopic vision where an oppressive future government utilizes communication networks to spread its tentacles across the United States.” —Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations

“It need hardly be mentioned at this late date what a gloriously fine writer Moore was . . . she combined elegant yet colorful prose with a distinctive emotional flair and one helluva imagination.” —Fantasy Literature

THE HAIRY ONES SHALL DANCE (The Judge Pursuivant Trilogy Book 1)

THE HAIRY ONES SHALL DANCE (The Judge Pursuivant Trilogy Book 1)
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FROM THE PAGES OF “WEIRD TALES” THE WORLD’S GREATEST SHUDDER PULP!
“Manly Wade Wellman is a treasure that should not be missed … should be in the collection of everyone who loves pulp fiction in the “Weird Tales” style.” Goodreads
The first spellbinding novel in multi-fantasy award winner Manley Wade Wellman’s classic horror trilogy about Judge Hilary Pursuivant, the jurist so deeply seeped in the lore of deviltry and supernatural evil – that no one or thing, not even the most powerful of dark forces, can stand against him.
“Mr. Wellman’s Occult investigators are at the top of the genre. All of them would have felt right at home working side by side with either Karl Kolchak or Mulder-Scully. One has even worked with a certain Mr. Jules de Grandin.” Amazon review
Talbot Wills, a skeptic, gave up his career as a stage magician to study psychic phenomena – and once and for all prove or disprove its existence to himself. Learning this, his friend Doctor Otto Zoberg, an expert in occult subjects brings him to an isolated hamlet to attend a séance at the home of a spirit medium whose powers are legendary. There Talbot meets Susan Gird, an intelligent and likable young woman, and after an afternoon together finds himself attracted to her. The séance is held that night – and though everyone is handcuffed to someone else, a strange wolf-like shape moves in the dark. When Susan Gird’s father cries out some sort of accusation, the shape leaps upon him and slaughters him.
The town constable investigates and, since Wills is a magician and escape artist, arrests him for the crime. Later, while Talbot is locked in jail, an angry mob gathers to lynch him. With his knowledge of locks, Talbot breaks out his cell and in eluding his pursuers finds himself in the Devil’s Croft, a mysterious grove which most locals are afraid to approach. As he enters it, Wills falls, exhausted. What happens next shatters his skepticism for good.
Fleeing, Talbot meets Judge Pursuivant, a giant of a man both physically and mentally, and a man with an almost uncanny knowledge of the occult who promises to help him and Susan.

John the Balladeer by Manly Wade Wellman

John the Balladeer by Manly Wade Wellman
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In John the Balladeer, Manly Wade Wellman created one of the great characters in all of horror and fantasy literature. Armed with his silver-stringed guitar and an endless trove of folk songs, John travels the backwoods of Appalachia, battling supernatural evil with his own brand of down-home charm and endless resourcefulness. In these tales, John wanders the Southern mountains, encountering hoodoo men and witch women, strange supernatural beasts, malevolent spirits, and even George Washington’s ghost.

Edited by horror legend Karl Edward Wagner, this volume contains the complete John the Balladeer stories in their original, unaltered form, as they first appeared in magazines and anthologies between 1951 and 1987. Also featured are a foreword by Wellman’s friend and literary executor David Drake and an introduction by Wagner.

“Just as J. R. R. Tolkien brilliantly created a modern British myth cycle, so did Manly Wade Wellman give to us an imaginary world of purely American fact, fantasy and song.” – Karl Edward Wagner

“This is the real thing-a book of haunting fantasies with their roots going down deep into the American folk tradition.” – Robert Silverberg

Awakening: Book One of the Ragnarok Rising Saga

Awakening: Book One of the Ragnarok Rising Saga
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The dead are rising. Reports of rioting and mob violence begin to appear in the news as more and more major cities go silent. The CDC and FEMA are powerless to stop the spread of the deadly “Reaper Virus.” Rumors fly about the nature of the “rioters”, claiming that the dead have risen to prey on the living.

In the Midwest City of Springfield Missouri, all Law Enforcement Officers are called to report for duty. Corrections Officer Wylie Grant is sent into the field only to discover for himself that they are facing the living dead. Wylie and National Guard Corporal Chrissy “Spec-4” Wilder must fight their way back to the Nathanael County Jail where the few remaining officers are attempting to regroup.

Soon, they find themselves leading the rescue efforts as more and more positions are overrun by the dead. Darkness is Awakening.

a short storiy in the same universe can be found here

Code Name: Wild Hunt: Odin’s Call

Code Name: Wild Hunt: Odin's Call
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When the US Air Force loses contact with an experimental drone carrying a classified weapon system over a remote section of the Ouachita Mountain Range of eastern Oklahoma, a team of elite Pararescue personnel are sent in to recover the asset. After the entire team and the helicopter sent to extract them vanish without a trace, it is discovered that a highly-aggressive, hairy, bipedal hominid is responsible for the attack. Code Name: Wild Hunt is called in to handle the paranormal threat. The Wild Hunt is a covert group of Special Forces operatives that are recruited from all branches of the US military for highly specialized and classified missions pertaining to paranormal threats to humanity.

With the increasing frequency of attacks, the Wild Hunt is split across four zones of the United States, with four teams operating in each zone. Teams are named after Hunting Deities with each zone representing a different pantheon. Due to the volatile nature of the missions and potential for panic in the general populace, the Special Operations Group known as the Wild Hunt does not formally exist in any government or military records. Dispatching Team Odin, they soon discover that it wasn’t just one creature.

They find themselves caught in the middle of a conflict between two clans of Bigfoot-like creatures embroiled in a territorial dispute. Creatures that they quickly learn are far more intelligent than originally anticipated. To make matters worse, they find themselves trapped by one of the worst snowstorms on record. Can Team Odin locate any survivors of the original Pararescue team, as well as secure the missing drone? Or will they, too, fall prey to the same creatures?

some more short stories here

Crazy Town: A Dark Anthology of Fantastical Crime Noir (Rogue Blades Presents)

Crazy Town: A Dark Anthology of Fantastical Crime Noir (Rogue Blades Presents)
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Why do we call it crazy? There are no limits inside CRAZY TOWN. Here you can bet or buy the farm in the same breath. Ain’t nobody believin’ anyone here’s playing with a full deck. Every one’s stacked, and in this town, some got less and some got more cards. If you stop in for a visit, you’ll find 13 daring folks who step into the dark, then poke the dirtiest corner of it; 13 inquisitive minds who dig into the slime, then stir up whatever twitches; 13 cynical souls who may not be able to save themselves but just might redeem something outta their miserable lives.

Ya gotta be crazy to hang ’round these parts. This town? Lotsa crazies; coming here might not be just what the doc ordered.

13 authors deliver explosive, haunted action high on adrenaline and low on morals. Sin, sex, shots, secrets: it’s all here in spades. Think Mike Hammer meets Roger Rabbit in Karl Edward Wagner’s story “Into Whose Hands.” Then take it a notch closer to crazy. These are definitely not Mayberry’s streets. Pray they aren’t yours. You’ve been warned.

Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson

Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson
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While researching a story on a mysterious box brought back from Mongolia, newspaper reporter Will Barbee meets the intriguing and seductive April Bell. After a series of frighteningly vivid dreams, and a string of murders that leave his close friends dead, Barbee starts to piece together the mystery of shapeshifter and werewolf April Bell, and comes to realize his part in the murders. As the truth starts to emerge, Barbee struggles with the reality of his past, and what this box and its contents mean to his future.

Written by Jack Williamson, the only writer to receive both SFWA’s Grand Master Award and the Horror Writer of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

“On looking back over his long and influential career, I have no hesitation in placing Jack Williamson on a level with the two other American giants, Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein.”
– Arthur C. Clarke

“Darker Than You Think yields sheer enjoyment, generating wonder and suspense as Williamson springs his sequence of trapdoors with the effortless agility of a master”
– Peter Straub

“A giant in the field of science fiction…When you’re the acknowledged Dean of Science Fiction, you’re allowed to coast a little. Jack is the only writer around who has demonstrably improved with every passing decade.”
– Mike Resnick

“I think the first SF novel I ever read was his book Seetee Shock, although it wasn’t until I read his novel of shapechangers, Darker than You Think, as a teenager, that I knew I was a fan.”
-Neil Gaiman

“He is a man of extraordinary talent and consummate humility, of penetrating intelligence and great kindness, a scholar and a gentleman. We are unbelievably lucky to have him as one of the forefathers of the field.”
– Connie Willis

“Not only is he (Jack Williamson) one of the best-loved figures in the field of science fiction, he has been a pioneering writer, breaking ground in new areas long before most of us had learned how to read.”
– Ben Bova

“Like the best of… wines, vintage Williamson travels well.”
– David Weber

American Assassin: A Thriller (Mitch Rapp Book 1)

American Assassin: A Thriller (Mitch Rapp Book 1)
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In #1 New York Times bestselling author Vince Flynn’s explosive and “captivating” (Glenn Beck) thriller, witness the young Mitch Rapp as he takes on his first assignment.

Mitch Rapp was a gifted college athlete without a care in the world…and then tragedy struck. Terrorists attacked innocent American citizens, and Rapp’s girlfriend was among the murdered. Two hundred and seventy souls perished on that cold December night, and thousands of family and friends were left searching for comfort. Mitch Rapp was one of them, but he was not interested in comfort. Now he wants retribution.

Two decades of cutthroat partisan politics have left the CIA and the country in an increasingly vulnerable position. Cold War veteran CIA Operations Director Thomas Stansfield knows he must prepare his people for the next war. America must confront Islamic terrorism with full force. Stansfield directs his protégée, Irene Kennedy, and his old Cold War colleague, Stan Hurley, to form a new group of clandestine operatives who will work outside the normal chain of command—men who do not exist.

What type of man is willing to kill for his country without putting on a uniform? Six months of intense training have prepared him to take the war to the enemy’s doorstep, and he does so with brutal efficiency. Rapp starts in Istanbul, where he assassinates the Turkish arms dealer who sold the explosives used in the terrorist attack. Rapp then moves on to Hamburg with his team and across Europe, leaving a trail of bodies. All roads lead to Beirut, though, and what Rapp doesn’t know is that the enemy is aware of his existence and has prepared a trap. The hunter is about to become the hunted, and Rapp will need every ounce of skill and cunning if he is to survive the war-ravaged city and its various terrorist factions.

This is “a bold and brawny tale that never wavers or lets up. The voice of today’s postmodern thriller generation, Flynn has never been better” (The Providence Journal) in this unforgettable novel of a young man primed to become an American assassin.