Hardwired

Hardwired

Walter Jon Williams

Science Fiction & Fantasy / Short Stories

Earth lies prostrate beneath the lash of the Orbital powers, and Earth’s Balkanized nations have no choice but to let the Orbitals plunder their remaining wealth. Below the zone of Orbital control, buttonheads, panzerjocks, dirtgirls, and hustlers scramble for their ticket out of the gravity well.But now, if the criminal underworld and the guerilla underground can join forces, there is a chance to shift the balance of power— in a war fought on the ground by hardwired commandos, in the air by high-flying deltajocks, and by genius hackers in the neural interface.As Roger Zelazny said, “Hardwired” is a tough, sleek juggernaut of a story, punctuated by strobe light movements, coursing to the wail of jets and the twang of steel guitars— glittering, nasty, and noble— and told in a style perfectly suiting its content. It has all of my favorite things— blood, love, fire, hate and a high ideal or two. I wish I’d written this one.”From Publishers WeeklyAfter his thoughtful, elegant novel Knight Moves, Williams wrenchingly shifts gears for this heavy-metal adventure. It is set with acknowledgement in Roger Zelazny's Damnation Alley, when corporate Orbitals control what's left of a postwar America, now balkanized and armed to the teeth. Ex-fighter pilot Cowboy, "hardwired" via skull sockets directly to his lethal electronic hardware, teams up with Sarah, an equally cyborized gun-for-hire, to make a last stab at independence from the rapacious Orbitals. The story, though, is buried under an elaborate techno-punk style of the sort William Gibson popularized in Neuromancer. In both cases, it is a pose, a baroque nostalgia for Hemingway and film noir; it only plays at nihilism, terror and despair. The best effect is Williams's future version of a brain-scrambled vet: a dead buddy of Cowboy's whose scattered bits and pieces of computer memory now constitute a ragged semblance of a man. Such nuggets are hard to find amid the amplified, rock-'n-roll prose. Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review''Hardwired is a tough, sleek juggernaut of a story, punctuated by strobe-light movements, coursing to the wail of jets and the twang of steel guitars--glittering, nasty, and noble--and told in a style perfectly suiting its content. It has all my favorite things--blood, love, fire, hate, and a high ideal or two. I wish I'd written this one.'' --Roger Zelazny, Hugo, Locus, and Nebula award-winning author''Williams' use of language is as explosive and as techno tinged as the world he describes. Reading the book is like taking a jet ride across a futuristic America, with acceleration forcing you back in your seat all the way.'' --Tom Von Malder, writer and arts critic''Heavy-metal adventure.'' --Publishers Weekly
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Vow to Cherish

Vow to Cherish

Deborah Raney

Deborah Raney

When his precious wife of thirty years received a devastating diagnosis, John Brighton's world fell apart. As his wife slipped from him day by day, his love was being tested as never before, and he found himself confronted by a weakness he never knew he had. He desperately needed a confidante in this dark time, and a young widow named Julia Sinclair seemed to understand his pain as no one else could. Torn between doing what he knew was right and what his heart told him could not be wrong, John soon discovered that the heart can't be trusted where true love is concerned.
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The Sea of Trolls sot-1

The Sea of Trolls sot-1

Nancy Farmer

Science Fiction & Fantasy / Young Adult

Jack was eleven when the berserkers loomed out of the fog and nabbed him. “It seems that things are stirring across the water,” the Bard had warned. “Ships are being built, swords are being forged.” “Is that bad?” Jack had asked, for his Saxon village had never before seen berserkers. “Of course. People don’t make ships and swords unless they intend to use them.” The year is A.D. 793. In the next months, Jack and his little sister, Lucy, are enslaved by Olaf One-Brow and his fierce young shipmate, Thorgil. With a crow named Bold Heart for mysterious company, they are swept up into an adventure-quest that follows in the spirit of “The Lord of the Rings.” Award-winner Nancy Farmer has never told a richer, funnier tale, nor offered more timeless encouragement to young seekers than “Just say no to pillaging.”
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A Darkling Plain me-4

A Darkling Plain me-4

Philip Reeve

Children's Books / Young Adult / Science Fiction & Fantasy

It’s six months after the tumultuous events on Brighton, and Wren Natsworthy and her father Tom have taken to the skies in their airship, The Jenny Haniver. Wren is enjoying life as an aviatrix but Tom is troubled by matters of the heart—Hester’s disappearance, and the old wound caused by Pennyroyal’s bullet. Until a fluke encounter with a familiar face sets him thinking about the ruins of London and the possibility of going back... Meanwhile the fragile truce between the Green Storm and the Traction Cities splinters and hostility breaks out again. Events are set on a collision course as things end where they began, with London...
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Property Of, the Drowning Season, Fortune's Daughter, and At Risk

Property Of, the Drowning Season, Fortune's Daughter, and At Risk

Alice Hoffman

Literature & Fiction / Young Adult / Magical Realism

Discover four acclaimed early novels by the New York Times–bestselling author of The Marriageof Opposites and The Dovekeepers. One of today's most beloved authors of lyrical fiction with a touch of magic, Alice Hoffman boasts a body of work that has been praised by readers and critics from the very beginning. This collection includes her first novel, plus three more of her outstanding tales. Property Of: Hoffman's debut about teenage girls in mascara and leather and their attraction to local toughs is "a remarkably envisioned novel, almost mythic in its cadences" (TheNew York Times). The Drowning Season intertwines the stories of two women named Esther: a granddaughter, who yearns to escape the Long Island shore and the coldness of the family matriarch; and her grandmother, who fled her abusive parents in Russia decades before. This novel "casts the spell of all great fairy tales....
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Perfectly Good White Boy

Perfectly Good White Boy

Carrie Mesrobian

Carrie Mesrobian

"You never know where we'll end up. There's so much possibility in life, you know?" Hallie said. Sean Norwhalt can read between the lines. He knows Hallie's just dumped him. He was a perfectly good summer boyfriend, but now she's off to college, and he's still got another year to go. Her pep talk about futures and "possibilities" isn't exactly comforting. Sean's pretty sure he's seen his future and its "possibilities," and they all look DISPOSABLE. Like the crappy rental his family moved into when his dad left. Like all the unwanted filthy old clothes he stuffs into the rag baler at his thrift-store job. Like everything good he's ever known. The only hopeful possibilities in Sean's life are the Marine Corps, where no one expected he'd go, and Neecie Albertson, whom he never expected to care about. Carrie Mesrobian follows her critically acclaimed debut, Sex & Violence, with another powerful and wrenching portrait of a teenage boy on the precipice of the new...
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The Shapeshifters

The Shapeshifters

Stefan Spjut

Stefan Spjut

"A fantastic novel in every sense of the word...not only because Spjut has accomplished the masterstroke of writing convincingly about the existence of trolls and other mythical creatures in the Nordic forests, but also because all this unfolds in a language that captures the everyday reality we know so well, with such precision and exquisite style that the words seem to sparkle on the page." —Karl Ove Knausgård "A fun, cunning crime thriller...If you enjoy the novels of Michael Koryta or Tana French's The Secret Place...you might eat up The Shapeshifters." —Chicago Tribune Summer 1978. A young boy disappears without a trace from a summer cabin. His mother claims he was carried away by a giant. He is never found. Twenty-five years later, another child goes missing. This time there's a lead, a single photograph taken by Susso Myrén. She's devoted her life to the search for trolls, legendary giants known...
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Sacrifice

Sacrifice

Karin Alvtegen

Literature & Fiction / Mystery & Thrillers

Monika is driven to succeed as a doctor - but cannot allow herself any personal happiness. Maj-Britt is desperate to be left alone - but why does she shun society? A tragic accident brings these two strangers together, forcing them to confront their darkest fears.In this psychological thriller, Karin Alvtegen reveals a world where every choice you make has a profound impact on your whole life. And one question must be answered: when fate intervenes, what will you choose to sacrifice?
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