Terran child psychologist Bryn Haslund has her hands full, treating the traumatized young victims of the interplanetary Star Alliance. She's tried to stay out of politics, leaving that to her charismatic statesman father, Ernst. Despite her best efforts to remain neutral, she gets caught in the crackdown of a protest-turned-riot. Then Ernst delivers a robotic speech in support of the Alliance's tyrannical leader and goes missing.With the Alliance's secret police hot on her heels, B...

"A captivating primer to the world of viruses that requires zero background in biology . . . a suitable first introduction to this fascinating part of our world." — The Inquisitive BiologistIn 2020, an invisible germ—a virus—emerged and wholly upended our lives. We've now become familiar with the new virus that gave us Covid-19—but viruses also cause a vast range of other diseases, including one disorder that makes people sprout branch-like growths as if t...

The New York Times bestselling science fiction and fantasy author of the Avalon series introduces the prequel to the beloved and enduring classic The Mists of Avalon in this mesmerizing epic of one woman’s legendary role at a turning point in history.In a Britain struggling to survive Roman invasion, Eilan is the daughter of a Druidic warleader, gifted with visions and marked by fate to become a priestess of the Forest House.But fate also ...

**One of Smithsonian Magazine's Ten Best Science Books of 2025The fascinating, untold story of the air we breathe, the hidden life it contains, and invisible dangers that can turn the world upside down**Every day we draw in two thousand gallons of air—and thousands of living things. From the ground to the stratosphere, the air teems with invisible life. This last great biological frontier remains so mysterious that it took over two years for scientists to ...

Nobody alive knew how the feud between Storn and Hammefell had begun, but that didn't stop the fighting. When Storn's men burned Hammerfell's castle, his infant twin sons were separated, and each grew up thinking himself the rightful Duke of Hammerfell. Conn, raised in the mountains by his father's paxman, continued to fight the Storns. Alastair grew up with his mother in Thendara and planned to marry his cousin Floria. But when Conn came to Thendara to seek King Aiden's help and the twins...

Leonie Hastur has a high degree of laran, the telepathic power of the Comyn caste, and wants to be Keeper of Arilinn Tower, which will give her as much power as her twin brother Lorill, Heir to Hastur. But she has a premonition that something strange and disturbing will come from the sky and change their world forever. She's correct.Ysaye Barnett loves life on shipboard and would happily stay right there, with her beloved computers, forever. Her best friend Elizabeth Mackintosh, a ...

**2019 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Finalist"Science book of the year"—The Guardian**One of New York Times 100 Notable Books for 2018One of Publishers Weekly's Top Ten Books of 2018One of Kirkus's Best Books of 2018One of Mental Floss's Best Books of 2018One of Science Friday's Best Science Books of 2018“Extraordinary”—New York Times Book R...

How do you make a spaceman? You start the same way that you start to make a chess master, a ballet dancer, a trapeze performer, or any other difficult and complex task demanding highly trained and concentrated skills, physical or mental; you start when the future professionals are too young to know whether that is what they want out of life, or not. United Nations Expeditionary Planetary Survey—UNEPS—starts every year with one hundred five-year-olds, discovered, in early testing, to be bot...

...an incredible blending of fantasy and science fiction.Eventually the Terrans rediscover their long-lost -- and now alien -- colony: Darkover.Things are different there.While adolescent male homosexuality is generally tolerated on Darkover, men are expected to outgrow it. When Dyan Ardais takes lovers young enough to be his sons, he risks not just his reputation, but his life.Life in a Tower as a Keeper, the chaste virgin who holds a circle together, is gr...

Three fan-favorite authors present "a classic fantasy quest involving mysterious wizards, rites of passage, and the salvation of a kingdom" ( Library Journal ).Peace has long reigned in Ruwenda thanks to the magical protection of the Archimage Binah. The realm's devoted guardian is aging, however, and her magic is weakening. When the kingdom's triplet princesses were still infants, Binah gave each of them the mystical power...

In 'The Planet Savers' Marion Zimmer Bradley introduced the world to her amazing Darkover series. A disease threatens all of Darkover and the only man that can save Darkover has a multiple personality disorder. He is two distinct men, but two men who hate one another and vie for possession of their one body. But to save Darkover they must work together.

After Lew Alton unwittingly roused the fire demon Sharra, the Sword of Aldones was the only weapon that could lay her to rest again. But only one man could wield the sword, and getting it was an even bigger problem.