Valin Derojan looks up at the sky some nights and wonders if he will ever get away from his hard life as a nomad, under his older brother's thumb, scorned by the rest of the tribe, expected to wear himself out every day on hard chores under the scorching sun at the edge of the desert. He's heard rumours of a great conflict, with ruthless forces struggling to enslave and destroy, out there among the stars. But his life seems destined to remain tethered to the flocks and herds his fami...

This is the cautionary tale of Rashad Stevens. He finds himself in a troubled Cairo during the infamous protests aimed at rallying what was left of the European and Mediterranean nations against their alien conquerors. Turbulent times. Despair is catching; poverty is killing.Rashad and his Egyptian friend Hany are undecided: should they invest what little they have in a huge alien-run scheme to green the Sahara? Or trust their lives and their savings into the hands of the people sm...

In this collection the author takes us on three journeys.In one, a young man paddles off across the lake to escape the pain that's erupted in his family. But he discovers that the pain comes with him, and he must take an honest look at himself in order to deal with it.In the second, we join a traveller as he takes a day trip up into the mountains of an exotic island. In his attempt to visit a friend, he is invited in by a poor man living in a tiny stone hut. Can the outsider ...

Long, long ago in a land at the edge of a desert that howls against the walls of the village, a poor young boy named Samir is sent to work for a strange old man who stays up all night listening to the stars. In his curiosity to find out why, Samir stumbles upon a secret and is swept up in an epic journey across the ancient world. It is up to him and his brother Hamdan - with a lot of help from Munira, the camel - to deliver a very special treasure to a king and perhaps rescue their land fr...

It seems like any other day in the e-office for Private Investigator Ghamdan Shamiri. An embattled worker needs legal leverage, claiming he's been framed: that kind of ordinary. Then he's hired by Helena Szychter, poker-faced agent for a murder victim's father.Before the morning's out he and she are hot on the trail of a man who witnessed the murder, a man so afraid of the alleged murderer that he appears to have taken on the identity of a convicted criminal so he could be transpor...

**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERWith this darkly intriguing original e-short story, Dean Koontz sets the stage for his masterly new novel of mystery, suspense, and strange wonder—Innocence.**“The world is a machine that produces endless surprises and mysteries layered on mysteries.”Addison Goodheart is a mystery even to himself. He was born in an isolated home surrounded by a deep forest, never known to his father, kept secret from everyone but...

The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.'Banks is a phenomenon' William GibsonThe man known as Zakalwe was one of Special Circumstances' foremost agents, changing the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through i...

Memory, Ji Bai would say, is this old sack here, this poor dear that nobody has any use for any more.As the novel begins, Salim Juma, in exile from Tanzania, opens up a gunny sack bequeathed to him by a beloved great-aunt. Inside it he discovers the past — his own family’s history and the story of the Asian experience in East Africa. Its relics and artefacts bring with them the lives of Salim’s Indian great-grandfather, Dhanji Govindji, his extensive family, and all their ...

READ THE OPENING CHAPTERS OF THIS COMPELLING AND SUSPENSE-FILLED DEBUT NOVEL FROM INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR JAMES BRABAZON IN THIS FREE PREVIEW.Breathless, complex, and seriously hardcore - don't plan to sleep tonight. LEE CHILDOfficially, Max McLean doesn't exist. The British government denies all knowledge of the work he does on their behalf to keep us safe. But Max and his masters are losing faith in each other. And they give hi...

When ten Pakistani men walk into Kathleen Jamie's small Scottish town on a peace march, in November 2001, she is thrown back to her own travels in Northern Pakistan and a book she wrote a decade earlier.Among Muslims is the account of Jamie's time travelling alone and living among the Shia and Ismaili Muslims in the Northern Areas - the mountainous regions wedged between Afghanistan, India and China and one of the most volatile borderlands in the world.A bold, symp...

This erotic short story is about a female by the name of Lola. She is a first generation Asian American who has been sheltered by her strict parents her entire life. She started to have feelings for women from a childish game when she was a teenager and was forever changed. She knew who she was and knew what she wanted to do with her life, and who she wanted to be with. But all of her dreams and goals were not traditional and were immoral among her family and culture. She hid behind the fe...

Part 3 of the Touchstone Trilogy.Cassandra Devlin doesn’t know what she's for. But she knows she's running out of time.Since Cass was rescued from the abandoned world of Muina, the Aussie teen has proven more than useful to the people of Tare. Expeditions to their home world no longer end in slaughter. The teaching city of Kalasa has been unlocked. After years of searching for answers, they are starting to make progress.But space is tearing itself apart. Ionoth atta...