One of the most extraordinary imaginative & ambitious novels of the century: a history of the evolution of humankind over the next 2 billion years. Among all science fiction writers Olaf Stapledon stands alone for the sheer scope & ambition of his work. First published in 1930 Last & First Men is full of pioneering speculations about evolution terraforming genetic engineering & many other subjects. ...

The end is coming. Logen Ninefingers might only have one more fight in him ' but it's going to be a big one. Battle rages across the North the King of the Northmen still stands firm & there's only one man who can stop him. His oldest friend & his oldest enemy. It's past time for the Bloody-Nine to come home. With too many masters & too little time Superior Glokta is fighting a different kind of war. A secret struggle in which no-one is safe & no-one can be trusted. His days with a sword are far behind him. It's a good thing blackmail threats & torture still work well enough. Jezal dan Luthar has decided that winning glory is far too painful & turned his back on soldiering for a simple life with the woman he loves. But love can be painful too & glory has a nasty habit of creeping up on a man when he least expects it. While the King of the Union lies on his deathbead the peasants revolt & the nobles scramble to steal his crown. No-one believes that the shadow of war is falling across the very heart of the Union. The First of the Magi has a plan to save the world as he always does. But there are risks. There is no risk more terrible after all than to break the First Law.. . ...

The end is coming. Logen Ninefingers might only have one more fight in him
- but its going to be a big one. Battle rages across
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It was a golden age of travel. The period from the end of the Second World War to the early 1960s saw some of the finest ocean liners ever built & until the advent of the jet the ships travelled full every trip criss-crossing the Atlantic between the Old World & the New carrying businessmen tourists emigrants & those who longed for a trip away. William H. Miller brings together a fabulous selection of images of the ships of the period the great & the famous of ocean liner travel. From the grand Cunard Queens to the fastest & longest ships afloat from the ships of state to smaller vessels from the tragedy of disaster to the triumph of record-breaking he tells the story of this glittering age of travel a time when Getting There was Half the Fun. Of course it was all to end with the advent of the Boeing 707 capable of crossing the Atlantic in hours rather than days & the liner trade went into terminal decline. One by one ships were sold or scrapped until there remained only one the QE2. She retired in 2008 but not before being replaced by the Queen Mary 2 the worlds largest ocean liner. Join Bill for a voyage back in time aboard The Last Atlantic Liners. ...

In true Mc Inerney style this new collection of stories examines post 9/11 America in all its dark & morally complex glory. His characters include a young woman holed up in a remote cabin while her (married) boyfriend campaigns for the highest of all offices a couple whose sexual experiments cross every line imaginable a young socialite called home to nurse her mother & an older one scheming for her next husb&. From the streets of downtown New York during the 2003 anti-war march & the lavish hotel rooms of the wealthy social elite to a husband & wife who share a marital bed with a pot-bellied pig the people in these stories search for meaning while struggling against each other colliding as the old world around them fractures & dissolves into a modern era full of new uncertainties where ghosts of loss hang in the air. Mc Inerneys writing has crackling humour & a feverish clear-sighted brilliance that perfectly underpins the lives of people living in modern America. These stories are deftly constructed subtle insightful & heartbreaking. Steeped in history but yet alive in the present
- this new collection is a companion to the sweet madness of life
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May 1945. Hitler was dead the Third Reich was little more than smoking rubble & no GI wanted to be the last man killed in action against the Nazis. But for cigar-chewing rough-talking hard-drinking & hard-charging Lieutenant Jack Lee & his men there was one more mission: rescue fourteen prominent French prisoners held in an SS-guarded castle high in the Alps. It was a dangerous mission but Lee had help
- a German Wehrmacht unit had volunteered to join the fight. Based on official American German & French histories personal memoirs & author interviews The Last Battle" is the nearly unbelievable story of the most improbable battle of World War II
- a tale of unlikely allies bravery & cowardice & desperate combat between implacable enemies."

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A shared past a fresh start & a lifetime of love.. . Owen Montgomery is a busy man. He & his brothers Beckett & Ryder are working day & night to build an intimate Bed & Breakfast in his hometown. Owen is the organiser of the Montgomery clan & while his brothers tease him for his compulsive list making they have to admit that Owen has ensured the Inn Boons Boro is about to open right on schedule. The only thing Owen didnt plan for was Avery Mc Tavish.. . Averys popular pizza place is right across the street from the inn giving her a first-hand look at its amazing renovation
- & a newfound appreciation for Owen Montgomery. Owen was her first boyfriend when they were kids & hes never been far from Averys thoughts. But the attraction shes feeling for him now is far from innocent. As Avery & Owen cautiously take their relationship to another level the opening of the inn gives the whole town of Boonsboro a reason to celebrate. But Owens hard work has only just begun. Getting Avery to let down her guard is going to take longer than he expected
- & so will getting her to realise that her first boyfriend is going to be her last.. .

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The historic hotel in Boons Boro has endured war & peace changing hands even rumored hauntings. Now it's getting a major facelift from the Montgomery brothers & their eccentric mother...and they are uncovering secrets from the hotel's past. The new manager of the Inn starts work
- & sparks fly with one of the brothers.. .
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Includes: A BRAND NEW & EXCLUSIVE MORGANVILLE SHORT STORY Claire Danvers is concerned when three vampires vanish from
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AD 68. The tyrant emperor Nero has no son & no heir. Suddenly there's the very real possibility that Rome might become a republic once more. But the ambitions of a few are about to bring corruption chaos & untold bloodshed to the many. Among them is a hero of the campaign against Boudicca Aulus Caecina Severus. Caught up in a conspiracy to overthrow Caesar's dynasty he commits treason raises a rebellion faces torture & intrigue
- all supposedly for the good of Rome. The boundary between the good of Rome & self preservation is far from clear & keeping to the dangerous path he's chosen requires all Severus' skills as a cunning soldier & increasingly deft politician. & so Severus looks back on the dark & dangerous time history knows as the Year of the Four Emperors & the part he played
- for good or ill
- in plunging the mighty Roman empire into anarchy & civil war...


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