Showing results by publisher "Hodder & Stoughton" in Science Fiction & Fantasy

In order for the Storm King to cement his power over Osten Ard, he must find and defeat the rebel forces massing against him. But the rebels, led by the exiled Prince Josua, have rallied at the Stone of Farewell and are ready to fight the Storm King with every power they can muster. The key to their victory lies in finding the third sword of legend, Memory - but the sword has been lost for ages. Lost, that is, until Simon Snowlock realises that he knows exactly where the sword is and how to recover it. The only problem: an undead army, bolstered by powerful magic, lies between him and his destination.

Prince Sloth hates leaving his enchanted library, but when a forgotten deity threatens the very fabric of the Underworld, he's thrust into a race against time. He must find the Book of Nightmares - an ancient artifact that has the power to break worlds - before it unleashes a deadly game to free its master, the Goddess of Night. When a betrayal leaves him marked, and desperate, his path collides with a young woman who possesses the legendary Phoenix Tear - a portal stone unlike any other.

The Dark Reading Matter is a theoretical realm that suggests that the observable bookverse can only account for 20% of the calculated total readable mass. Out there somewhere, possibly, is a larger and more expansive and unseeable 'Dark Bookverse' that contains millions of deleted novels, slush-pile manuscripts, lost poems, forgotten pop culture references, stories and ideas that were still in people's minds when they died. It seems The Goliath Corporation hope to exploit the Dark Reading Matter for profit, and Thursday Next is once again pitted against a familiar foe.

Life is lived according to The Rulebook and social hierarchy is determined by your perception of colour. Eddie Russett is an above average Red who dreams of moving up the ladder by marriage to Constance Oxblood. Until he is sent to the Outer Fringes where he meets Jane - a lowly Grey with an uncontrollable temper and a desire to see him killed. For Eddie, it's love at first sight. But his infatuation will lead him to discover that all is not as it seems in a world where everything that looks black and white is really shades of grey.

Twenty-one original stories of dangerous women by top genre writers, brought together in a new anthology edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. Intrepid warriors, far-ranging spacewomen, formidable superheroines, hard-living bad girls, embattled survivors, private investigators, seductive femmes fatale and haughty queens; as Gardner Dubois writes in his introduction, 'if you want to tie any of these women to the railway tracks, you'll have a real fight on your hands!'

It's 2056 and international oligarchs have pushed the world to the precipice of ecological, economic, and nuclear catastrophe. But two philanthropists have teamed up to establish a long-term colony on Mars. Could this daring outpost be the next chapter in the story of the human race? Assembling a crack team of experts including scientists, engineers and ecologists, the colony begins to establish a viable outpost on our nearest planet. But the team quickly runs into problems as they bear the responsibility of creating a new humanity.

Whilst working on a spreadsheet for a New York-based PR firm, Gerald has his consciousness uploaded into his company's Slack channel. He posts for help, but his colleagues assume it's an elaborate joke to exploit the new working-from-home policy and, now that Gerald's productivity is through the roof, his bosses are only too happy to let him work from...wherever he says he is. Faced with the looming abyss of a disembodied life online, Gerald enlists co-worker Pradeep to care for his body and Slackbot, the service's AI assistant, to help him navigate his new digital reality.

For millennia, two women have been blamed for the fall of a mighty civilisation - but now it's time to hear their side of the story.... As princesses of Sparta, Helen and Klytemnestra have known nothing but luxury and plenty. With their high birth and unrivalled beauty, they are the envy of all of Greece. Such privilege comes at a high price, though, and their destinies are not theirs to command. While still only girls they are separated and married off to legendary foreign kings Agamemnon and Menelaus, never to meet again.

Alexander the Fatherless: nephew of the villainous King March of Cornwall, who murdered his father. Burning with vengeance, Alexander sets out on a journey to Camelot to seek justice from King Arthur. His path will lead him to the Dark Tower, where the sorceress Morgan le Fay lies in wait. Morgan seduces Alexander and sends him on a quest to Jerusalem to recover the Holy Grail - which she believes will help her take the throne.

Where Nirrim lives, crime abounds, a harsh tribunal rules and society's pleasures are reserved for the High Kith. Life in the Ward is grim and punishing. People of her low status are forbidden from sampling sweets or wearing colours. You either follow the rules, or pay a tithe and suffer the consequences. Nirrim keeps her head down and a dangerous secret close to her chest.

Perseus grows up wanting to be a hero, but he cannot become one if his mother Danae still sees him as a boy. When his stepfather Polydektes casts him away on a voyage across the sea, Perseus is determined to fulfil the great destiny of the son of a god and the grandson of a king. But the line between heroism and monstrosity is thin, and when Perseus attempts to seduce first gentle Medusa and then beautiful Andromeda, before finally reuniting with Danae, they each learn of the dangers of resisting a boy prepared to risk it all for greatness.

The outbreak tore the USA in two. The east remains a safe haven. The west has become a ravaged wilderness. They call it the Evacuated States. It is here that Henry Marco makes his living. Hired by grieving relatives, he tracks down the dead to deliver peace. Now Homeland Security wants Marco, for a mission unlike any other. He must return to California, where the apocalypse began. Where a secret is hidden. And where his own tragic past waits to punish him again.

Lovelace was once merely a ship's artificial intelligence. When she wakes up in an new body, following a total system shutdown and reboot, she has to start over in a synthetic body, in a world where her kind are illegal. She's never felt so alone. But she's not alone, not really. Pepper, one of the engineers who risked life and limb to reinstall Lovelace, is determined to help her adjust to her new world. Because Pepper knows a thing or two about starting over. Together, Pepper and Lovey will discover that, huge as the galaxy may be, it's anything but empty.

The Dragonbone Chair: Booktrack Edition adds an immersive musical soundtrack to your audiobook listening experience! Kitchen-boy Simon is bored, restless and 14 years old - a dangerous combination. It seems, however, that his life has just taken a turn for the better when he's apprenticed to his castle's resident wizard. As Simon's learning to read and write under Doctor Morgenes' tutelage, forces greater than he could possibly imagine are gathering: forces which will change Simon's life - and his world - forever.

In the stunning climax to the Frostblood Saga, the fate of the kingdoms rests on the shoulders of one young woman. Frost and fire have joined forces. Now they must wage a war against darkness.... Ruby and Arcus face a more dangerous enemy than they could ever have imagined. Once Eurus opens the Gate of Light, darkness will be unleashed upon the world for all eternity. The Frostbloods and Firebloods have formed a tentative alliance and are now preparing for war - but Ruby is the only one who can prevent the catastrophe which is coming.

Record of a Spaceborn Few: Booktrack Edition adds an immersive musical soundtrack to your audiobook listening experience. Centuries after the last humans left Earth, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, a place many are from but few outsiders have seen. Humanity has finally been accepted into the galactic community, but while this has opened doors for many, those who have not yet left for alien cities fear that their carefully cultivated way of life is under threat.

Dean Evers, an elderly widower, sits in front of the television with nothing better to do than waste his leftover evenings watching baseball. His adopted Florida baseball team, the Rays, is going strong. Suddenly, in a seat a few rows up beyond the batter, Evers sees the face of someone he knows from decades past, someone who shouldn't be at the ballgame, shouldn't even be on the planet. And so begins a parade of people from Evers's past, people he has wronged, all of them behind home plate.

At first glance, the world has not changed: the trams on the boulevards, the grand hotels, the cafes abuzz with conversation. The street kids still play on the two great bridges that divide the city, and the smart set still venture down to the Morgue Ship for an evening's entertainment. Yet it only takes a spark to ignite a revolution.

Wolfe is the bunker's resident pharmacist. While the inhabitants wait for the outside world to heal, she doles out ibuprofen, sanitary towels and Xanax—all under the watchful eye of the increasingly erratic and paranoid leader. But when the leader starts to ask things of Wolfe, favours she can hardly say no to, her world is thrown off its axis once again. Forming an unlikely alliance with the young Doctor Stirling, her troubled assistant Levitt and Canavan, Wolfe has to navigate the powder keg of life underground, knowing her every move is being watched.

1782. Nancy Lockaby is trying to salvage her reputation as an astronomer - left in tatters after a discredited discovery - when she receives a mysterious letter, inviting her to join Shakespeare scholar Caelan Malles at his crumbling house in Inverness. But at Blackthistle House, Nancy notices that Caelan is spending more and more time locked away in his study with his books. As his behaviour becomes ever stranger, more questions gnaw at Nancy. Why does Caelan believe there is a link between Shakespeare and the stars? Why does he refuse to discuss Charlotte, his now-deceased wife?