Showing results by publisher "QUEST from W. F. Howes Ltd" in Science Fiction & Fantasy

Hunters of Dune finally meet the Enemy who followed the violent fanatics the Honored Matres back to their universe. The thinking machines vanquished by Serena Butler's jihad were not destroyed, only driven into exile - and now, tens of thousands of years later, they are back. Can the resurrected heroes onboard the Ithaca save our race from annihilation? 

Fleeing from the monstrous Honored Matres - dark counterparts of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood - Duncan Idaho, the military genius Bashar Miles Teg, a woman named Sheeana who can talk to sandworms, and a group of desperate refugees explore the boundaries of the universe. Aboard their sophisticated no-ship, they have used long-stored cells to resurrect heroes and villains from the past, including Paul Muad'Dib, in preparation for a final confrontation with a mysterious outside Enemy so great it can destroy even the terrible Honored Matres.

It is the year 10,154 of the Imperial Calendar, and for four decades the planet Arrakis - called Dune by its inhabitants - has been ruled by the Harkonnen family. But the seeds of change have been sown. On Arrakis, an idealistic young planetologist, Pardot Kynes, goes out into the desert to learn the secrets of its giant sandworms and the priceless Spice they create. And on another planet, Caledon, young Leto Atreides is nearly ready to become duke. The blood feud between House Atreides and House Harkonnen is about to begin. 

The first battle was a victory. But the war is just beginning.... Earth is a radioactive ruin. But the initial campaign of the Butlerian Jihad has given new hope to mankind. Serena Butler, whose murdered child has become a symbol for oppressed humanity, inspires a war against the thinking computers led by Xavier Harkonnen and Vorian Atreides. But four of the Titans - murderous machines with human brains and human cunning - still remain. And the universal computer mind, Omnius, still wields most of its power.

As Shaddam sits at last on the Golden Lion Throne, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen plots against the new emperor and House Atreides - and against the mysterious Sisterhood of the Bene Gesserit. For Leto Atreides, grown complacent and comfortable as ruler of his House, it is a time of momentous choice: between friendship and duty, safety and destiny. But for the survival of House Atreides, there is just one choice - strive for greatness or be crushed.

Fearful of losing his precarious hold on the Golden Lion Throne, Shaddam IV, emperor of a Million Worlds, has devised a radical scheme to develop an alternative to melange, the addictive spice that binds the Imperium together and that can be found only on the desert world of Dune. In subterranean labs on the machine planet Ix, cruel Tleilaxu overlords use slaves and prisoners as part of a horrific plan to manufacture a synthetic form of melange known as amal. If amal can supplant the spice from Dune, it will give Shaddam what he seeks: absolute power.

The universal computer mind Omnius has retreated to its last stronghold, where it plots a devastating new strategy that could undo the victories of the Butlerian Jihad. The surviving Titans are creating new lieutenants to do their will when at last they return to attack the human beings they once ruled. In the years of peace too many of mankind have forgotten that their machine enemies never sleep. But some have forgotten nothing - and learned from their triumphs.

Gilbertus Albans has founded the Mentat School, a place where humans can learn the efficient techniques of thinking machines. But Gilbertus walks an uneasy line between his own convictions and compromises in order to survive the Butlerian fanatics, led by the madman Manford Torondo and his Swordmaster Anari Idaho. Mother Superior Raquella attempts to rebuild her Sisterhood School on Wallach IX, with her most talented and ambitious student, Valya Harkonnen...who also has another goal - to exact revenge on Vorian Atreides.

Raised in the Imperial court and born to be a political bargaining chip, Irulan was sent at an early age to be trained as a Bene Gesserit Sister. As Princess Royal, she also learned important lessons from her father—the Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV. Now of marriageable age, Princess Irulan sees the machinations of the many factions vying for power. Meanwhile, on Arrakis, Chani—the daughter of Liet-Kynes, the Imperial Planetologist who serves under the harsh rule of House Harkonnen—is trained in the Fremen mystical ways by an ancient Reverend Mother.

One hundred and ten centuries from now, humanity has spread across space. And all-powerful machines rule the humans who were once their masters. It began in the Time of Tyrants, when ambitious men and women used high-powered computers to seize control of the heart of the Old Empire including Earth itself. The tyrants translated their brains into mobile mechanical bodies and created a new race, the immortal man-machine hybrids called cymeks. 

Paul Atreides is the man who overthrew a corrupt empire and then launched a terrible jihad across the galaxy, shedding the blood of trillions. The now-hated tyrant, the blind Emperor Paul Muad'Dib, has walked off into the endless desert of the planet Arrakis, known as Dune, leaving his turbulent empire without guidance. It's up to his mother, Jessica, with her daughter, Alia, the brave troubadour-warrior Gurney Halleck, the resurrected Duncan Idaho, the Fremen leader Stilgar, as well as Paul's wife-in-name and biographer, Princess Irulan, to try to hold an empire together. 

Sixteen-year-old Olivia Prior is missing three things: a mother, a father and a voice. Her mother vanished all at once, her father by degrees and her voice was a thing she never had to start with. She grew up at Merilance School for Girls. Now, nearing the end of her time there, Olivia receives a letter from an uncle she’s never met, her father’s older brother, summoning her to his estate, a place called Gallant. But when she arrives, she discovers that the letter she received was several years old. Her uncle is dead. The estate is empty save for the servants.

As a Victorian clergyman's daughter, Edith Worms has seen everything—until a mythical salamander tumbles out of the fireplace into her lap. When a letter arrives from estranged relatives, Edith is swept away to a crumbling gothic Abbey in the wilds of Yorkshire. Wormwood Abbey isn't just full of curious beasts and ancient family secrets: there's also a tall, dark, and entirely too handsome neighbor who is strangely reluctant for her to leave.

Between the end of Frank Herbert's Dune and his next novel, Dune Messiah, lies a mystery: how a hero adored by a planet became a tyrant hated by a universe. Paul of Dune begins the story of those 12 fateful years and the wars of the jihad of Paul Muad'Dib. It is an epic of battle and betrayal; of love and idealism; of ambition and intrigue. Above all, it is the story of how Paul Atreides - who achieved absolute power when scarcely more than a boy - changes from an idealist into a dictator who is the prisoner of the bureaucrats and fanatics who surround him.

A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones.

Ranger-General. Banshee Queen. Warchief. Sylvanas Windrunner has borne many titles. To some, she is a hero—to others, a villain. But whether in pursuit of justice, vengeance or something more, Sylvanas has always sought to control her own destiny. The power to achieve her goals has never been closer, as Sylvanas works alongside the Jailer to liberate all Azeroth from the prison of fate. Her final task? Secure the fealty of their prisoner—King Anduin Wrynn.

Surviving isn't living, even for an Expendable. Mickey7's antimatter gambit paid off. He's out of the Expendable game and doing whatever else he can to help support the threatened colony on the ice world Niflheim. But the colony now desperately needs the one thing he doesn't want to give them: the antimatter in the bomb he claimed the alien creepers have. Without it, the colony won't survive the coming years. With it, the colony leader can finally get rid of Mickey7 for good.

Weaving back through time, the secret society of eccentric anachronists ensures the best possible future for humanity, making subtle adjustments to the past—saving us from oblivion. Every alteration is carefully calculated, and nothing is left to chance. Until the day Joshua Jones, a teenage thief, breaks into one of their station houses and finds himself transported back to 1944—where he accidentally changes the outcome of WW2.

Problems keep piling up around Max. No sooner has she dealt with one set of supernatural creatures, than she's called to the city's mortuary to an unusual death. The city's most senior spiritual leader is also trying to get hold of her. On top of that, Bryce cancelled their date and hasn't been seen for days.

Struggling to gain control of her magic, Jenyfer is determined to stay away from Ordes and the crew of The Excalibur, convinced she’s a danger to them all. So, when the women of The Night Queen offer her a place on board, she sets sail for a new life.