Showing results by publisher "Phoenix Books" in Adventure

Killashandra Ree has spent ten grueling years in musical training, anticipating interstellar celebrity as a vocal soloist. She is young, beautiful—and still without prospects. After learning that a flaw in her voice will prevent her from singing lead, she hears of the mysterious Heptite Guild on the planet Ballybran, where the fabled Black Crystal is found. Mining this strange form of crystal is a dangerous occupation but to Killa, the risks are acceptable. Remarkably, her adaptation to crystal mining is unusually easy. The problem is—few people who land on Ballybran ever leave.

From Anne McCaffrey comes a collection of captivating short stories that focuses on everything from spaceship adventure and shifting time-storms to ghosts and romance. The title story, set in the world of the Dragonriders of Pern series, tells of Aramina, a teenage girl who hears dragons and is relentlessly pursued for her ability. Aramina's mother fears losing her daughter completely to the life of a dragonrider, but McCaffrey has another fate in mind for her young heroine.

Slavers and planet pirates have wreaked havoc in the galaxy for far too long, and now the fate of the galaxy is placed in the hands of the Generation Warriors. But before they can set about executing their plan, Sassinak is ordered to FedCentral to testify against slavers; her great-great-great-grandmother, Lunzie, discovers the true nature of a new friend; Fordeliton investigates the connection between the super-rich and the planet pirates; Dupaynil is exiled to Seti space; and Aygar is out to prove he has brains and brawn.

As director of a parapsychic center, telepath Rhyssa Owen coordinates the job assignments for the psychically gifted Talents in her group. She is always ready to welcome new Talents. When an extraordinary man with no measurable Talents appears, however, Rhyssa realizes that she will need to reassess the potential of all Talentkind.

In the world of Pern, there are few things more important than the ability to sing and write songs. But when Piemur's voice changes, he is given a new task. Pern is in danger once again, and Piemur is assigned a bold mission to the Southern Hold. He must learn the Oldtimers' secret and help Pern rediscover its lost heritage.

A huge space station on the fringes of human space, SSS-900 is controlled by the brain of Simeon, a shellperson who relieves his daily monotony by replaying computer simulations of great battles. When a battered, jury-rigged ship appears to threaten the station, they rescue the people who are fleeing from the vicious Kolnari pirates. As the Kolnari take over the station, the stationers and the Bethelites from the rescued ship must devise ways to work together to fight the invaders. Will Simeon become the only thing standing between ruthless alien pirates and total destruction?

The exhilarating adventures of Anne McCaffrey's bestselling Crystal Singer series continue with Killashandra, a story that mixes interplanetary political intrigue with passionate romance. In this installment, Killashandra Ree's crystal claim has been exhausted, forcing her to take a new assignment and leave her new lover back on their native Ballybran.

Killashandra, one of the most gifted singers on Ballybran, is drawn like a magnet to the song of crystal. In order to work with crystal, singers are infected with a symbiotic life form that heals them and gives them near eternal life—but slowly destroys their memories. Since crystal singing brings Killashandra ecstasy, she doesn't mind the initial small annoyances of memory loss. What she hadn't counted on was the loneliness she felt when her heart still remembered what her mind had forgotten—the names of her friends and lovers.

The beautiful planet Pern seemed a paradise to its new colonists—a return to an agrarian way of life—until unimaginable terror turned it into hell. Lethal spores began to fall like silvery thread-like rain from the sky, vaporizing everything—and everyone—in their path. The colony, cut off from Earth and lacking the resources to combat the menace, was doomed.

Like Helva, The Ship Who Sang, Carialle was born so physically disadvantaged that her only chance for life was as a shell person. And again, like those others, Carialle decided she would strap on a spaceship. Her brawn is a guy named Keff. Their mission: to search the galaxy for intelligent beings.

Hypatia Cade—a headstrong, smart, and spunky 7-year-old girl—falls ill after contracting an alien virus that renders her a quadriplegic. Robbed of her mobility, Tia's only hope to be free of the prison of her body is to train to be one of the legendary star travelers, a brainship—a cyborg human being and interstellar spacecraft. After training, she must find the right partner to be her brawn. When the disease that debilitated Tia threatens thousands more, selecting a brawn who is her true soul mate may allow Tia to find the origin of the terrible plague—and perhaps even a cure.

In the second book of the Brainship series, a new "shellperson"—someone born with grave physical disabilities that required her human body to be encased in a massive titanium column—is provided a direct link between her mind and the computer of her ship, XN-935.

Sita Dulip has missed her flight out of Chicago. But instead of listening to garbled announcements in the airport, she discovers a method of bypassing the crowds at the desks, a nasty lunch, whimpering children, their punitive parents, and the blue plastic chairs bolted to the floor: she changes planes—literally. Sita discovers entire planes of existence and visits societies not found on Earth—bizarre societies that share similarities with Earth's cultures and sometimes open doors into the alien.

Strange things are happening on the icy planet of Petaybee. Unauthorized, genetically engineered species have been spotted, and the locals may be deliberately hiding something—perhaps even plotting rebellion. As a combat veteran and a medical retiree, Yana is the ideal person to get close to the natives. She is quickly adopted by the people of Petaybee, who feed her a home remedy that soothes her ragged lungs. Her strength and health return, and she becomes determined to protect her new home and her people from a greedy and increasingly ruthless corporation.

Molly, Charity, Barbara, Dorotea, and Amalda are members of an elite cadre of beings who have stepped out of the ordinary human race to enter their own! “Talents” are extraordinary people who read minds, heal bodies, divert disasters, and foretell the future. Despite this, they have become pariahs in their own land.

Day by day the sentient planet of Petaybee is learning to recognize and understand the meaning of outside stimuli, to respond to those stimuli, to communicate its own needs and desires...even to use human speech. But few outsiders truly care for the feelings and intelligence of what they perceive to be a giant hunk of rock or a mere oddity—and the Petaybeans have their hands full trying to protect their beloved planet from the sudden influx of visitors. Some of Petaybee's staunchest champions are kidnapped and held for ransom, and the Petaybeans are faced with an impossible decision.

On icy Petaybee, the planet itself seems to be orchestrating its own evolution, but the planet is also rich in resources, and a ruthless company is poised to take advantage. Yana, an ex-company soldier with strong ties to the planet, tries to intervene. She and her friends must find a way to prove that Petaybee is more valuable to the company alive than dead.

Young Alvin was born the seventh son of a seventh son. By his birthright, he possesses magical powers and is destined to become something great, perhaps even a Maker. Indeed, Alvin is special. But the boy remains vulnerable to dark forces who reach out to destroy him and are willing to do anything to keep him from growing up. Carefully weaving the lore and the folk-magic of the men and women who settled a continent—as well as the beliefs of the tribes who were there before them—Orson Scott Card has created a fascinating alternate frontier America.

Mick Winger is only 17, and he's already killed over a dozen people—not on purpose, though. He never means to hurt anyone. But when Mick gets angry, people die—even the people he loves the most. Now he's on the run from his own terrible talent and from those who would use his power for their own purposes. But Mick is not alone. There are others like him. And if he will not join them, they will make him pay.

This classic adventure story chronicles a fantastic voyage from the lost continent of Atlantis to the South Pole. Professor Aronnax begins his incredible underwater journey with his faithful servant Conseil and a Canadian harpooner, Ned Land. They set out on a hazardous voyage to rid the seas of a little-known and terrifying sea monster. After discovering that the “monster” is actually a giant submarine, they are captured by the vessel's mysterious commander, Captain Nemo.