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9 Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror Books: Card, Simmons, & Barker
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Time Left: 0 Seconds |  | | For More Details: Click here | | Nine Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Paperbacks. Good Condition. List price $64.92.
Ender's Game (Paperback)
by Orson Scott Card
Amazon.com
Ender Wiggin is a very bright young boy with a powerful skill. One of a group of children bred to be military geniuses and save Earth from an inevitable attack by aliens, known here as "buggers," Ender becomes unbeatable in war games and seems poised to lead Earth to triumph over the buggers. Meanwhile, his brother and sister plot to wrest power from Ender. Twists, surprises and interesting characters elevate this novel into status as a bona fide page turner. It captured the Nebula and Hugo Awards. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
For the 20th anniversary of Card's Hugo and Nebula Award–winning novel, Audio Renaissance brings to life the story of child genius Ender Wiggin, who must save the world from malevolent alien "buggers." In his afterword, Card declares, "The ideal presentation of any book of mine is to have excellent actors perform it in audio-only format," and he gets his wish. Much of the story is internal dialogue, and each narrator reads the sections told from the point of view of a particular character, rather than taking on a part as if it were a play. Card's phenomenal emotional depth comes through in the quiet, carefully paced speech of each performer. No narrator tries overmuch to create separate character voices, though each is clearly discernible, and the understated delivery will draw in listeners. In particular, Rudnicki, with his lulling, sonorous voice, does a fine job articulating Ender's inner struggle between the kind, peaceful boy he wants to be and the savage, violent actions he is frequently forced to take. This is a wonderful way to experience Card's best-known and most celebrated work, both for longtime fans and for newcomers.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Shadow of the Hegemon (Ender, Book 6) (Mass Market Paperback)
by Orson Scott Card
Amazon.com
Orson Scott Card finally explores what happened on earth after the war with the Buggers in the sixth book of his Ender series, Shadow of the Hegemon. This novel is the continuation of the story of Bean, which began with Ender's Shadow, a parallel novel to Card's Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Ender's Game.
While Ender heads off to a faraway planet, Bean and the other brilliant children who helped Ender save the earth from alien invaders have become war heroes and have finally been sent home to live with their parents. While the children try to fit back in with the family and friends they haven't known for nearly a decade, someone's worried about their safety. Peter Wiggins, Ender's brother, has foreseen that the talented children are in danger of being killed or kidnapped. His fears are quickly realized, and only Bean manages to escape. Bean knows he must save the others and protect humanity from a new evil that has arisen, an evil from his past. But just as he played second to Ender during the Bugger war, Bean must again step into the shadow of another, the one who will be Hegemon.
In Shadow of the Hegemon, Card can't help but fall back into old patterns. But while the theme is the same as in previous books--brilliant, tragic children with the fate of the human race resting on their shoulders--Shadow of the Hegemon does a wonderful job of continuing Bean's tale against a backdrop of the politics and intrigue of a fragile earth. While the novel is accessible, new readers to the series would be wise to begin with Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow. --Kathie Huddleston --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
This fine follow-up to Ender's Shadow features that novel's hero, Bean (now a young man), wrestling with Card's trademark: superbly real moral and ethical dilemmas. In a world between wars, filled with ambitious countries jockeying to carve up their neighbors, the children of Battle School are the strongest asset a nation can possess. The greatest of the children, "Ender" Wiggin, has gone off to colonize a new world. The second best, Bean, is hunted by a young psychopathic genius, Achilles, who schemes to conquer Earth with the aid of Ender's soldiers. Peter, Ender's brother, who was too ruthless to make it to Battle School, also works to rule the planet, but through more peaceful, political means. Bean must decide if becoming Peter's shadow and guiding him to become Hegemon will help defeat Achilles, and if one boy's megalomania will make a better world than another's. Children playing at war as if it were a game recalls Card's most famous work, Ender's Game, which won both a Hugo and a Nebula award. The complexity and serious treatment of the book's young protagonists will attract many sophisticated YA readers, while Card's impeccable prose, fast pacing and political intrigue will appeal to adult fans of spy novels, thrillers and science fiction. (Jan. 2) Forecast: Card is immensely popular; this is one of his best novels. Like Ender's Game, it will soar on genre lists and should flirt with, and perhaps woo, regular lists. Tor will ensure this through a $300,000 ad/promo campaign including a nine-city author tour.
Seventh Son: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Volume I (Alvin Maker) (Mass Market Paperback)
by Orson Scott Card
From Publishers Weekly
From the award-winning Ender's Game on, each of Card's last three novels has featured a secular saint, less a character than a catalyst to galvanize those around him into reexamining the thorny moral tangles in which they live. This first volume of the Tales of Alvin Maker introduces young Alvin Miller Jr., the seventh son of a seventh son, who lives on the frontier of an alternate early 19th century America, where folk magic such as faith healing and second sight really works. While Alvin embarks on his mythic struggle against the Unmaker of all things, he is watched over by a flesh and blood guardian angel; he is pursued by the rigid, zealous Reverend Thrower; and he is guided by the wandering Taleswapper, William Blake. This beguiling book recalls Robert Penn Warren in its robust but reflective blend of folktale, history, parable and personal testimony, pioneer narrative. The series promises to be (in Warren's phrase) a "story of deep delight."
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
YA Set in the Northwest Territory in the late 18th Century, this is an American fantasy in the tradition of T. H. White's Sword in the Stone (Putnam, 1939). Mixing fantasy with philosophy and historical figures with imaginary ones, this first book in the ``Tales of Alvin Maker'' series succeeds on several levels. Alvin Miller, seventh son of a seventh son, is heir to great powers that he must learn to use and control. A rich cast of characters try either to help or destroy Alvin in his childhood. It is apparent that Alvin is the focus of gathering forces of good and evil preparing for battle. Readers will be left at the end of the book wondering what will happen to young Alvin in his coming apprenticeship. The sequel will be eagerly awaited. Mary Williams, Harris County Public Library
Prentice Alvin (Tales of Alvin Maker, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)
by Orson Scott Card
From Library Journal
A country schoolteacher and the child of a runaway slave find their destinies entwined with that of Alvin Miller, whose talent for "making" has marked him for destruction by the evil force known as the Unmaker. Card's epic tale of a magical, alternate America demonstrates his skill in graceful storytelling. Recommended, along with Seventh Son and Red Prophet , for most fantasy collections.-- JC
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From AudioFile
In the continuing saga of THE TALES OF ALVIN MAKER, Nana Visitor takes us on an incredible trip through a country much like our own. The part that will catch you sleeping is the folklore. A dowser actually finds water with a stick, and a woman reads "hearts" and sees the different paths a life might take. Nana Visitor gives the many characters separate lives of their own. The mix-up boy, who imitates all he hears and understands none of what he says, becomes incredibly real. This tale will take you through highs and lows made real by Visitor. M.R.P. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine
Heartfire (Tales of Alvin Maker, Book 5) (Mass Market Paperback)
by Orson Scott Card
Amazon.com
This is the fifth novel in Orson Scott Card's popular Alvin the Maker series, based on an alternate America where some people are born with knacks, which resemble magical abilities. The protagonist of the series, Alvin, is a maker who not only can fix things (such as restoring a wounded bird to health with his doodlebug) but is also something of a natural leader. Alvin and his small band of followers are on a quest to build the Crystal City, a place where those who have knacks can live in safety from the people who sometimes burn them as witches. While Alvin visits the nearly holy province of New England to find out just how cities work, his wife Margaret, traveling under the name Peggy, journeys to the kingdom of Camelot, which was formerly known as Charleston, South Carolina. There she hopes to persuade the exiled King Arthur to help her abolish the practice of slavery. Heartfire is an excellent midseries novel that's sure to delight fans of Alvin. --Craig E. Engler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Fifth in Hugo and Nebula winner Card's immensely popular Tales of Alvin Maker, this installment of alternative American history centers around two grievous social wrongs. Arthur Stuart, exiled King of England, reigns in Camelot (Charleston), capital of the slaveholding southern Crown Colonies; in New England, meanwhile, "witchers" connive to execute anyone with the "knack," the ability to connect to the powers of the universe. Just before civil war erupts, telekinetic Alvin and his historical friends, such as John James Audubon, and legendary ones, such as riverman Mike Fink, set about to abolish New England's antiwitch laws, while Alvin's wife and mentor, Margaret, uses her ability to read human souls to offer the hope of freedom to the Colonies' slaves and to heal Alvin's malevolent brother before he can kill her husband. Card's antebellum settings, dialogue and historical figures seem authentic and thoroughly researched, and, as always, he offers excellent differentiation of characters. However, Card is as occasionally windy and preachy as ever, and the plethora of lengthy philosophical and/or psychological digressions make for considerably less fictional sizzle than fizzle. Consider this a good bet for fans of the series, but not for a wider readership.
The Crystal City: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Volume VI (Alvin Maker) (Mass Market Paperback)
by Orson Scott Card
From Publishers Weekly
If not the best in the series, Card's latest Alvin Maker novel (after 1998's Heartfire: Tales of Alvin Maker V) still enchants. In the author's alternative American frontier world, Indians work the magics of nature, Africans transform themselves with trinkets and whites have knacks-magical talents that allow them to shape metal, find water, win the hearts of followers and more. Alvin, the powerful seventh son of a seventh son, can create things that cannot be destroyed. He also has more than his fair share of knacks as well as some Indian magic. Determined to stop suffering where he finds it, he dreams of building the Crystal City, which will help mankind live in peace. A large part of the appeal lies in the book's homegrown characters using their powers for ordinary purposes. A blacksmith's knack shapes axes that never dull, while a midwife can sense the health of her patients. Even as Alvin performs miracles to lead thousands of slaves out of bondage, he is filled with uncertainty about what to do with his life and self-doubt because he couldn't save his stillborn child. Alvin's fans will be relieved to know that the City is indeed begun in this volume, but those who were expecting the start of the civil war, previously billed as forthcoming, will have longer to wait.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From AudioFile
Set in a fantasy version of nineteenth-century America, the sixth novel of the Alvin Maker series follows the magical leader as he leads a massive band of slaves, Cajuns, and displaced persons on an exodus to freedom. Like the hero of this novel, Stefan Rudnicki, in his exotic baritone, leads a team of readers including Scott Brick, David Birney, Gabrielle de Cuir, and M.E. Willis through an alternate American landscape in which the United States, New England, Appalachia, and the Crown Colonies (Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia) are separate nations. With the action beginning in Nueva Barcelona (Spanish-held Louisiana), Alvin and his half-brother, Arthur Stuart, meet up with Abe Lincoln, William Blake, Jim Bowie, and Tecumseh along their way. Just as Alvin is able to make bridges and buildings through his mystical "knack," Rudnicki and team bring Card's fantastic tapestry to life with their own narrative knacks. S.E.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine
Ilium (Mass Market Paperback)
by Dan Simmons
Amazon.com
Genre-hopping Dan Simmons returns to science fiction with the vast and intricate masterpiece Ilium. Within, Simmons weaves three astounding story lines into one Earth-, Mars-, and Jupiter-shattering cliffhanger that will leave readers aching for the sequel.
On Earth, a post-technological group of humans, pampered by servant machines and easy travel via "faxing," begins to question its beginnings. Meanwhile, a team of sentient and Shakespeare-quoting robots from Jupiter's lunar system embark on a mission to Mars to investigate an increase in dangerous quantum fluctuations. On the Red Planet, they'll find a race of metahumans living out existence as the pantheon of classic Greek gods. These "gods" have recreated the Trojan War with reconstituted Greeks and Trojans and staffed it with scholars from throughout Earth's history who observe the events and report on the accuracy of Homer's Iliad. One of these scholars, Thomas Hockenberry, finds himself tangled in the midst of interplay between the gods and their playthings and sends the war reeling in a direction the blind poet could have never imagined.
Simmons creates an exciting and thrilling tale set in the thick of the Trojan War as seen through Hockenberry's 20th-century eyes. At the same time, Simmons's robots study Shakespeare and Proust and the origin-seeking Earthlings find themselves caught in a murderous retelling of The Tempest. Reading this highly literate novel does take more than a passing familiarity with at least The Iliad but readers who can dive into these heady waters and swim with the current will be amply rewarded. --Jeremy Pugh --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Hugo and Stoker winner Simmons (Hyperion) makes a spectacular return to large-scale space opera in this elegant monster of a novel. Many centuries in the future, Earth's small, more or less human population lives an enjoyable, if drone-like existence. Elsewhere, on some alternate Earth, or perhaps it's the distant past, the battle for Troy is in its ninth year. Oddly, its combatants, Hector, Achilles and the rest, seem to be following a script, speaking their lines exactly as Homer reported them in The Iliad. The Gods, who live on Olympus Mons on the planet Mars, may be post-humans, or aliens, or, well, Gods; it isn't entirely clear. Thomas Hockenberry, a late-20th-century professor of the classics from De Pauw University in Indiana, has, along with other scholars from his era, apparently been resurrected by the Gods. His job is to take notes on the war and compare its progress to Homer's tale, noting even the smallest deviations. Meanwhile, the "moravecs," a civilization of diverse, partially organic AIs clustered on the moons of Jupiter, have been disturbed by the quantum activity they've registered from the inner solar system and have sent an expedition to Mars to investigate. It will come as no surprise to the author's fans that the expedition's members include specialists in Shakespeare and Proust. Beautifully written, chock full of literary references, grand scenery and fascinating characters, this book represents Simmons at his best.
Song of Kali (Mass Market Paperback)
by Dan Simmons
Amazon.com
"O terrible wife of Siva / Your tongue is drinking the blood, / O dark Mother! O unclad Mother." It is remarkable that prior to writing this first novel, Dan Simmons had spent only two and a half days in Calcutta, a city "too wicked to be suffered," his narrator says. Fortunately back in print after several years during which it was hard to obtain, this rich, bizarre novel practically reeks with atmosphere. The story concerns an American poet who travels with his Indian wife and their baby to Calcutta to pick up an epic poem cycle about the goddess Kali. The Bengali poet who wrote the poem cycle has disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
Horror critic Edward Bryant calls Song of Kali "an exactingly constructed, brutal, and uncompromising study of the degree to which an evil place may permeate and steep all that makes us human" and writes that it embodies "the stance of a psychologically violent novel about a violent society as a defensible and indisputably moral work of art." Song of Kali won a World Fantasy Award. --Fiona Webster --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Review
"The best novel in the genre I can remember. Dan Simmons is brilliant!" --Dean R. Koontz
"Song of Kali is as harrowing and ghoulish as anyone could wish. Simmons makes the stuff of nightmares very real indeed." --Locus
"Dan Simmons understands terror and what it does to readers. Where Stephen King flinches, Simmons doesn't." --Edward Byrant, Mile High Futures
"Shock treatments abound!" --The Chattanooga Times, Tennessee
"An absolutely harrowing experience." --F. Paul Wilson
Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War (rack) (Abarat) (Paperback)
by Clive Barker
Amazon.com
The eagerly anticipated second volume of Clive Barker’s four part fantasy series, Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War, picks up right where the highly praised first novel leaves off. Candy Quakenbush is still on the run from the Lord of Midnight, Christopher Carrion, who plans to establish a Permanent Midnight throughout the 25 islanads that make up Abarat. Candy, aided and abetted by a host of colorful new characters, including Malingo (the affable geshrat she rescued in Book One), continues to dodge Carrion’s hired assassins, as forces gather on both sides of Day and Night to prepare for the inevitable war between the Hours.
Days of Magic, Nights of War is a true series book--those who have not traveled to Abarat before will have a difficult time picking up the threads of Barker’s complex mythical opus without having read the first installment. But teen readers who have been waiting breathlessly for Candy’s return are rewarded with a stunning sequel that reveals her true identity at the novel’s smashing climax. As in Abarat, Clive Barker's full-colored, organic illustrations of Abarat’s inhabitants stalk and swim across the pages like a Stephen King-meets-Dr. Seuss circus. There seems to be no end to Barker’s ever-expanding idiosyncratic vision, and for that, fantasy fans of all ages can be grateful. --Jennifer Hubert --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From School Library Journal
Grade 7-10–Candy Quakenbush and her chum, Malingo, who first came to our attention in Clive Barker's Abarat(HarperCollins, 2002), have surfaced again in this sequel (Joanna Cotler Books, 2004). Candy is on the run from the Lord of Midnight, Christopher Carrion. Carrion and his evil grandmother, Mater Motley, are determined to begin a war that will bring absolute darkness to the Abarat forever. Believing that Candy has the power to prevent their wicked plot, they decide that she must die and Carrion relentlessly pursues her. Candy slowly begins to understand what is going on as she performs magic she hasn't learned and recalls memories of things she never experienced. Along the way, she encounters a succession of both helpful and unsympathetic characters. Candy and the dragon slayer, Finnigan Hobb, are drawn to each other and the shocking reason is revealed toward the end of the tale. The raspy voice of narrator Richard Ferrone serves the novel well. His interpretation of Carrion, in particular, is chilling. The book doesn't stand on its own–listeners should read or listen to the first book before tackling this one to fully understand the sometimes complicated plot. There are two additional titles planned for the series. The series has the potential to become hugely popular as Disney has optioned the story for both movie and theme park rights.–Tricia Melgaard, Centennial Middle School, Bixby, OK
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