The appearance of a white star bathing the world in a deadly glare turns Earth into a nightmare of fear and death. Rape and murder are as common as suicide. Medical help is allowed only for certain diseases, and only the most resourceful and corrupt survive.

This is Pam Sargent’s The Sudden Star.

Dr. Simon Negron dares to defy the medical code by giving insulin to a diabetic. His crime makes him a fugitive with only a young prostitute as an ally, a haunted man running for his life in a nightmare world of increasing madness.

For more wonderful fantasy and science fiction by this award-winning author, visit Pam Sargent’s author page.

“What wonders and adventures he has to tell us,” is how Ursula K. LeGuin characterized the world of Robert Silverberg, and in The Longest Way Home, he takes readers on another dazzling odyssey.

Joseph, just fifteen and alone in the land known at Getfen, awakens to an attack on the Great House in which he is visiting. Narrowly escaping with his life but still pursued by enemies who wish to see him killed, Joseph must journey across a dark, unfamiliar world in his quest to return to his home of Helikis…and his father. He has thousands of miles to travel and much to learn, about this perilous alien world in transition, and about himself.

“What the greatly changed Joseph might find at the end of his journey, and how he might react, are questions that I came to care deeply about.” — New York Times Book Review

“One of the world’s finest stylists and storytellers.” — San Antonio Express-News

A New York Times Notable Book

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-A coming-of-age story set on a distant planet…., Silverberg masterfully conveys the reality of death, and all of the emotional pain and ethical conflict that such a choice presents to a person of conscience. At the end of Joseph’s journey, readers will be left wondering how he will deal with the dilemma of being in charge of a social system that he now understands cannot last. This engaging, entertaining book is a fast read with many thoughtful themes.
Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc

From Library Journal
The latest novel by sf veteran and master raconteur Silverberg (The Majipoor Chronicles) relates the coming-of-age of a young man raised in luxury who learns resilience and compassion in the face of adversity. A good choice for most sf and YA collections.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A reviewer covering Thin Air by George E. Simpson and Neal R. Burger wrote: “I bought this book by chance. Once I started it I was hooked and immediately went looking for other books by the authors…. Where have these two authors gone?”

The answer is, they’ve gone to E-Reads!  We’re reissuing five of their amazing thrillers, starting with our bestselling Fair Warning.

Now comes Thin Air – a deeply disturbing unsolved mystery that takes us back to World War II. What happened to the USS Sturman and its crew? For Naval Investigator Nicholas Hammond, the search will challenge him…and the answers will, like bodies floating on the ocean, chill him.

A man wakes, screams. A series of memories have shaken him, “something to do with the Navy.” For another man, his child-like drawings of men holding hands in frightened unity shatter his sanity. What both men share is fear.

Enter Hammond, cocksure and independent, assigned to find the link between these incidents and the disappearance of the Sturman. Was it a last act of war from a defeated enemy, or was it something more sinister…an experiment gone wrong from within? Was the Sturman victim of The Philadelphia Experiment, an Einsteinian concept so visionary that only today, sixty years later, have scientists realized it is perfectly plausible.

What reviewers say:

I first read this book back in about 1984 when i was 12 yrs old, my dad had a copy lying around and i picked it up and read it with no real idea what it was about. I though the book was fantastic and when i got married and left home many years later i looked for the book, but could not find it. The book is based around naval testing – much like the Philadelphia experiment stories, around making ships invisible and the following cover up. This was released i believe around 1977 and is a book i can read again and again. I would recommend this book to anyone.

*****

I have read this book many times in the last 20+ years. It has an eerie fascination. The characters are vivid and very strange. Good read for those who are familiar with paranormal and borderland science.

********

When I first saw this book in ’77, I was allured by it’s cover. Now it is the novel I judge all novels by. I do not presently have a copy, but I remember its engrossing narrative that kept me up all night. When I saw the movie “Philadelphia Experiment”, I was disappointed with it, I saw similarities, but this was the novel that started all, and it’s told far better here.

******

When I was a teenager, my father told me about the Philadelphia Experiment. A few years later I read this book and the story has stayed with me for 20 years….If you can find a copy of this book, I’m sure you will find it as memorable as I did.

*******

My father had a well-worn copy of this book, and when I sat down to read it it became worn some more because I had to read it several times. It’s an incredible tale, and just for the record I ought to mention a timeline (I’m pretty sure this is accurate): This book was first. The movie “The Philadelphia Experiment” was BASED ON THIS BOOK, not vice-versa (at least that’s what I’ve been told). Then came “The Philadelphia Experiment” (the book), then came “The Philadelphia Experiment II” (the movie). If anyone knows if this is true or not, please let me know.

********

This has to be one of the best Science Fiction/Mystery novels ever written. Based on the Philadelphia Experiment, it’s a mystery combining fact and fiction that you can’t put down until the last page. The back cover says it all… “They faded…They went zero…The men, the ship, everything. They disappeared into…”.

For all customer reviews click here.

“Next time you visit London,” we wrote back in 2009, “if you have an hour or two after visiting London Bridge, Westminster Palace and Big Ben, drop by a solicitor’s office and sue someone for libel. It will more than pay for the cost of your vacation.” We were describing the infamous British libel laws that merely require a plaintiff to show that a statement harms his reputation and put the burden of disproof on the defendant to show that his allegations were not libelous.  This has made London a breeding ground for libel lawsuits. Can’t Sue for Libel in the US? Take Your Beef to Britain, Libel Capital of the World

This legal travesty may at long last be reversed. A bill is making its way through Britain’s Parliament “is intended to abolish costly trials by jury in most libel cases, curb online defamation through a new notice and takedown procedure, reduce so-called ‘libel tourism’ and make it more difficult for large corporations to sue newspapers.”

Not just newspapers: “The bill will rebalance the law to ensure that people who have been defamed are able to protect their reputation, but that free speech and freedom of expression are not unjustifiably impeded by actual or threatened libel proceedings,” said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice.

Details in Queen’s speech launches overhaul of libel law (guardian.co.uk)

Richard Curtis

This blog post was originally published by Digital Book World as What is So Fair as a Libel Suit in May?

This Week’s Janet Dailey Americana Giveaway!!!

Answer the trivia question below to be entered to win a free copy of one of Janet Dailey’s Americana romance novels and win the grand prize – a designer case for your Kindle, Nook, or other electronic e-reading device!!!

Sony has announced a ¥455 billion loss in its fiscal year, which ended last March. But not to worry: that only sounds scary because of the yen is so big compared to the US dollar.  In dollars that’s only $5.7 billion.

Hmm.  $5.7 billion sounds like a lot, actually. Enough to drop the company’s value to about 3% of Apple’s.

Sony is the company that brought you the Walkman and the PlayStation. And the Sony eReader.  What is going to become of our poor dear Sony eReader?

Though it never remotely competed with Amazon’s Kindle and has been surpassed in popularity by the B&N Nook, Apple’s iPad and even Kobo’s eReader, it has held steadfast for the six years since its introduction and remains a viable electronic reading device.

The company has a new chief who is giving 10,000 employees pink slips and implementing other cost-cutting measures which have emboldened him to predict ¥8.5 trillion in sales in the next two years, according to Reuters.  Now that sounds pretty impressive.  Surely there will be a few yen of profit to sustain Sony’s eReader.

We hope so.  We’re fond of it, and we need someone to compete with the big boys.

Richard Curtis

This blog post was originally published by Digital Book World as Sony on the Ropes. Will eReader Survive?

Paralyzed since birth, a young man named Innowen happens upon a sorceress along the road. She grants him the ability to walk, but there are two conditions—he can only walk between dusk and dawn and, to keep this ability to walk, he must perform a dance in the witch’s honor each night.

What at first seems harmless comes with a sinister price. Anyone who witnesses Innowen’s dance is soon compelled to act out his or her darkest, most horrific desires. Eased of his physical affliction only to be burdened with a moral one, Innowen sets out on a quest to find his nameless “benefactor” in order to lift the curse. What he finds instead are long-protected secrets that threaten to bring down the entire kingdom.

Filled with twists and turns, Shadowdance, this dark fantasy from author Robin Wayne Bailey (Frost trilogy) will remind readers that the most powerful magic hides in the dark of night.

When Ruth Dickson released her 1967 book Married Men Make the Best Lovers, it went off like a bombshell. Defenders of the “sanctity” of marriage rose up to dismiss her frank, innovative, thoroughly researched book. But why? Why cling to the broken ritual of marriage? What comfort is there in a crumbling institution held together by meaningless tradition and out of touch patriarchy?

In this thoughtful follow-up, Dickson examines marriage itself. As she explains, “It’s no secret that the divorce rate is reaching astronomical proportions, yet nobody seems to do anything about the sole cause of divorce: marriage.”

Expertly weaving historical research, personal anecdotes, and scalpel-sharp philosophy, Marriage Is a Bad Habit makes the case that a life without marriage is a life of freedom—a woman’s freedom from male dominance and abuse, a man’s freedom from female resentment and martyrdom. In this new world it’s time for the sexes to find a new way of living together. Or, more specifically, a new way to live apart.

Ruth Dickson tells the truth, makes you laugh, gives you innovative ideas and thoughtful advice on how to navigate the tricky waters of true freedom of choice.

Starting May 21st and running throughout the summer, you can enter to win one of
Janet Dailey’s “Americana” romance novels, her groundbreaking series celebrating
each and every one of the fifty states in the USA. Perfect summer reads!

A new question about one state in the union will be posted every Monday. The
winner will be drawn at random and announced every Friday. All winners will
receive the novel set in that state and will be entered to win a grand prize at the end
of the summer: a designer case for your Kindle, Nook, or other electronic e-reading
device.

Visit us on Monday for the first question!

Independent bookstores aren’t the only retailers chafing at the practice of showroom. Just ask Target.

In showrooming, customers enter a retail store and, when they have located the product they’re shopping for, walk out, go home and purchase the item on the Internet at a lower price.  Some shoppers simply scan the barcode of the production in the store and order it online on the spot. This in effect makes the brick and mortar store a mere showroom for customers to examine products they have no intention of buying there. Last Christmas Amazon actually promoted the practice, outraging alarming and outraging many stores and store chains. We know of at least one publisher that fought back by discontinuing distribution of its books on Amazon.

The latest objector is Target, the giant retail store chain. Executives, reacting to what they perceived as showrooming of Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader, informed Amazon they would no longer carry it.

Though Amazon sells most of its Kindles on its own website, many customers like to examine them physically, just as they may now do with Kindle’s rival, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, which may be “road-tested” by customers in B&N’s brick and mortar bookstore.  Recognizing consumers’ natural impulse to touch, Amazon began distributing Kindles in big retail chains.

It’s hard to predict what impact Target’s action will have on Kindle sales.  With nearly 1,770 stores in 49 states and gross revenues of $65 billion, boycott of a product by Target can have some seriously detrimental impact on any supplier. More ominously, if Staples, Best Buy and Wal-Mart, which also sell Kindles, see themselves as showrooming victims and follow Target’s lead, it could put a crimp in Amazon’s sales – and its image.

For the complete story read Target, Unhappy With Being an Amazon Showroom, Will Stop Selling Kindles by Stephanie Clifford and Julie Bosman in the New York Times.

Richard Curtis

This blog post was originally published on Digital Book World as Target Targets Amazon as Showrooming Enabler