Joy to the world . . . or, joy to the worlds! Let heaven and nature¾and also the supernatural¾sing. A Cosmic Christmas presents twelve stories of Christmas in very unusual circumstances, ranging from vampires to robots, from the hills of Appalachia to a high orbit space station, all celebrating the holiday in their own, off-beat ways. New York Times best-selling author Larry Correia sends his popular tough guy detective and magicwielder, Jake Sullivan, on a special case at Christmas time, while visions of tommy guns dance in the heads of the thugs he's up against. Mark L. Van Name's Lobo, an A.I. housed in a pocket battle starship, drops his usual cynical pose to help a troubled family at Christmas time. Nebula Award-winner Catherine Asaro tells of a romantic Yuletide weekend that turns into a mystery in a futuristic high-tech house. New York Times best seller Mercedes Lackey offers a Christmas ghost the likes of which Scrooge never encountered. George O. Smith, a star of the Golden Age of science fiction, is on hand with an episode from his classic Venus Equilateral series, in which a Christmas celebration on a gigantic space station is interrupted by the arrival of a ruthless interplanetary criminal, who didn't drop by to hand out presents. And much more, in a holiday package that any fan of science fiction and fantasy would be delighted to find under their tree, on any planet. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
Twelve new stories of Christmas in very unusual circumstances, ranging from vampires to robots, from the hills of Appalachia to a high orbit space station, all celebrating the holiday in their own, off-beat ways. Features tales by New York Times best seller Larry Correia, Darkship series creator Sarah A. Hoyt, Sapphire Award Winner for urban fantasy, Wen Spencer--and much, much more! At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). About A Cosmic Christmas 2 You: _This creative and sprightly Christmas science fiction anthology spins in some surprising directionsãA satisfying read for cold winter evenings, this anthology is a great stocking stuffer for SF fans.Ó¾Publishers Weekly About A Cosmic Christmas authors: _If you love monsters and action, youll love [Larry Correia]. If you love guns, youll love [Correia]. If you love fantasy, and especially horror fantasy, youll love [Correia].Ó¾Knotclan.com "[Sarah A. Hoyt writers] first-rate space opera with a moral lesson. You won't be disappointed."¾Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit.com _[Wen] Spencer's intertwining of current Earth technology and otherworldly elven magic is quite ingenious.Ó _Booklist
For most of us, fond memories of the Christmas season are inseparable from TV’s holiday presentations. The world loves everything from iconic cartoons like How the Grinch Stole Christmas and A Charlie Brown Christmas to the ground-breaking Julia sitcom segment, “I’m Dreaming of a Black Christmas,” Christmas in Rockefeller Center, and the 1992 TV-remake of Christmas in Connecticut directed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Christmas TV Memories: Nostalgic Holiday Favorites of the Small Screen embraces it all, offering a tinsel-decked traipse down memory lane and chronicling animated classics, variety shows, made-for-TV features, and holiday-specific episodes of series like The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. With a Foreword by best-selling Free to Be You and Me author and That Girl star Marlo Thomas, along with commentary from other celebrities, historical quotes, and insights from entertainment journalists and archivists, Christmas TV Memories serves as the go-to companion to the small screen’s most cherished holiday programs.
THE ALIENS ARE AMONG US! “Where is everybody?” Nobel Prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi once asked after a discussion about the possibility of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. To sum up the Fermi Paradox, if the billions of stars in our galaxy have planets with intelligent life on them, why hasn’t anyone visited us? But maybe they have, and we just haven’t noticed—and that’s the way they want it. And if they are here in secret, why are they here? Are they tourists? Anthropologists, perhaps? Or journalists sending stories back about the quaint habits of the primitives? Or maybe the extraterrestrial equivalent of hunters or fishermen? (Any odd disappearances in your neighborhood lately?) An enemy already within the gates? Or a refugee seeking sanctuary? Gourmets looking for exotic foreign food? Alien criminals hiding out? Alien cops looking for those alien criminals? No missionaries—at least not yet—and there doesn’t seem to be a Galactic Peace Corps. They might happen to look close enough to human to pass, or they might be masters of disguise. Or they might be so incomprehensibly different that we don’t even notice that they’re here. The secret visitors are revealed by such luminaries as Larry Niven, Poul Anderson, Spider Robinson, William Tenn, and more. And if any alien visitors want to check out the local natives’ speculations herein, feel free. Please pay with local currency, of course. At the publisher’s request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). Praise for previous anthologies edited by Hank Davis: About Time Troopers: "The editors’ mastery of the military SF and time travel subgenres is evident in their thoughtful selections. Fans of literate speculative fiction will hope for more from these experts." —Publishers Weekly Cosmic Corsairs: “Who doesn’t like space pirates? (Well, their victims I guess, but that’s beside the point.) . . . Hank Davis has a fine sense for choosing a wide mix of stories, and this book is no exception. No story is like another, yet they manage to form a whole greater than the parts. From sapient ships to piratical sibling rivalry, pirate detectives to ingenious captives seeking freedom, from alien biology to orbital mechanics, the stories share some of the same elements—pragmatic thinking, moral complexity, loyalty, and betrayal. Definitely a fun one." —Analog In Space No One Can Hear You Scream: “[T]he 13 tales in this collection blend sf with horror to demonstrate the resiliency of both genres . . . offers strong tales by the genre’s best storytellers.” —Library Journal “[F]irst-rate science fiction, demonstrating how short stories can still entertain.” —The Galveston County Daily News A Cosmic Christmas 2 You: “This creative and sprightly Christmas science fiction anthology spins in some surprising directions. . . . A satisfying read for cold winter evenings . . . a great stocking stuffer for SF fans.” —Publishers Weekly As Time Goes By: “As Time Goes By . . . does an excellent job of exploring not only romance through time travel—relationships enabled or imperiled by voyaging through time—but the intrinsic romance of time travel itself. . . . The range of styles and approaches is as wide as the authors' sensibilities and periods might suggest . . . full of entertaining and poignant stories . . . ” —Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, IntergalacticMedicineShow.com About Star Destroyers, coedited by Christopher Ruocchio: “. . . spectacular space battles and alien contacts . . . themes of military ethics, the uses of artificial intelligence, and the limits of the capacity of the human mind. . . . it is the human interactions and decisions that ultimately drive the stories. . . . will appeal to fans of military and hard science fiction and any readers fascinated by the possibilities of space travel." —Booklist “. . . stories of giant spaceships at war, at peace, and in the often-gray areas between. . . . a worthy addition to a long tradition of ship-based fiction, and its authors portray captains, arcane astrogators, and civilian child passengers with equal depth. It’s recommended for fans of military SF and space adventure." —Publishers Weekly “. . . you’d probably expect some tight, action-filled space opera stories of giant space battles . . . and there’s some of that. But there are also espionage stories, rescue missions, political conflicts, alternate histories, even a few humorous tales. . . . each author took the premise in a different direction . . . if I had to identify one common feature to all the stories, it would be that they’re all fun. . . . Like it says, big ships blowing things up. What’s not to like?" —Analog
NEW FICTION AND CLASSICS OF THE GENRE COLLECTED BY THE EDITORIAL TEAM BEHIND SPACE PIONEERS AND OVERRULED! SPACE PIRATES! Words that conjure up rousing tales of adventure, derring-do, brave heroes battling the scurvy vermin of the galaxy. Those vermin have taken to pillaging cargo ships and, even worse, space liners, relieving the helpless passengers of their valuables, and worse with the comely women passengers, then spacing the lot—unless one or more of the aforementioned brave heroes arrive in the nick of time, and turn the tables, making the spaceways safe again for the innocent and helpless. On the other hand, perhaps the pirate captain is a woman, and it’s the comely male passengers who need rescuing. And on the third hand (we’re talking space pirates here, possibly aliens with four or more arms), perhaps those ships traversing the interstellar void are not so innocent, and the pirates, fighting an evil despotic star empire and defending the freedom of the space lanes, are the good guys and gals. The possibilities are many, and the daring exploits set the blood racing in the veins of any reader with even a trace of buccaneering spirit in their hidden self. So board a battered but spaceworthy fighting starship with such star-spanning and award-winning crewmates as Robert Silverberg, Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette, Larry Niven, Fritz Leiber, and Sarah A. Hoyt, plus James H. Schmitz, James Blish, Gregory Benford, and more, and set sail—er, thrusters—for a universe of freebooting adventure! At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). Praise for previous anthologies edited by Hank Davis: In Space No One Can Hear You Scream: “[T]he 13 tales in this collection blend sf with horror to demonstrate the resiliency of both genres . . . offers strong tales by the genre’s best storytellers.” —Library Journal “[F]irst-rate science fiction, demonstrating how short stories can still entertain.” —The Galveston County Daily NewsM A Cosmic Christmas 2 You: “This creative and sprightly Christmas science fiction anthology spins in some surprising directions. . . . A satisfying read for cold winter evenings . . . a great stocking stuffer for SF fans.” —Publishers Weekly As Time Goes By: “As Time Goes By . . . does an excellent job of exploring not only romance through time travel—relationships enabled or imperiled by voyaging through time—but the intrinsic romance of time travel itself. . . . The range of styles and approaches is as wide as the authors' sensibilities and periods might suggest . . . full of entertaining and poignant stories . . .” —Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, IntergalacticMedicineShow.com About Star Destroyers, coedited by Christopher Ruocchio: “[S]pectacular space battles and alien contacts . . . themes of military ethics, the uses of artificial intelligence, and the limits of the capacity of the human mind. . . . It is the human interactions and decisions that ultimately drive the stories. . . . Will appeal to fans of military and hard science fiction and any readers fascinated by the possibilities of space travel.”—Booklist “[S[tories of giant spaceships at war, at peace, and in the often-gray areas between. . . . A worthy addition to a long tradition of ship-based fiction, and its authors portray captains, arcane astrogators, and civilian child passengers with equal depth. It’s recommended for fans of military SF and space adventure.”—Publishers Weekly “[Y]ou’d probably expect some tight, action-filled space opera stories of giant space battles . . . and there’s some of that. But there are also espionage stories, rescue missions, political conflicts, alternate histories, even a few humorous tales. . . . Each author took the premise in a different direction . . . if I had to identify one common feature to all the stories, it would be that they’re all fun. . . . Like it says, big ships blowing things up. What’s not to like?”—Analog
The story of the Bible starts with the simple statement, "In the beginning, God created . . ." From that first sentence of Genesis, the story of salvation unfolds in strange and wonderful mingling of the commonplace and the miraculous, the human and the transcendent. But if you were born after the baby boom, chances are the Bible seems more like an item of passing interest than a book of depth and meaning for the twenty-first century. If you're not familiar with the Bible, it can be difficult to put into perspective the puzzle of kings and prophets, giants and seven-headed dragons, shepherd boys and itinerant preachers, Old Testament law and New Testament grace. Meet the Bible introduces you to the full, epic sweep of the Bible -- the characters, the places, the times, the stories, and the meanings of this Book of books -- and shows you that even the most obscure passage can hold relevance for your life once you understand what to look for. Award-winning writer Philip Yancey and author Brenda Quinn are your guides on this one-year reading tour of the Bible. Each day's reading includes Scripture, contemporary commentary, and questions for contemplation -- all designed to offer insight into how the passage fits into the overall story of the Bible, and how it can speak to your life today. Meet the Bible takes you through the twists and turns of the Bible's many narratives, the high points and the low points, the good characters and the bad, as well as the eternal thoughts and descriptions of God and his Son, Jesus Christ. Here are stories to remember, images of real people and circumstances closer to your own life than you've ever imagined. By the time you've finished the year's worth of reading, you'll have gained a panoramic view of the whole Bible and a firm understanding of its ideas and teachings. If you've never read the Bible, or hardly know the Bible, or would just like to read the Bible in a fresh new way, Meet the Bible offers an inspiring mix of timeless wisdom and contemporary insight that will cause faith to ignite within you. Direct excerpts from Scripture give readers a panoramic tour of the Bible’s key passages, personalities, events, and ideas as the Old Testament sweeps into the New Testament. Culturally relevant commentary from Quinn and Yancey sheds light on each day’s passage, examining the twists and turns of the Bible’s many narratives, the high points and the low points, the good characters and the bad, as well as the eternal thoughts and descriptions of God and his Son. Reflections every five days provide life application for the week’s Scripture readings.
Do you ever find yourself drowning in secularization and commercialization, being pulled under as Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas intermingle and fly by in a frantic blur? Have you ever wondered if there is any way to reclaim the true meaning of such seasons as Advent and Lent, and be helped to live more intentionally and meaningfully the other Christian celebrations? Reasons for the Seasons makes that possible in a delightfully engaging manner. With humor and rich illustrations, this widely read spiritual author draws upon life experiences from childhood in Appalachia to his teaching at Princeton University and into his spiritual pilgrimage intent on uniting his Protestant mind with a Catholic heart. Focus is given to the church's central seasons of Advent/Christmas/Epiphany and Lent/Easter/Pentecost. Lesser-known Christian celebrations are engaged, such as Candlemas, Trinity Sunday, and the Feast of the Transfiguration. Additionally, illumination is provided for exploring such secular holidays as New Year's, Mother's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, and Halloween. This book will be informative and engaging not only for personal use but also in enabling families to deepen their celebrative time together. Groups will also find it helpful for study, as will churches in giving depth to their liturgical planning.
