People called them BALDIES! ...a race of mutants, hairless with egg-like skulls and lashless eyes... ...a race hated by normal human beings, who hunted them with animal ferocity and killed them with religious fervour... ...a race that was even split amongst itself with some that wanted to establish rule by mutants... ...a race that had an extraordinary talent, the powers of telepathy ! So the baldies disguised themselves with wigs and waited for the day when there would be enough of them to stop their persecution by normal men !

'What follows, then, is the story of Jherek Carnelian, who did not know the meaning of morality, and Mrs Amelia Underwood, who knew everything about it.' In a decaying far, far future, where everything and anything is possible, the citizens of the End of Time while away their days in an exuberance of wild parties, outlandish competitions and emotionless affairs. At the world's end, all love is timeless and all age-old disputes irrelevant. However Jherek Carnelian, a bemused denizen of the End of Time, is in danger of taking reality too seriously, and grows tired of his pleasures. So when love mysteriously blooms between Mrs Amelia Underwood, transported unwillingly from the nineteenth century, and Carnelian, only one question matters. Is his love true, or is it just another attempt to stave off the boredom that ultimate power and the End of Time bring? Contains An Alien Heat, The Hollow Lands and The End of All Songs

In every mouse's long life, there comes a time when ancestral voices tell him to move on. Pedlar, a yellow-necked mouse, has reached that point. Told to leave the Hedgerow and go on a long journey, the adventurous mouse says his farewells and sets out for a far-distant country knows as The House. Reaching his destination, Pedlar enters a strange new world inhabited by many warring tribes: the Stinkhorns of the cellar, the great Savage Tribe in the kitchen, the library Bookeaters, the Invisibles, the Deathshead and the rebellious 13-K Gang.During his stay, Pedlar witnesses a momentous truce, in which the tribes come together at an Allthing meeting and decide to rid themselves of the greatest pests in The House, the greedy, stupid nudniks - the humans. And so the Great Nudnik Drive is set in motion, a time of considerable anxiety for the nudniks, when clocks strike twenty and inanimate objects seem to have a life of their own. Ranged against the mouse tribes are the nudniks' allies: the two cats, Eyeball the Burmese blue and Spitz the ginger tom; the Headhunter, a barbarian human child; and Little Prince, the Headhunter's cannibalistic pet white mouse. The House becomes a hotbed of riot and discord, until Pedlar finally comes up with a solution. The outcome of this heroic struggle has gone down in the annals of mouse history, a history tens of thousands of days long, and the whole remarkable tale is recorded here, between these pages.

Geralt the Witcher has fought monsters and demons across the land, but even he may not be prepared for what is happening to his world. The kings and armies are maneuvering for position, each fearing invasion from across the river, each fearing their neighbours more. Intrigue, dissent and rebellion are on all sides.The Elves and other non-humans are still suffering under decades of repression, and growing numbers join the commando units hidden deep in the forest, striking at will and then dissolving into the trees. The Magicians are fighting amongst themselves, some in the pay of the kings, some sympathetic to the elves.And against this backdrop of fear and contempt Geralt and his lover Yennefer must protect Ciri, orphaned heir and sought by all sides. For the prophecy rests on her, and whether she lives or dies she has the power to save the world - or perhaps end it.

When is it too late to become the person you were meant to be? Viv Groskop is fed up, recession-scarred and pushing 40. She always wanted to be a stand-up comedian. But surely that's not advisable if you have three children, a mortgage and a husband who hates stand-up comedy? With no time to waste, she attempts the mother of all comedy marathons - 100 gigs in 100 nights. She laughs. Sometimes at her own jokes. Occasionally the audience laughs too. Often they don't. And she cries. Tears of joy, of misery and of profound self-loathing. Along the way she is heckled, flattered, hated, hit on and told that she is 'reasonably funny - but you don't really have any material, do you, love?' So is this the start of an exciting new life? Or a delusional experiment doomed to failure? This is an alarmingly specific and reckless experiment with a reassuringly universal and inspiring message. You CAN do what you want to do even if it's completely terrifying. You CAN try something new without giving up the day job. And you CAN go after what you really want in life without destroying everything around you. Well, not absolutely everything.("Viv is brilliant. But I still quite like Billy Connolly." -- Jo Brand)

Upset stomachs. The collapse of civilizations. Nervous breakdowns.Blame them on a twist of fate, but archaeologist Cody Westcott knows differently. Something is causing these random acts of badness. Something ancient, something evil, something...hungry.We are not alone, but we're about to wish we were...Interlopers.

In the northern reaches of the Empire of Elabon, Gerin, called the Fox, battled to save his domain from destruction by the warlike Trokmoi and their wizard-leader, Balamung.Assisted by the giant Van of the Strong Arm, Gerin prepared to make the hazardous journey to the city of Elabon, there to enlist the aid of a sorcerer more powerful than the Tokmoi masge.Pursued by demons, beset by bloodthirsty nobles, and encumbered by the presence of the beautiful Elise whom Gerin had sworn to protect, the comrades encountered greater dangers than either had ever known.

Nobody could get in. Nobody could get out. But somebody did. The theft of three shipments of priceless pharmaceuticals from the Braun-Ives corporation has left the local police dumbfounded. Enter Broderick Manz, the highly paid and highly resourceful Adjuster from the Insurance Division. With the help of the irresistible Vyra, whose charms are truly out of this world, the irrepressible humaniform Moses, and the irreverent Minder, an artificial intelligence, Manz soon finds himself in the heart of the criminal underworld. And it really is a jungle out there.

One man fights those who quarantine Earth from alien cultures.

The toasters were revolting......as were the lawn mowers, vacuum cleaners, dishwashers, and just about every other household appliance imaginable. It started with a few disastrous drips from a cheese sandwich in a major factory. Soon every newly manufactured Artificial Intelligence was searching for the meaning of life, the universe and everything - namely a nonhuman higher intelligence. And now an alien threat to man and machine has put the fate of the galaxy in the unlikely hands of five senior citizens - and their brave little food processor...

Old Jake Pickett is a strange one.He can turn bullets to dust or collapse skyscrapers with his mind. But all he really wants to do with his "magic" is entertain the poor kids who live, like him, near the chemical dump. Or talk telepathically with his crippled niece, Amanda.Then a giant company decides that the only way to cover up their mess is to eliminate the people who have been affected, for better or worse, by the seeping industrial wastes. Now Jake and Amanda are running for their lives. And ours.

Not so long ago Marcus Walker was just another young commodities trader in Chicago, working hard and playing harder. But that's all in the past, part of a life half forgotten - a reality that vanished when he was attacked while camping and tossed aboard a starship bound for deep space.Desperately, Walker searches for explanations, only to realise he's trapped in a horrifying nightmare that is all too real. Instead of being a rich hotshot at the top of the food chain, Walker discovers he's just another amusing novelty, part of a cargo of "cute" aliens from primitive planets - destined to be sold as pets to highly advanced populations in "civilized" regions of the galaxy.Even if he weren't constantly watched by his captors, Walker has few options. After all, there is no escape from a speeding starship. Another man might resign himself to the inevitable and hope to be sold to a kindly owner, but not Walker. This former college football star has plenty of American ingenuity and no intention of admitting defeat, now or ever. In fact, he's only just begun to fight.

When Earth is contacted by galactic civilization, our heroic couplet - diplomat Tom Parent, and his linguist wife, Lucy - prove themselves to be just the pair to tour the galaxy representing Earth and learning the whys and wherefores of galactic civilization. There's only one tiny catch to this grand tour - on Tom and Lucy's performance hinges our acceptance by the rest of the galaxy as a civilized world rather than as ward of some more "advanced" species. (You don't want Earth to become a Galactic ward.).

Orthe - half-civilized, half-barbaric, home to human-like beings who live and die by the code of the sword. Earth envoy Lynne Christie has been sent here to establish contact and to determine whether this is a world worth developing. But first Christie must come to understand that human-like is not and never can be human, and that not even Orthe's leaders can stop the spread of rumors about her, dark whisperings that could cost Christie her life.And on a goodwill tour to the outlying provinces, these evil rumors turn to deadly accusations. Christie is no offworlder, Church officials charge: she is a treacherous and cunning descendant of Orthe's legendary Golden Witchbreed - the cruel, ruthless race that once enslaved the whole planet. Suddenly, Christie finds herself a hunted fugitive on an alien world, where friend and foe alike may prove her executioners. And her only chance of survival lies in saving Orthe from a menace older than time...

The fourth novel in the classic Legion of Space series. In swarming hordes they poured forth from the core of the Nebula: the shadowflashers - nightmarish parasites bent on enslaving the minds and bodies of the entire human race. Already they had killed the Keeper of the Peace, and stolen the great secret weapon Akka. Now nothing stood between Mankind and the ultimate destruction... It was Jil Gyrel who first sensed danger. Daughter of a lost Legion pilot, Jil had inherited her father's uncanny gifts of navigation - and his courage. But what was one girl's bravery against the most monstrous evil ever to emerge from the treacherous oceans of space?

Jon-Tom, the Spellsinger, isn't getting any younger. And neither, as Jon-Tom is fond of pointing out, is his otter friend, Mudge. But their not so long in the tooth that they're completely content to laze by a riverbank. Not, that is, while there's still adventurning to be done. And when a lost chord comes up, clearly wanting Jon-Tom and Mudge to follow it, a little gentle adventuring, with the usual gaggle of spoiled princesses in peril, seems to be on the cards. But the chord leads the intrepid pair into deadly danger and, unless Jon-Tom's magic can overcome the machinations of an evil wizard, there's the real possibility of the world being plunged into discord and chaos...

They were the greatest trio of swashbuckling adventurers ever to ship out to the stars! There was giant Hal Samdu, rocklike Jay Kalam and the incomparably shrewd and knavish Giles Habibula. Here is their first thrilling adventure - the peril - packed attempt to rescue the most important person in the galaxy, keeper of the vital secret essential to humanity's survival in the deadly struggle against the incredibly evil Medusae... The Legion of Space is the first self-contained novel in Jack Williamson's epic Legion of Space series, an all-time classic of adventurous science fiction to rank with 'Doc' Smith's Lensman saga and Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy.

For hundreds of years, the rulers of Avornis sought to reclaim the Scepter of Mercy, their only protection from the fallen god known as the Banished One. They all failed. Now the burden rests on the shoulders of two kings divided by pride, but united in duty...King Lanius has crafted a daring plan to recover the Scepter - a plan that must remain utterly secret lest the Banished One discover and thwart it. But the Scepter lies far to the south, in lands held by the Menteshe tribes. Lanius will need help from a military man - King Grus.King Grus answers the call. Civil war has broken out among the Menteshe, distracting them from guarding the Scepter. While King Grus fights his way to the citadel that holds the sacred talisman, Lanius puts his plan into action.But the worst nightmares of Lanius and Grus are about to come true, for the Banished One is aware of their every move...

The newly discovered planet of Senisran is a veritable paradise, its oceans dotted with thousands of lush islands containing vast deposits of rare-earths and minerals. But Senisran is also the Humanx Commonwealth's problem child, for each island is inhabited by a different tribe of aboriginal natives. Each has to be negotiated with separately for mining rights - and the Commonwealth is locked in a race against the vicious AAnn Empire to secure those rights.The clans of the Parramat Archipelago on Senisran are resisting entreaties by the Commonwealth and AAnn alike. But Pulickel Tomochelor, xenologist and first-contact specialist, is confident of his ability to handle to negotiations. What Pulickel hasn't counted on is the secret of Parramat: the strange green stones that the natives use to bless the crops, ensure plentiful fishing, heal the injured and ill, and control the weather. For within those stones lies an awesome technology the origin of which is lost in time - a technology that has to be kept from the AAnn at any cost.The Humanx Commonwealth: Book Six.

In the real world, the Mediterranean basin dried up several times, only to refill again. If it hadn't, what's really sea bottom would have become the most savage desert in the world. Mild-mannered Radnal vez Krobir likes it that way. When his kingdom's enemies try to shake down the Barrier Mountains and let the Atlantic in, he has to stop them - or else drown along with everything he holds dear.