The diaspora has begun: the spending of Earth’s wealth to send STL generation ships to distant stars. Starstruck volunteers queue up hoping to be selected for one of the five ships, but others condemn this dispersal of materials and people needed to help Earth recover from ecological damage. Jeremiah “for the Homeworld” leads the rebels with acts of sabotage calculated to slow the exodus and turn world opinion against it. Meanwhile, Thomas Tidwell, official historian of the Diaspora Project, is tracking down a dark secret that hides the true reason for the migration. Kube-McDowell ( Enigma ) presents the world of 2095 through the two viewpoints of Mikhail Dryke, a security agent trying to track down Jeremiah, and Christopher McCutcheon, a project worker and folk singer who gets caught in the gears. The society is believable, socially and technically, the writing keeps a steady pace, building toward the climax, and the secret proves to be quite imaginative. Nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1991.

"The Screwfly Solution" is a 1977 science fiction short story by Raccoona Sheldon, a pen name for psychologist Alice Sheldon, who was better known by her other nom de plume, James Tiptree, Jr. It received the Nebula Award for Best Novelette (1978) and has been adapted into a television film.

Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady is Florence King's classic memoir of her upbringing in an eccentric Southern family, told with all the uproarious wit and gusto that has made her one of the most admired writers in the country. Florence may have been a disappointment to her Granny, whose dream of rearing a Perfect Southern Lady would never be quite fulfilled. But after all, as Florence reminds us, "no matter which sex I went to bed with, I never smoked on the street." **

In 1990, Alexei and Cory Panshin's massive history of science fiction, The World Beyond the Hill, won the Hugo award in competition with books by Arthur C. Clarke, Ursula LeGuin, and Harlan Ellison. Isaac Asimov called it, “The best, the BEST, history of science fiction I have ever read.” Exploring the genre from its roots in the Romantic Period to the late 20th century, the Panshins make the case for science fiction as modern mythology. Renowned literary critic Northrup Frye stated, "I learned a great deal from The World Beyond the Hill." The ElectricStory edition includes hyperlinked contents, index, and notes sections for easy navigation.

From WikipediaRunning on Empty is the 36th young adult novel in the long running and successful Hardy Boys casebook series for boys written by Franklin W. Dixon. It was first published by Simon Pulse in 1990. In it The Hardy Boys investigate the disappearance of their friend, Chet Morton, and go undercover. Read more - Shopping-Enabled Wikipedia on Amazon      In the article: Plot introduction | Footnotes

RT BOOK REVIEWS Nominee for Best Contemporary Romantic Novel Shattered by her husband's tragic death, young lawyer Abigail James takes on a case that stirs too many memories. A dying woman wants Abigail to find out what really happened to her sister Rosemary, a hit-and-run victim who's been dead for more than fifty years. Delving into the past, Abigail's suspects range from a vanished hoodlum to a judge, now headed for the Supreme Court. Rosemary, who had the looks of Hollywood royalty but ran straight into every dangerous situation she could find, mesmerized all men she came across, but she kept her heart hidden, and that may have cost Rosemary her life. Unraveling the mystery, Abigail comes to see how she guards her own heart, even from sexy Ross Stewart, her co-conspirator on the case. Yet soon she must turn to him, and learn to trust, as twisted threats warn her that investigating Rosemary's death too closely will put Abigail on the same collision course with danger and death.  

Spenser's never had a client like Jill Joyce, the star of TV's Fifty Minutes. She's beautiful, bitchy, sexy--and someone is stalking her. Spenser can hardly blame the would-be assassin...until he means the true meaning of "stage fright."

From Publishers WeeklyThe prospect of a pleasant day with her partner/lover is dashed for California detective Jill Smith when she is called in to investigate a felony assault on a nude, sunbathing dentist who claims he was attacked by a branch of a eucalyptus tree. In this fifth novel featuring the smart and sassy Detective Smith, what appears to be the latest episode in a silly feud between neighbors turns deadly serious when the body of a likable but opportunistic young man is found catapulted from his sundeck down the mountainside. While investigating this seemingly motiveless murder, Smith encounters a cross section of eccentrics that includes a foot masseuse, a lady mountaineer and an obsessive lawn waterer, in this romp through the Berkeley Hills. Although a couple of coincidences strain the reader's credibility, this witty police procedural reveals much about life among the denizens of this university town and a knowledge of some of the quirks of its legal system--especially as it pertains to trees. Detective Book Club selection. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Only the dead are truly safe.A young girl killed on a desolate highway. A mother agonized by unceasing guilt.In the vivid light of day, in the nightmare depths of sleep, her daughter calls to her from the grave.And soon she'll know if the voices she hears intend a warning only a loved one can sound. Or seek a revenge beyond the limits of death itself.Dead Voices - Don't believe your ears.

Review"Entertaining."--The Houston  Post."Irresistible."--The Philadelphia Inquirer. "Unforgettable."--Boston Sunday  Herald.  "Juicy."--The Dallas Morning News. "His best novel."--The New York Times  Book Review.Product DescriptionJules Mendelson is wealthy. Astronomically so. He and his wife lead the kind of charity-giving, art-filled, high-society life for which each has been carefully groomed. Until Jules falls in love with Flo March, a beautiful actress/waitress. What Flo discovers about the superrich is not a pretty sight. And in the end, she wants no more than what she was promised. But when Flo begins to share the true story of her life among the Mendelsons, not everyone is in a listening mood. And some cold shoulders have very sharp edges. . . .From the Paperback edition.

As the 'Great Mountain in the West speaks to the Sky with a Tongue of Flame', the Talisman Prophecy is on the verge of fulfillment.The rulers of the Lone Star Confederation are convinced that Clearwater's child – whose birth coincides to the second with the volcanic eruption – is the Thrice-Gifted One. And they hold both in their power. Cadillac and Steve's kin-sister, Roz, who have combined their formidable powers are determined to free her but Steve, lured by the prospect of a dazzling career within the First Family, is no longer certain who to support or betray.He has little time in which to decide for, in Ne-Issan, the land of the Iron Masters, a lone woman intent on avenging her dead lover is about to plunge her nation into a civil war that will set the whole continent ablaze.

Amazon.com ReviewJames Ellroy's L.A. Confidential is film-noir crime fiction akin to Chinatown, Hollywood Babylon, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Jim Thompson. It's about three tortured souls in the 1950s L.A.P.D.: Ed Exley, the clean-cut cop who lives shivering in the shadow of his dad, a legendary cop in the same department; Jack Vincennes, a cop who advises a Police Squad- like TV show and busts movie stars for payoffs from sleazy Hush-Hush magazine; and Bud White, a detective haunted by the sight of his dad murdering his mom.Ellroy himself was traumatized as a boy by his party-animal mother's murder. (See his memoir L.A. Confidential holds enough plots for two or three books: the cops chase stolen gangland heroin through a landscape littered with not-always-innocent corpses while succumbing to sexy sirens who have been surgically resculpted to resemble movie stars; a vile developer--based (unfairly) on Walt Disney-- schemes to make big bucks off Moochie Mouse; and the cops compete with the crooks to see who can be more corrupt and violent. Ellroy's hardboiled prose is so compressed that some of his rat-a-tat paragraphs are hard to follow. You have to read with attention as intense as his—and that is very intense indeed. But he richly rewards the effort. He may not be as deep and literary as Chandler, but he belongs on the same top-level shelf. From Publishers WeeklyEllroy's ninth novel, set in 1950s Los Angeles, kicks off with a shoot-out between a rogue ex-cop and a band of gangsters fronted by a crooked police lieutenant. Close on the heels of this scene comes a jarring Christmas Day precinct house riot, in which drunk and rampaging cops viciously beat up a group of jailed Mexican hoodlums. But, as readers will quickly learn, these sudden sprees of violence, laced with evidence of police corruption, are only teasers for the grisly events and pathos that follow this intricate police procedural. Picking up where The Black Dahlia and The Big Nowhere left off, the book tracks the intertwining paths of the three flawed and ambitious cops who emerge from the "Bloody Christmas" affair. Dope peddling, prostitution, and other risky business are revealed as the tightly wound plot untangles. Ellroy's disdain for Hollywood tinsel is evident at every turn; even the most noble of the characters here are relentlessly sleazy. But their grueling, sometimes maniacal schemes make a compelling read for the stout of heart. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Part of the Chronicles of an Age of Darkness series, The Wishstone and the Wonderworkers by Hugh Cook is a strong action-orientated standalone novel that accomplishes several things that the other books were not able to. There is a certain air of familiarity here; the book presents a fairly straightforward plot, sticks to it, and offers plenty of swordfights, mystery, and humor throughout it. The Women and the Warlords and The Wizards and the Warriors both seemed to lose focus midway through, teetering on the edge of uncertainty, but not here.The story follows a red-skinned Ebrell Islander named Chegory Guy as he explores the neighboring city. It has fallen victim to a massive energy drain and the recent theft of its precious wishstone has caused everyone with a knife to be questioned. There is also a pseudo-political struggle for power while demons run amuck, possessing others at will.Cook manages to create a diverse cast, each with just enough personality to make them memorable. Personal favorites were Empress Justina, Uckermark, and Chegory Guy himself. He makes for a simple hero, always having to make decisions between what is better for the city or better for him. He’s still a rambunctious youngster, but manages to grow up a decent amount during the novel’s time.And gone are the awkward dictionary entries at the beginning of chapters. Instead, we have a slew of editors and fact checkers inserting notes or deleting paragraphs of text as they please. It’s not as strange as it sounds, and actually adds a lot of flavor to the story, making it seem much more real than it could possibly be.

Guaradian award winning novel about courage, friendship and war. Reissued into the Essential Modern Classic list.When a bomb during an air raid destroys Harry's home and kills his family, he knows that he is all alone in the world and has only himself to rely on. Anxious that he will be sent to live with his fussy Cousin Elsie he goes on the run across the war-battered land of North East England, his only friend in his journey a stray dog that he meets on the beach. Will Harry ever find a place to call home again, or will he be on the run forever?