Science Fiction & Fantasy Books - Page 4

1984

George Orwell

Amazon Price: $10.20 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Plume Amazon Marketplace: 90 new & used starting at $2.97

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General -> Classics
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Classics
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( O ) -> Orwell, George -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1383 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Greatest Love Story of Our Time. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

1984 is a social commentary on history and the appalling state of public policy and society generally told through a love story that resonates with a deep familiarity for all modern readers.

Past or Future? 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

"In the old days, he thought, a man looked at a girl's body and found it desirable, and that was the end of the story. But you could not have pure love or pure lust nowadays. No emotion was pure because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred. Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act." The year is 1984, or so Winston Smith thinks. Nothing is ever certain anymore except he lives in Oceania and they are constantly at war with either Eurasia or Eastasia. They had always been at war with Eurasia, until a quick announcement and falsification of thousands of records made them always at war with Eastasia. The Party is always right, or so it would seem. By looking at records you know existed, you would find only lies. Winston Smith knows this because he works for the Ministry of Truth, which deals with the falsification of records. The Party is the single reigning body of totalitarianisim for 1/3 of the world. But, is this simply a mere story, or something more? Was George Orwell trying to warn us of the direction our own government is heading? This version is a little extreme, but it proves its point. Winston Smith is an average man working for the Party. Scared of it, but also hating it, Winston believes that he is good as dead. He does not believe in the Party or its values, and in this world, that will earn you an arrest from the thought police for thoughtcrime. The Party can virtually read your mind through the telescreen; a two- way video broadcast system. You can never be alone with your thoughts.

Editorial Review:

Satire on the possible horrors of a totalitarian regime in England in 1984.

Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand

Amazon Price: $15.64 List Price: $23.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Plume Amazon Marketplace: 79 new & used starting at $9.75

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> United States -> Classics -> Rand, Ayn
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General -> Classics

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1540 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A Must Read 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

After the Bible, this is the most important book you should read. I bought this book as a gift to send to two friends and have done so before.

With the current economic crisis it takes on a new meaning.

Editorial Review:

At last, Ayn Rand's masterpiece is available to her millions of loyal readers in trade paperback.

With this acclaimed work and its immortal query, "Who is John Galt?", Ayn Rand found the perfect artistic form to express her vision of existence. Atlas Shrugged made Rand not only one of the most popular novelists of the century, but one of its most influential thinkers.

Atlas Shrugged is the astounding story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world--and did. Tremendous in scope, breathtaking in its suspense, Atlas Shrugged stretches the boundaries further than any book you have ever read. It is a mystery, not about the murder of a man's body, but about the murder--and rebirth--of man's spirit.

* Atlas Shrugged is the "second most influential book for Americans today" after the Bible, according to a joint survey conducted by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

Frank Miller

Amazon Price: $10.19 List Price: $14.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: DC Comics Amazon Marketplace: 86 new & used starting at $4.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Comics & Graphic Novels -> General
Subjects -> Comics & Graphic Novels -> Graphic Novels -> General
Subjects -> Comics & Graphic Novels -> Graphic Novels -> Superheroes

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 330 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

If any comic has a claim to have truly reinvigorated the genre, then The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller--known also for his excellent Sin City series and his superb rendering of the blind superhero Daredevil--is probably the top contender. Batman represented all that was wrong in comics and Miller set himself a tough task taking on the camp crusader and turning this laughable, innocuous children's cartoon character into a hero for our times. The great Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, Swamp Thing, the arguably peerless Watchmen) argued that only someone of Miller's stature could have done this. Batman is a character known well beyond the confines of the comic world (as are his retinue) and so reinventing him, while keeping his limiting core essentials intact, was a huge task.Miller went far beyond the call of duty. The Dark Knight is a success on every level. Firstly it does keep the core elements of the Batman myth intact, with Robin, Alfred the butler, Commissioner Gordon, and the old roster of villains, present yet brilliantly subverted. Secondly the artwork is fantastic--detailed, sometimes claustrophobic, psychotic. Lastly it's a great story: Gotham City is a hell on earth, street gangs roam but there are no heroes. Decay is ubiquitous. Where is a hero to save Gotham? It is 10 years since the last recorded sighting of the Batman. And things have got worse than ever. Bruce Wayne is close to being a broken man but something is keeping him sane: the need to see change and the belief that he can orchestrate some of that change. Batman is back. The Dark Knight has returned. Awesome. --Mark Thwaite

The Pirate King: Transitions, Book II (Transitions)

R.A. Salvatore

Amazon Price: $17.80 List Price: $27.95 Not yet published By: Wizards of the Coast

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( S ) -> Salvatore, R.A.
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Fantasy -> General
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Fantasy -> Magic & Wizards

Editorial Review:

Drizzt returns to Luskan, and the Realms will never be the same!

The Arcane Brotherhood has long held the city of Luskan in their power, but when corruption eats away at their ranks, Captain Deudermont comes to the rescue of a city that has become a safe haven for the Sword Coast's most dangerous pirates. But rescuing a city from itself may not be as easy as Deudermont thinks, and when Drizzt can't talk him out of it, he'll be forced to help.

Drizzt is back in action again, and bringing more changes to the Forgotten Realms setting. This all new hardcover adventure will keep Drizzt fans guessing the whole way, with edge-of-your-seat action and plot twists that even the most casual reader of the Forgotten Realms novel line can't afford to miss!

Batman: The Killing Joke

Alan Moore, Brian Bolland

Amazon Price: $12.23 List Price: $17.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: DC Comics Amazon Marketplace: 54 new & used starting at $9.57

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Comics & Graphic Novels -> General
Subjects -> Comics & Graphic Novels -> Graphic Novels -> General
Subjects -> Comics & Graphic Novels -> Graphic Novels -> Superheroes

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 171 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Coolest Batman Book ever 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Coolest Batman ever

This is one of the best in the entire batman series, and Alan Moore is one of the best comic book writers to come out of the AD 2000 group. Having this in hard cover just makes this one of the more important books on the book shelf, or more likely near where we read every day. The idea behind the killing joke is that we get to see just how bad the Joker could be. We are used to the failed Joker on the TV series, and in the earlier comic books where Batman and crew always Pow the enemy. But this time the story line is darker, and fitting as part of the change in the batman series that started when the original comic book series came out.

This darker batman has bad things happen to him and the people around him. There is a penalty paid for being who he is and what he does, the Killing Joke is part of the foundation of this darker batman that has proven so popular over the last 20 years. Batman becomes real, more complex, and it is the Joker that will lead the way to this more complex darker batman over the next 20 years. The book dives deep into the process of the Joker, who he is, and just how truly insane the Joker has become. Not for kids, but for batman fans above the age of 14, this is the starting book to read, as it puts a foundation for the later 90's 00's batman that we have become accustomed to.

Five star book, worth reading.

Editorial Review:

One of the most famous Batman stories of all time is offered for the first time in hardcover in this special twentieth-anniversary edition.

This is the unforgettable that forever changed Batman's world, adding a new element of darkness with its unflinching portrayal of The Joker's twisted psyche.

Writer Alan Moore, acclaimed author of WATCHMEN and V FOR VENDETTA, offers his take on the disturbing relationship between The Dark Knight and his greatest foe. The Clown Prince of Crime has never been more ruthless than in this brutal tale.

This special new edition also includes a story written and exquisitely illustrated by Brian Bolland.

Cry Wolf (Alpha and Omega, Book 1)

Patricia Briggs

Amazon Price: $7.99 List Price: $7.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Ace Amazon Marketplace: 61 new & used starting at $3.66

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( B ) -> Briggs, Patricia
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Fantasy -> Contemporary
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Fantasy -> Epic

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 86 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Patricia Briggs Does It Again! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Cry Wolf continues the story of Charles and Anna begun in the short story Alpha and Omega (from the On the Prowl Anthology). Anna is moving to Montana to live with Charles, and take her place in the Marrok's pack. However, when you live as long as werewolves do, you can make a lot of enemies. Before they have time to resolve the issues between them Charles and Anna are on the hunt for a rogue werewolf and a whole lot of history is about to smack them in the face.

I think Cry Wolf works best if you've read Alpha and Omega first, there is a catch up at the beginning of Cry Wolf but I think you'd get more out of the story if you read about Charles and Anna's first meeting and how Anna became a werewolf. This book also slots into the Mercy Thompson Universe following up some events that happened after Mercedes returned to the Tri-Cities.

I love Patricia Brigg's heroines. They're not superwomen, they're doing the best they can in difficult situations.

"She wondered that hope was so much harder than despair."

Anna is an Omega wolf. She's previously been told she's a submissive, the lowest of the low, but that just isn't the case. What we experience in Cry Wolf is Anna starting to learn exactly what it means to be an Omega. Charles and Bran will only help her so far, part of being in a werewolf pack means she has to find her own place.

Charles and Anna's relationship as humans is much more wary than their relationship as wolves. Their wolves have already decided they are mates, however their human halves have not. Kind of a unique situation in werewolf society as it usually happens the other way round, with the wolf being more wary.

Patricia Briggs has fleshed out the relationships between the various members of the Montana pack, how they work together as a unit, as a dysfunctional family. It's interesting that Anna thinks of the pack as a bunch of psychotics, in a way the Montana pack is a pack for werewolves who can't fit in anywhere else - they're too damaged, too set in their ways, too broken, but very interesting to read about.

Because Cry Wolf is written in third person rather than first. It also gives us the opportunity to see situations from more than one point of view. It's nice to be able to see what both Charles and Anna are thinking, and also be to see the way Bran thinks and to learn more of his history. There are more complex relationships being explored here rather than just that between Charles and Anna. We also have Bran & the pack, Asil & Bran, Asil & Sage. Each one unique and revealing something different.

I did find the middle of the book a little slow, however with this being the first book in the series, everything has to be set up here, so that didn't bother me too much. And as it seems only book will be released for this series a year, I have a long and impatient wait for the next book. Recommended.

Editorial Review:

Now Briggs begins an extraordinary new series set in Mercy Thompson’s world—but with rules of its own.

INTRODUCING THE ALPHA AND OMEGA NOVELS...

Anna never knew werewolves existed until the night she survived a violent attack…and became one herself. After three years at the bottom of the pack, she’d learned to keep her head down and never, ever trust dominant males. But Anna is that rarest kind of werewolf: an Omega. And one of the most powerful werewolves in the country will recognize her value as a pack member—and as his mate.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6)

J. K. Rowling

List Price: $60.00 By: Listening Library Amazon Marketplace: 6 new & used starting at $24.66

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Humorous
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror -> Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( R ) -> Rowling, J.K. -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3591 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Know your enemy 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

A basic battle tactic is to know your enemy. That' just what Harry has to do, learn about Voldemort. Why is he evil? Is Voldemort his real name? What is his connection to Harry and Dumbledore? All of these questions and more are revealed in this, my favorite book in the series.

Editorial Review:

The war against Voldemort is not going well: even Muggle governments are noticing. Ron scans the obituary pages of The Daily Prophet looking for familiar names. Dumbledore is absent from Hogwarts for long stretches of time, and the Order of the Phoenix has already suffered losses.

And yet...

As in all wars, life goes on. Sixth-year students learn to Apparate--and lose a few eyebrows in the process. The Weasley twins expand their business. Teenagers flirt and fight and fall in love. Classes are never straightforward, though Harry receives some extraordinary help from the mysterious Half-Blood Prince.

So it's the home front that takes center stage in the multilayered sixth installment of the story of Harry Potter. Here at Hogwarts, Harry will search for the full and complex story of the boy who became Lord Voldemort--and thereby find what may be his only vulnerability.


From the Compact Disc edition.

Mercury's War (Breeds, Book 16)

Lora Leigh

Amazon Price: $7.99 List Price: $7.99 Not yet published By: Berkley

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Romance -> General
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Fantasy

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Worth waiting for! Five Blue Ribbons from Romance Junkies! 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Mercury Warrant is the most animalistic of the feline breeds. Thought to be the only male whose mate is deceased, Mercury is watched closely by doctors to make sure his feral nature does not surface. Since his supposed mate died in the labs Mercury is resigned to live his life alone without the comfort of the one woman nature intended for him. It is because of this that Mercury is asked to be the bodyguard of Ria Rodriquez, the woman sent to the breed compound by the Leo to track a spy selling confidential information to a pharmaceutical company. The more time Mercury spends with the lovely Ms. Rodriquez the more reluctant he is to let her go - even without the presence of the one thing all mated couples possess.

Ria Rodriquez is on a mission for the Leo. Arriving at Sanctuary, she is surprised but secretly pleased to find the feline breed Mercury Warrant waiting for her. Ria is thoroughly intrigued by this lion and while she knows she can't be his mate, she is willing to be his lover. Her heart breaks more each day that passes without showing signs of their true relationship.

There are other factors to consider. Mercury's feral disposition is being watched closely by friend and foe alike and it isn't until the animal inside of Mercury breaks free of his invisible bonds that the relationship between Mercury and Ria is solidified.

I have been in love with Mercury Warrant since he and his leonine features were first introduced in Tempting the Beast, the first feline breed installment. Every single time his dead mate was mentioned my heart cried a little inside. I wanted Mercury to have a mate but I was picky. I wanted his mate to be worthy of him. I wanted her to be strong but not bullying. I wanted her beautiful but realistic. And I wanted her to love Mercury like he deserved. Ria could not have been better written. She was strong without being hateful. She was striking in her own way and I easily related to her. Last but not least, she adored Mercury with every beat of her heart and for that alone I was satisfied.

MERCURY'S WAR answers gobs of questions and then leaves some unanswered. In the erotic and suspenseful way in which Ms. Leigh is quickly becoming famous, she left me begging for more. I need more breeds, I need more mating heat, and I need Jonas Wyatt badly. Silliness aside, Lora Leigh has really delivered with MERCURY'S WAR. Readers will laugh, readers will blush, and some may cry. But when the last word is read they will be stunned and seriously sad the book ended. I know I was.

MERCURY'S WAR releases from Berkley in October 2008. While it is readable as a standalone, I think reading the series in the correct order is a must to fully enjoy this amazing world created by an amazing author. ***Natasha Smith for Romance Junkies***

Editorial Review:

Nothing matches Lora Leigh’s latest entry in the series about genetically altered Breeds with feline DNA—and the humans who awaken their desire.

Someone has been slipping the Sanctuary’s secure information to a pharmaceutical company. Now it’s up to Ria Rodriguez to pose as a clerk and uncover the leak. Yet she has no idea of the danger she’s about to encounter—or the passion she’s about to ignite in one of the greatest Breeds ever created.

Paul of Dune

Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson

Amazon Price: $18.45 List Price: $27.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Tor Books Amazon Marketplace: 49 new & used starting at $12.70

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( H ) -> Herbert, Brian
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Science Fiction -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Frank Herbert's Dune ended with Paul Muad’Dib in control of the planet Dune. Herbert’s next Dune book, Dune Messiah, picked up the story several years later after Paul’s armies had conquered the galaxy. But what happened between Dune and Dune Messiah? How did Paul create his empire and become the Messiah? Following in the footsteps of Frank Herbert, New York Times bestselling authors Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson are answering these questions in Paul of Dune.

The Muad’Dib’s jihad is in full swing. His warrior legions march from victory to victory. But beneath the joy of victory there are dangerous undercurrents. Paul, like nearly every great conqueror, has enemies--those who would betray him to steal the awesome power he commands. . . .

And Paul himself begins to have doubts: Is the jihad getting out of his control? Has he created anarchy? Has he been betrayed by those he loves and trusts the most? And most of all, he wonders: Am I going mad?

Paul of Dune is a novel everyone will want to read and no one will be able to forget.