Aesop's Attic, Good Books

	Black Man One hundred years from now, and against all the odds, Earth has found a new stability the political order has reached some sort of balance, and the new colony on Mars is growing. But the fraught years of the 21st century have left an uneasy legacy ...Genetically engineered alpha males, designed to fight the century's wars have no wars to fight and are surplus to requirements. And a man bred and designed to fight is a dangerous man to have around in peacetime. Many of them have left for Mars but now one has come back and killed everyone else on the shuttle he returned in. Only one man, a genengineered ex-soldier himself, can hunt him down and so begins a frenetic man-hunt and a battle survival. And a search for the truth about what was really done with the world's last soldiers. BLACK MAN is an unstoppable SF thriller but it is also a novel about predjudice, about the ramifications of playing with our genetic blue-print. It is about our capacity for violence but more worrying, our capacity for deceit and corruption. This is another landmark of modern SF from one of its most exciting and commercial authors. Author: Richard Morgan Publisher: Orion Publishing ISBN: 9780575078130 Format: Paperback Book Online Price: $22.99
	Aggressor Ex-deniable operator Nick Stone seems to be living his dream, not a care in the world as he steers his camper van round the surfing and parachuting centres of Australia, a board on the roof, free fall rig behind him, and a beautiful young backpacker at his side. But when he witnesses on TV the massacre of children in a terrorist siege the other side of the world, long-suppressed memories are triggered and Nick finds himself catapulted once more into working for the American secret services - only this time, of his own free will. As events unfold in the bleak, medieval villages of Azerbajhan and teeming streets of modern Istanbul, it isn't long before Nick discovers the true objective of the mission on which he has embarked. His talents are being misused by those who stalk the corridors of power. and he is determined to make a stand. Hurtled at breakneck pace through a deadly landscape of greed, violence and ever-shifting allegiances, the reader will be left in no doubt that McNab is the master of the genre - and Aggressor is McNab at his searing, blockbusting best. Author: Andy McNab Publisher: Transworld Publishers ISBN: 9780593050316 Format: Hardback Book Online Price: $59.95
	Ten-second Staircase A controversial artist is found dead in her own art installation inside a riverside gallery with locked doors and windows - the only witness is a small boy who insists the murderer was a masked man on a horse. A television presenter is struck by lightning while indoors...Two seemingly impossible crimes that only Arthur Bryant and John May of the Met's Peculiar Crimes Unit might be able to solve. But Bryant has lost his nerve following a disastrous public appearance, and May is fighting to keep the unit from closure. Worse still, the case of the Leicester Square Vampire, an unsolved mystery from the past that changed both their lives, has returned to haunt them. With a sinister modern-day highwayman bringing terror to the London streets in a series of crimes each more puzzling than the last, the elderly detectives track their suspect to an exclusive private school and a deprived housing estate. But just when they need all the help they can get to uncover a new breed of criminal, the highwayman is hailed a national hero, and the public turns against them...Bryant & May are back on the case in an adventure that explores the dark side of celebrity, the conflicts of youth, age and class, and the peculiar myths of old London. Author: Christopher Fowler Publisher: Transworld Publishers ISBN: 9780553817201 Format: Paperback Book Online Price: $24.95
	Beowulf Written between 700 and 1000AD, the original 3,000 line poem is sometimes called 'England's national epic'. It recounts the story of a Scandinavian warrior, Beowulf, who pledges to save King Hrothgar's people from the monstrous creature Grendel that has been terrorising his kingdom. In the ensuing fight, Beowulf rips off Grendel's arm and the now-mortally wounded monster flees back to his lair beneath a mysterious lake. But Beowulf's work is not yet done: an even greater threat emerges from beneath the waters - Grendel's mother, bent on avenging the death of her son...One of the great works of English literature, this classic tale of heroism and sacrifice has been transformed into a remarkable film. Directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary, Warner Bros.' Beowulf boasts a phenomenal cast, including Ray Winstone, John Malkovich, Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie. Employing cutting-edge technologies and dazzling special effects, this ambitious, dark, exciting film reimagines the story for the 21st century and a new generation. Opening in the UK on 16th Nov, the film will do for the story of Beowulf what '300' did for the Battle of Thermopylae. Award-winning dark fantasist Caitlin R. Kiernan's novelisation - with an introduction by Neil Gaiman - is both the perfect companion to the film and a compelling read in its own right. Author: Caitlin R. Kiernan Publisher: Transworld Publishers ISBN: 9780553819373 Format: Paperback Book Online Price: $24.95
	The American Brother What happens when the war against global terrorism also destroys individual integrity and personal freedom? This is the bold, disturbing theme of Manfred Jurgensen's The American Brother. Harry Greene, although a serious-minded intellectual, finds himself at times in absurdly humorous situations. Set in Australia and America, the novel laments the manipulation of identity when economic globalisation and international terror are intertwined. As we are carried through a series of breathtaking incidents, we confront the grim reality of how a tyranny of political counter-intelligence has set out to destroy the truth of individual, social and cultural self-determination...A gripping and beautifully written novel which will change the way you think.'Manfred Jurgensen is a gifted writer who knows how to surprise the reader. The American Brother is a tantalizing, strangely unsettling novel', Eleanor Jackson, Inkwell New York. About the Author: Manfred Jurgensen is a multiple award-winning writer whose works have been translated into European, Asian and Arab languages.His two previous novels, the Trembling Bridge and The Eyes of the Tiger, received critical acclaim, introducing readers to an arresting new voice in fiction. Manfred is Melbourne based. For a pdf reading sample please email Janet judge.janet@dennisjones.com.au (it is a 2mb file). Author: Manfred Jurgensen Publisher: Hybrid Publishers ISBN: 9781876462468 Format: Paperback Book Online Price: $29.95
	The Ancestors of Avalon The full sweep of the rich history of Avalon -- from the fall of Atlantis to the founding of a new temple on the mist-shrouded isle of Britain -- is finally revealed in this magnificent tale.The priests and priestesses of Atlantis have known for many years that the Sea Kingdoms were doomed. But now the final destruction has arrived they find themselves less prepared than they had thought for what lies ahead. Micail and Tiriki, prince and princess of the last island to fall, as well as priest and priestess, are separated during the final escape. Micail and his cousin, Prince Tjalan, successfully arrive at their planned destination, a trading post in the Hesperides (the British isles) where Tjalan loses no time in taking charge. He dreams of continuing the traditions of Atlantis and founding a glorious new empire -- whether the local tribes like it or not. Micail and the other priests dedicate themselves to fulfilling an ancient prophesy that they will build a great temple in this new land -- and set about finding a way to shift the huge blocks of granite that will become Stonehenge.Micail's beloved wife Tiriki also arrives in the Hesperides, but, blown off-course by a storm, her shi Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley & Diana L. Paxson Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers ISBN: 9780007138432 Format: Hardback Book Online Price: $59.95
	The Bride Hunt Hailed for her captivating blend of romance and sensuality, New York Times bestselling author Jane Feather has enchanted readers and critics alike. In this second book in her dazzling new trilogy, Constance, Prudence, and Chastity Duncan, London's most charming young matchmakers, are faced with a ruinous lawsuit--and it's up to the brainy, beautiful middle sister to extricate them. No sooner had the Duncan sisters' Personals service turned a profit than their controversial newspaper, The Mayfair Lady, offended a powerful earl--who is now determined to ruin them with a lawsuit. In dire need of counsel, the women turn to England's most-sought-after young barrister. Sir Gideon Malvern is notorious for his aggressive style--and his love of a challenge. Spirited Prudence, with her beauty unsuccessfully hidden behind spectacles and frumpy clothes, provides him with exactly that. But how in the world will the Duncan sisters be able to afford Gideon's fee? Prudence proposes a barter: Gideon defends their case they find him a bride. It's an exchange of services even this most cynical, single barrister can't refuse. Author: Jane Feather Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell ISBN: 9780553586190 Format: Paperback Book Online Price: $17.95
	Wedding Game In this dazzling finale to the latest trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Jane Feather, the inimitable, anonymous Duncan sisters continue to earn a living--and a reputation--with their clandestine matchmaking service. But a handsome new client has thrown youngest sister Chastity into a professional, and quite personal, quandary. From behind her opaque veil, Chastity listened to Dr. Douglas Farrell's distressingly unromantic requirements for a wife: wealth and social status. Her instinct was to refuse a man with such mercenary intentions. But she couldn't turn away a paying client. Obviously, if the tall, muscular, dark-eyed physician had wanted a love match, he'd have found one himself. Yet the truth about the pragmatic doctor is one that could very well turn her head--and steal her heart--providing she discovers it before it's too late. At the age of thirty-five, Douglas Farrell was ready to sacrifice his bachelorhood for his true passion--caring for the poorest of London's poor. But his dream requires capital. For that, he is convinced he needs a wealthy, well-connected wife. And for that, he needs the services of one mysteriously disguised, peculiarly accented--increasingly captivating--woman who will reveal herself only as the Mayfair Lady. Author: Jane Feather Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell ISBN: 9780553586206 Format: Paperback Book Online Price: $17.95
	Broken Angels Fifty years after the events of ALTERED CARBON, Takeshi Kovacs is serving as a mercenary in the Procterate-sponsored war to put down Joshuah Kemp's revolution on the planet Sanction IV. He is offered the chance to join a covert team chasing a prize whose value is limitless -- and whose dangers are endless. Here is a novel that takes mankind to the brink. A breakneck-paced crime thriller, ALTERED CARBON took its readers deep into the universe Morgan had so compellingly realised without ever letting them escape the onward rush of the plot. BROKEN ANGELS melds SF, the war novel and the spy thriller to take the reader below the surface of this future and lay bare the treacheries, betrayals and follies that leave man so ill-prepared for the legacy he has been given: the stars. This is SF at its dizzying best: superb, yet subtle, world-building strong yet sensitive characterisation awesome yet believable technology, thilling yet profound writing. Richard Morgan is set to join the genre's world-wide elite. Author: Richard Morgan Publisher: Orion Publishing ISBN: 9780575081253 Format: Paperback Book Online Price: $22.99
	Proposal, the In this spectacular new romance from acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Jane Feather, fate deals one stubbornly single young woman and one deceptively heartless man a shocking hand in a high-stakes bet. But is love in the cards? Jack Fortescu gambles to win, and this time his prize is not only his rival's lavish mansion but everything in it- including the man's beautiful sister! But when it comes to games, Jack has met his match. . . . Left homeless by her brother's escapade, Arabella Lacey has two appalling choices: pack her bags-or agree to marry the lunatic who's taken over her house. Why would such a handsome-and outrageously wealthy-man want such an unromantic arrangement? Arabella intends to find out, and have a little fun in the process at Jack's expense . . . literally. As Jack discovers that his reluctant bride is no ordinary beauty, he feels a stir of admiration, among other emotions, that wasn't part of the bargain. Now he's the one with everything to lose. . . . Author: Jane Feather Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell ISBN: 9780553587555 Format: Paperback Book Online Price: $19.95
	Brother Odd The third Odd Thomas novel from Dean Koontz, following Odd Thomas and Forever Odd. By popular demand, the story of the life and times of Odd Thomas continues. To escape the haunting memories of his lost soul-mate Stormy Llewellyn, Odd has retreated to a monastry in the High Sierra. It's December. Icy winds and deep snow besiege the remote abbey, a contrast to the sunbleached desert town of Pico Mundo where Odd was born. A white dog named Boo befriends Odd. The King of Rock 'n' Roll has followed him there and silently serenades man and dog. But Elvis isn't the most spooky phenomenon in the place. Odd is one of four guests there. Another is John Heineman, world-famous physicist, who years earlier left the secular world because he found the nature of reality, as quantum mechanics reveals it, so very weird. But Heineman continues his physics experiments down in the catacombs of the facility. Added to this, those shadowy harbingers of extreme violence, bodachs, are prowling the halls. Only Odd can see them. Only he knows what their presence means. Odd has a knack for finding himself in the path of trouble no matter where he goes, even among the eccentric monks in their sanctuary ! where Odd is about to encounter an enemy that eclipses any he has yet known. Author: Dean Koontz Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers ISBN: 9780007243518 Format: Paperback Book Online Price: $32.99
	The Ballad of Desmond Kale In the early 1800s, out of the prison society of governors, redcoats, English gaolers, Irish convicts, and the few free settlers of Botany Bay, one had entured much farther inland than a few dozen miles from Sydney into the vast territory claimed, New South Wales. Or so it was believed until the escape of Desmond Kale and the vengeance of his rival, the wildly eccentric parson magistrate Matthew Stanton. THE BALLAD OF DESMOND KALE is Roger McDonald's broad-sweeping novel of the first days of British settlement in Australia. At the centre is Stanton's pursuit of Kale - an Irish political prisoner and a rebelliously brilliant breeder of sheep. The alchemy of wool fascinates, threatens, and transforms when it is discovered that fine wool thrives in New South Wales as nowhere else in in the world, producing veritable gold on sheep's backs. The laying to waste of Spain (Britain's chief supplier of fine wools) at the end of the Napoleonic wars, opens vast new opportunities of supply. THE BALLAD OF DESMOND KALE is both a love story of unusual interest and an epic novel of greed, ambition, conceit, and redemption.The novel is rich in its characterisations and the rawness of its settings, vigour of language, and vividness of personality. The action moves from the early Australian bush to the halls of Westminster, the mills of Yorkshire, the sierras of Spain, the wilds of the Southern Ocean, and returns at last into the far outback for its finale. Once the ballad is sung, ordinary experience is heightened, the world can never be the same again. A brilliant and inspired recreation of the early days of white Australian settlement by one of Australia's finest writers working at the height of his powers. Author: Roger McDonald Publisher: Random House Publishers ISBN: 9781741661149 Format: Paperback Book Online Price: $32.95
	Bangkok Haunts Sonchai has seen just about everything on his beat in Bangkok's crime-riddled District 8. But the video he's sent anonymously is something else. What he watches is a snuff film, and the person he sees die is Damrong, a woman he once loved and whom he still dreams about. And there's more: a twist at the end that turns the film into murder, and Sonchai into a man obsessed and - it becomes increasingly clear - literally haunted. His investigation forms a dizzying route from his own apartment - where he sleeps next to his pregnant wife while his fantasies deliver him up to Damrong through the office of his corrupt and worldly wise boss, Captain Vikorn to the backstreets of Phnom Penh where street gangs are only the most visible threats to the gilded rooms of the most exclusive men's club in Bangkok, whose members will do anything to protect their identity, and to explore their own darkest fantasies. Caught in a multi-dimensional web of intrigue and deception, Sonchai confronts the terrifying consequences of a lesson he should have learned long ago. In Bangkok, nothing is as it seems... Author: John Burdett Publisher: Transworld Publishers ISBN: 9780593055441 Format: Paperback Book Online Price: $32.95
	Cassandra French's Finishing School for Boys On the surface, Cassandra French is living the typical LA lifestyle. A lawyer at a film studio, she spends her days bored by the tedium of the Business Affairs department, and her evenings either dating a string of useless men or meeting up with her girlfriends to bemoan the uselessness of said men. But luckily none of this matters, because Cassandra French has a vocation. Cassandra is a woman on a mission. And her mission is to reform men. Because how is it that she's got such great girlfriends but never meets a man worthy of them? How is that a man can have no conversation, no manners and no fashion sense...and yet he gets his pick of beautiful women. Something has to be done. And so, in her basement, she's set up her own Finishing School for Boys. There men learn to dress well, to date well, to compliment a woman, to make great dinner conversation, and to leave behind all the arrogance, brutishness and idiocy that society has bred into them. It's all going brilliantly - her students are happy, Cassandra's succeeding at something she believes in passionately - until she enrols Jason Kelly, the studio's biggest star. And suddenly Cassie's in over her head... Author: Eric Garcia Publisher: Arrow Books ISBN: 9781844136773 Format: Paperback Book Online Price: $35.00
	Sisters Candy - it's the only the name she needs - is blazing her way through Paris, New York and Tokyo as fashion's latest international supermodel...Her sister, Tammy, has a job producing the most successful hit show on TV, and a home she loves in L.A.'s Hollywood Hills...In New York, oldest sister Sabrina is an ambitious young lawyer, while Annie is an American artist in Florence, living for her art...On one Fourth of July weekend, as they do every year, the four sisters come home to Connecticut for their family's annual gathering. But before the holiday is over, tragedy strikes and their world is utterly changed. Suddenly, four sisters who have been fervently pursuing success and their own lives - on opposite sides of the world - come together to share one New York brownstone, to support each other and their father, and to pick up the pieces while one sister struggles to heal her shattered body and soul. Thus begins an unscripted chapter of their lives, as a bustling house is soon filled with eccentric dogs, laughter, tears, friends, men...and the kind of honesty and unconditional love only sisters can provide. But as the four women settle in, each is forced to confront the direction of their respective lives. As the year passes and another July Fourth approaches, a season of grief and change gives way to new beginnings as a family comes together to savor its blessings and a future filled with unexpected gifts, surprises, and ultimately, hope. With unerring insight and compassion, Danielle Steel tells a compelling story of four sisters who love and laugh, struggle and triumph...and are irrevocably woven into the fabric of each other's lives. Brilliantly blending humor and heartbreak, she delivers a powerful message about the fragility - and the wonder - of life. Author: Danielle Steel Publisher: Transworld Publishers ISBN: 9780593056691 Format: Hardback Book Online Price: $59.95
	Nine Nights In August 1939, a brilliant, privileged twenty-seven-year-old American ethnologist mysteriously commits suicide in Brazil, while studying among the tribes of the Amazonian basin. He leaves behind him seven letters, alleging different motives for his suicide: to some, he said he had contracted a terrible disease to others, he said that he could not recover from his wife's betrayal with his own brother. (But he wasn't married, and he didn't have a brother.) Half a century later, intrigued by this unexplained mystery and the fragmentary evidence, the narrator sets out to discover the truth. He quickly becomes obsessed by the idea that the dead man must have left behind an eighth letter. Slipping between fact and fiction, reality and illusion, imagination and memory, this remarkable novel charts the narrator's increasingly personal quest to discover the true fate of the young anthropologist. As the reader watches, his search slowly drives him mad, a Marlow haunted by the fate of his own Kurtz... Author: Bernardo Carvalho Publisher: Arrow Books ISBN: 9780434012954 Format: Hardback Book Online Price: $39.95
	The Camomile Lawn Behind the large house, the fragrant camomile lawn stretches down to the Cornish cliffs. Here, in the dizzying heat of August 1939, five cousins have gathered at their aunt's house for their annual ritual of a holiday. For most of them it is the last summer of their youth, with the heady exhilarations and freedoms of lost innocence, as well as the fears of the coming war. The Camomile Lawn moves from Cornwall to London and back again, over the years, telling the stories of the cousins, their family and their friends, united by shared losses and lovers, by family ties and the absurd conditions imposed by war as their paths cross and recross over the years. Mary Wesley presents an extraordinarily vivid and lively picture of wartime London: the rationing, imaginatively circumvented the fallen houses the parties, the new-found comforts of sex, the desperate humour of survival - all of it evoked with warmth, clarity and stunning wit. And through it all, the cousins and their friends try to hold on to the part of themselves that laughed and played dangerous games on that camomile lawn. Author: Mary Wesley Publisher: Random House Publishers ISBN: 9780099499145 Format: Paperback Book Online Price: $24.95
	Deception Point When a new NASA satellite detects evidence of an astonishingly rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice, the floundering space agency proclaims a much-needed victory? a victory that has profound implications for U.S. space policy and the impending presidential election. With the Oval Office in the balance, the President dispatches White House Intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton to the Arctic to verify the authenticity of the find. Accompanied by a team of experts, including the charismatic academic Michael Tolland, Rachel uncovers the unthinkable - evidence of scientific trickery - a bold deception that threatens to plunge the world into controversy. But before Rachel can make her findings known, she realises, perhaps too late, that such knowledge puts her and Tolland in deadly jeopardy. Fleeing for their lives in an environment as desolate as it is lethal, they possess only one hope for survival: to find out who is behind this masterful ploy. The truth, they will learn, is the most shocking deception of all? Author: Dan Brown Publisher: Transworld Publishers ISBN: 9780552151764 Format: Paperback Book Online Price: $19.95
	The Castle in the Forest Who was Adolf Hitler? It's a question writers have been trying to answer for more than sixty years. But after thousands of biographies, histories, novels, and films, many fundamental questions remain: How do we explain Hitler's hatred? Where did it come from? Could it happen again? Norman Mailer sets out to respond to these and other crucial aspects of Hitler's personality in his immensely readable new novel. Spanning three generations, and a hundred years of history, the book brings to life the Hitlers ? grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, and, ultimately, young Adolf ? in an energetic and wildly entertaining family saga. Mailer recounts the marriages, incestuous couplings, estrangements, afflictions, and deaths that lead to the birth of little Adi in 1889. Told in the voice of a narrator who in time reveals himself as an assistant to the devil, this playful yet profound novel blends fact and fiction in an incomparable family tale that will cause the reader to re-examine his preconceived ideas about Hitler and the nature of his evil. Author: Norman Mailer Publisher: Little, Brown ISBN: 9780316861335 Format: Hardback Book Online Price: $55.00
	Maelstrom The Shongili twins, Ronan and Murel, accompany their friend Marmie on her luxury space craft Piaf to rescue their friend Ke-ola's family from an uninhabitable planet. They arrive to find the planet in the midst of a terrible meteor storm and when they go down to the surface find that the survivors have taken refuge under ground. Ronan and Murel change into seal form and find the survivors and their totem animals or aumakua, the giant turtles, or Honu, and the sharks.Back on Petaybee the twins, in their seal form, escort the Honus to their new home in the middle of the ocean. They also want to warn the otters and seals about the sharks. It is a long journey and Murel falls asleep and gets separated from the rest. She is surrounded by a pod of Orcas who, thinking she is a normal seal, try to eat her. Before they can do so she is caught up in a whirlpool caused by the volcanic activity in the area, as is Ronan, who had swum back to try to rescue her. They are rescued from the whirlpool by the mysterious deep sea otters and taken into their shielded city on the ocean floor.While their leader, Kushtaka, is talking to them her son Jeel sees the sharks and goes to inspect them, Murel races after him but is too late and Jeel is killed. Meanwhile Marmie and her crew are arrested on trumped up charges of kidnapping Ke-ola's family and taken to Gwinnett Incarceration Colony, along with most of the survivors they rescued. When Murel and Ronan return to their family and discover that Marmie has been arrested and the Piaf impounded they realize they need to get off the planet and go to her rescue. While staying with Kushtaka they were told that the deep sea otters were not just otters but beings from outer space who had hidden in the depths of Petaybee's oceans for years. Now that they have been discovered they plan to leave, the twins persuade Kushtaka to take them with her and to help them rescue Marmie. Author: Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Ann Scarborough Publisher: Transworld Publishers ISBN: 9780552154413 Format: Paperback Book Online Price: $21.95