Romance/Mainstream. 60964 words long. First published in 2011

The opening sequence of J.G. Ballard's The Crystal World, in which Dr. Edward Sanders begins his journey through Cameroon to visit his friends, Max and Elizabeth Clair, is reminiscent of Graham Greene's Journey Without Maps or the film "The African Queen." Ballard does a wonderful job of portraying a Cameroon which is still inhabited by a relatively large number of European colonizers, although his characters have a tendency to be more altruistic. Sanders runs a leper colony while the Clairs have set up a clinic in the interior of Cameroon. The characters who aren't altruistic are somewhat shady. Sanders gets involved with the gun-toting Ventress while still on the first leg of his journey and later meets the mine-owner, Thorensen. Although Sanders talks with each man individually, neither really reveal anything of this history, although it becomes clear that their destinies are tied to each other. Similarly, Father Balthus, a priest who is questioning his beliefs, is seen more as a shadowy figure than as an individual. Part of this shadiness is Sanders apparent inability to firmly connect with any of the characters he comes into contact with, including Louise Peret, the American journalist with whom he has an affair, and the Clairs, who are such good friends he will brave the rigors of travel to see them. As the first leg of his journey ends, Sanders begins to suspect that all is not right at Mont Royal, where the Clairs have their clinic. During his brief stay in Port Matarre, Sanders sees some exquisite crystal work which seems to have come from the interior, near Mont Royal. The appearance in the harbor of a man whose body has been crystalized confirms that something strange is going on and Sanders, along with Louise, begin their journey to Mont Royal, he to see his friends, she to find out what happened to her colleagues. The second part of the novel takes place once Sanders has arrived in Mont Royal. By now he knows the secret, that the jungle is turning everything in it to crystal. This change effects organic and inorganic objects equally, and a thin crystaline shell covers the river. Neither Sanders nor Ballard seem to be particularly interested in what is causing the crystalization, although Ballard does create an esoteric explanation which does not seem particularly likely. Although Sanders is the thread that ties everyone's stories together in Mont Royal, he actually seems to have little sustained interaction with any of the other characters. Instead, he spends enough time with each of them to heighten the air of mystery about them without shedding any light on their histories, motives or the strange occurences in the jungle. It is of note that the most interesting character Sanders deals with, who gives him the most information, is one of the most minor characters in the novel, Kwanga. While Ballard manages to evoke the setting of colonial Africa, his story and the characters are not particularly compelling. The Crystal World is definitely a novel written in the 1960s, and although the drug culture is not explicit in the novel, the book does have an hallucinatory quality which evokes the use of drugs. If the reader is looking for plot or character, The Crystal World falls short. If the goal is to find evocative prose and a strong sense of locale, then The Crystal World is a novel to look for. Steven H Silver

Winter Musgrave remembers nothing about her life except for the bare bones of her childhood and pieces of her years as a successful trader on Wall Street. She fears she has gone mad—but is it madness when objects shatter when she grows angry and the doors and windows of her home unlock and open while she sleeps? When mutilated corpses of small animals appear on the doorstep of her isolated farmhouse?Desperate, Winter seeks help at the Bidney Institute for Psychic Research. With the help of Truth Jourdemayne, Winter recalls that she had once been a member of a magickal circle—one that left something behind . . . . Truth is no stranger to the paranormal, but she isn't prepared for the strength and fury of the thing that is hunting Winter and her old friends. Winter must gather the scattered remnants of her circle. It won't be easy, not with her best friend dead—murdered by magickal evil—and her old love,...

Long-awaited final volume in the Avalon series by bestselling fantasy author, Marion Zimmer Bradley. As the Merlin of Britannia keeps his vigil atop the Tor of Avalon, Rian, the High Priestess of Avalon, dies giving birth to her fifth child. The girl, named Eilan with her mother's dying breath, takes life. From the stars the Merlin draws forth her prophecy: 'The child that was born at the Turning of Autumn, just as the night gave way to dawn, shall stand at the turning of the Age, the gateway between two worlds.' A prophecy of greatness, but it seems that she is destined to walk a path unlike any trod by a Priestess of Avalon before! Published posthumously, this spellbinding historical romance is the concluding volume in the Avalon series from Marion Zimmer Bradley, the author of the worldwide bestseller, The Mists of Avalon, who died in 1999.

The peace and quiet of a remote homestead in the 1880s American West is shattered by the arrival of two shadowy outriders searching for 'the healer'. When the farmer refuses to help them, they raze the house to the ground using guns that shoot bolts of energy instead of bullets...In the town of Redwater, the Doctor and Martha learn of a snake-oil salesman who's patent medicines actually cure his patient. But when the Doctor and Martha investigate they discover the truth is stranger, and far more dangerous. Caught between the law of the gun and the deadly plans of intergalactic mercenaries, the Doctor and Martha are about to discover just how wild the West can become... Featuring the Tenth Doctor and Martha as played by David Tennant and Freema Agyeman in the hit Doctor Who series from BBC Television.

Werehunter is a short story collection of Mercedes Lackey's early work. Lope through the night with a young woman who has been given the power to transform herself into a leopard, but who now finds herself pursued by a hunter who is more than human: Follow the adventures of Skitty, ship's cat extraordinaire, and telepathic problem-solver. Ride with a late night driver on a solitary road who learns that what appears to be a piece of cardboard blowing across the road is actually something very sinister in disguise. Join Lackey's celebrated occult detective Diana Tregarde as she attends a gathering of romance writers and encounters a visitor whose passionate desire is for fresh, warm blood. Return to the world of the Heralds of Valdemar. And there's much more. Lackey's many fans will know what to expect: unforgettable characters in spellbinding stories from a grand master of fantasy and science fiction. And readers just discovering her have a treat in store. The story Werehunter was originally the song Golden Eyes on the album Magic, Moondust & Melancholy , and was inspired by Andre Norton's Witch World series. The were characters from Year of the Unicorn and the Jargoon Pard meet their long lost kin in this short story. Stories include: Werehunter SKitty A Tale of Two SKitties SCat A Better Mousetrap The Last of the Season Satanic, Versus Nightside Wet Wings Stolen Silver Roadkill Operation Desert Fox Grey Grey's Ghost

THE GREATEST WESTERN WRITERS OF THE 21ST CENTURYIn this thrilling epic of the American West, bestselling authors William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone capture the human side of the frontier experience in all its glory, grit, and grandeur—through the eyes of one remarkable teenage boy...Leaving their Pennsylvania home to forge a new life in the untamed Oregon Territory of 1845, the Colter family is ambushed by a kill crazy gang of cutthroats on the Oregon Trail. Fifteen-year-old Tim Colter manages to escape and hide—only to return and find his parents butchered, his sisters Nancy and Margaret missing, and one last killer waiting for his return.Forced to fight for his life, the young Colter embarks on a perilous journey across a lawless frontier, hoping to save his sisters and salvage the dream they lived for. But first, Tim has to figure out how to survive. Luckily, he finds a new friend in Jed Reno, a grizzled one-eyed trapper who's lived in...