World Fiction

In the 20th century Earth sent probes, transmissions, and welcoming messages to the stars. Unfortunately, someone noticed. The Galactics arrived with their battle fleet in 2052. Rather than being exterminated under a barrage of hell-burners, Earth joined their vast Empire. Swearing allegiance to our distant alien overlords wasn't the only requirement for survival. We also had to have something of value to trade, something that neighboring planets would pay their hard-earned credits to buy. As most of the local worlds were too civilized to have a proper army, the only valuable service Earth could provide came in the form of soldiers....

Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He's a normal Italian teenager - obsessed with music, food, and girls - but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior. In an attempt to protect him, Pino's parents force him to enlist as a German soldier - a move they think will keep him out of combat.

Did you know that most of our dinosaur fossils were discovered because two grown men absolutely hated each other? It’s true! Rivals! Frenemies Who Changed the World is a riotous audio exclusive, like if Monty Python taught your history class. Each volume of four 30-minute histories will dig into the petty name-calling and grumbling grudges that led to many of the world’s greatest advancements, all delivered with a cheeky sense of humor. Choose sides: Cope or Marsh, the jerks who discovered so many dinosaurs; Hamilton or Burr, whose rivalry fueled American politics; and many more....

Most had become pirates or scavengers who would just sail around seeking food or the necklace, which over time seemed more like a myth. Only two seasons were left in the world, cold and frozen. Oddly, mostly everyone liked when the season was frozen since the people could stop sailing around and walk on the frozen waters as though it were land.

Ryan Stonebridge and his friend Kristian Hurst are heading off on the trip of a lifetime. They're spending their gap year traveling the world and expect lots of sun, sights, and sex. The guys have a couple of days in the English capital before catching the Eurostar to Paris. Unfortunately, a family emergency means that Kristian has to head back home for a while, leaving Ryan to continue the trip alone. Luckily for Ryan, he's an attractive guy and there is no shortage of gorgeous women available to help take his mind off Kristian's family drama.

Guadalcanal, the largest island in the Solomons, is being occupied by the Imperial Japanese Navy. As a new airfield nears construction, the United States Navy and Marine Corps know they must act quickly or the entire course of the war could swing in Japan’s favor. As a massive invasion force gathers, Art Turner and the decorated crew of USS Bull Shark are once again sent on a secret mission. The clock is ticking, and Turner, his Marine Raiders, and the Bull Shark herself must face aircraft carriers, marauding Japanese soldiers, and a deadly jungle before time runs out!

Captain Marryat's The Children of the New Forest is a wonderful tale in narrative, historically rich and quite fascinating. This story of adventure, treachery, and love takes place during the English Civil War, when fellow countrymen are found enemies, and are set against each other, Roundhead and Cavalier, Parliament and the King. Many hoped for the same thing: justice. But, for a long time, neither could find it. In the midst of all were the Beverlies, the family of a faithful Cavalier, who died in service of the king.

Spring has sprung in Brunhild, and Mochizuki Touya continues to live his happy-go-lucky life. Flowers bloom, parties come and go, and everything seems just about fine... But wait! The mysterious pink-haired girl, Sakura, is identified by someone. Just what could this mean for her? Who exactly is Farnese Forneus, and what is her connection to the overlord of Xenoahs? But wait, a more pressing issue is the final piece of Babylon, and the remarkably twisted secret it has in store for our heroes... Set a very cautious course for a tale of swords, sorcery, and advanced cryogenics!

A vicious 15-year-old droog is the central character of this 1963 classic, a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom. In Anthony Burgess' nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends' social pathology.

The marines have seized control of the Japanese airfield on Guadalcanal, but this isn’t the end of their troubles…it’s only the beginning. The Japanese bomb them by day, attack from the forbidding darkness of the jungles by night, and their ships, like hungry sharks, prowl just offshore after the sun goes down. Whoever controls the canal controls the war. The Japanese know this, so they concoct a plan to send men and equipment ashore using fast destroyers—ships that can come by night and leave before the Cactus Airforce or Admiral Fletcher’s carrier planes can stop them.

Madigan Wicked’s heart is not up for grabs. She’s been there, done that, and she’s not going back for seconds. She pours her heart and soul into her family, her puppetry and storytelling performances, and her greeting-card line. But she’s not opposed to having a night of fun, and the gruff, sinfully hot, definitely-not-looking-for-love mysterious stranger she runs into at a bar might be just the right man to enjoy it with.

Lovers Rock stars Jamaica: its language, its landscape, its vibe, its humor, its edge and its persistent, dogged beauty. These seven stories imagine strange, quirky, familiar and delicious encounters between people in search of romantic love in the twenty-first century. Featuring characters from of all walks of life, each story is connected by the unique vibe of Jamaican desire.

Tank Wicked lost his sister and has since vowed to save everyone else in his path. He lives by the creed of the Dark Knights motorcycle club, sworn to protect and respect his community. He selflessly saves lives as a volunteer firefighter and treats the men and women who work for him at his tattoo shop like family. But life isn’t a balance scale where good deeds negate bad things to come, and one foggy night life guts Tank once again.

In the six volumes of the Library of the World’s Best Mystery and Detective Stories, Julian Hawthorne presents us thrilling and mysterious short stories from all corners of the world. Some of the stories appeared in this 1907 collection for the first time translated into English, and many of them come from unexpected sources, such as the letters of Pliny the Younger, or a Tibetan manuscript. In the first volume, we find stories written by American authors.

With their supplies reclaimed and food enough for the future, the group at Barry's cabin can do more than just scrape by. Between fruitful gardens, great friends, and sturdy fences—not to mention karaoke—life in the zompoc is better than ever. Nothing is perfect, however. Across the country, safe zones are mysteriously going dark, and Oregon's summer weather has turned the forest into a tinderbox. As the unknown danger closes in and smoke begins to fill the sky, the survivors are all too aware of how quickly plans unravel, fences fall, and luck runs out.

This book is considered a prophetical novel foretelling the advent of nuclear weapons. A constant theme in Wells’ work, such as his 1901 nonfiction book Anticipations, was the role of energy and technological advance as a determinant of human progress. The novel opens with this: "The story of mankind is the history of the attainment of external power. Man is the tool-using, fire-making animal...."

Freeing Sully is the short prequel to the novel For the Love of Whiskey, detailing Sullivan “Sully” Tate’s escape from the Free Rebellion compound.

Presenting the book World of Warcraft fans have been clamoring for - the true story behind one of the Warcraft universe’s most terrifying villains, Arthas the Lich King.

Merritt Alder is done with Earth. The planet is polluted and overpopulated, and its people are hungry. Earth's first colony, Galena, is a pioneer world 10,000 light years away. It has clean air, unpolluted water, and continents of arable land. Anyone can start a new life…if they can get there. For Merritt, the journey is only the beginning. Obstacles arise every step of the way, forcing compromise and sacrifice. And not everyone on his ship is pure of heart. The bonds he forges on the journey will be the key to surviving on another world—a world anyone has yet to fully explore.

When Jafar steals the Genie’s lamp, he uses his first two wishes to become sultan and the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Agrabah lives in fear, waiting for his third and final wish. To stop the power-mad ruler, Aladdin and the deposed Princess Jasmine must unite the people of Agrabah in rebellion. But soon their fight for freedom threatens to tear the kingdom apart in a costly civil war.