Novels such as Carnal Gift and Sweet Release made Pamela Clare's rising star shine. Now, she turns her impressive talents to a novel of modern romance - and breathless intrigue...

It's been years since her child's father dumped her, and since then, Kara McMillan has kept men at bay - although every day she aches more for a lover's touch. But to get that, the hard-boiled journalist must become vulnerable - a feeling she vowed never to have again.

With his dangerous good looks, charm, and power, Senator Reece Sheridan could have just about any woman he sets his piercing eyes on. But he's intrigued by only one. This Kara, this gutsy investigative reporter, has a sensuality that arouses him to no end. If she's a firebrand in print, he guesses, she must be just as fiery in bed...

But this is no fling. A sudden political scandal - and attempts on Kara's life - could very well drive them apart. Or maybe, just maybe, adversity could draw them into a bond even more intense than their steamy sexual embraces.

When Rohan became the new prince of the Desert, ruler of the kingdom granted to his family for as long as the Long Sands spewed fire, he took the crown with two goals in mind. First and foremost, he sought to bring permanent peace to his world of divided princedoms. And, in a land where dragon-slaying was a proof of manhood, Rohan was the sole champion of the dragons, fighting desperately to preserve the last remaining lords of the sky and with them a secret which might be the salvation of his people.

Sioned, the Sunrunner witch who was fated by Fire to be Rohan’s bride, had mastered the magic of sunlight and moonglow, catching hints of a yet to be formed pattern which could irrevocably affect the destinies of Sunrunners and ordinary mortals alike. Yet caught in the machinations of the Lady of Goddess Keep, and of Prince Rohan and his sworn enemy, the treacherously cunning High Prince, could Sioned alter this crucial pattern to protect her lord from the menace of a war that threatened to set the land ablaze?

The Yacoubian Building is a controversial bestselling novel in the Arab world that reveals the political corruption, sexual repression, religious extremism, and modern hopes of Egypt today.

All manner of flawed and fragile humanity reside in the Yacoubian Building, a once-elegant temple of Art Deco splendor now slowly decaying in the smog and bustle of downtown Cairo: a fading aristocrat and self-proclaimed "scientist of women"; a sultry, voluptuous siren; a devout young student, feeling the irresistible pull toward fundamentalism; a newspaper editor helplessly in love with a policeman; a corrupt and corpulent politician, twisting the Koran to justify his desires.

These disparate lives careen toward an explosive conclusion in Alaa Al Aswany's remarkable international bestseller. Teeming with frank sexuality and heartfelt compassion, this book is an important window into the experience of loss and love in the Arab world.

Gabriel García Márquez's most political novel is the tragic story of General Simón Bolívar, the man who tried to unite a continent.

Bolívar, known in six Latin American countries as the Liberator, is one of the most revered heroes of the western hemisphere; in García Márquez's brilliant reimagining, he is magnificently flawed as well.

The novel follows Bolívar as he takes his final journey in 1830 down the Magdalena River toward the sea, revisiting the scenes of his former glory and lamenting his lost dream of an alliance of American nations. Forced from power, dogged by assassins, and prematurely aged and wasted by a fatal illness, the General is still a remarkably vital and mercurial man.

He seems to remain alive by the sheer force of will that led him to so many victories in the battlefields and love affairs of his past. As he wanders in the labyrinth of his failing powers—and still-powerful memories—he defies his impending death until the last.

The General in His Labyrinth is an unforgettable portrait of a visionary from one of the greatest writers of our time.

Gabriel Allon had a simple but brutal job: he tracked down and eliminated Israel's terrorist enemies. But when his wife and son fell victim to the danger that accompanied him everywhere, Gabriel quit and devoted himself to the work of art restoration, an occupation that had previously been a cover for his secret assignments.

Now Ari Shamron, the head of Israeli intelligence, needs Gabriel's particular kind of experience to thwart a Palestinian plot to destroy the peace negotiations in the Middle East. The architect of this plot, a Palestinian zealot named Tariq, is a lethal part of Gabriel's past, so as the two begin an intercontinental game of hide-and-seek, with life and death as the prizes, the motives are as personal as they are political.

The story features a vivid and fascinating supporting cast, including the magus-like Ari Shamron, a beautiful French Jewish model who is seeking retribution for her family's death in the Holocaust, and a marvelously comic down-at-the-heels London art dealer. Set these colorful and varied characters against a brilliant background of political intrigue and vengeance at the highest levels and a manhunt that covers three continents, and the result is a smart and electrically exciting global thriller.

After the exotic eroticism of Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare returned to Rome for one of his final tragedies, and the change could not have been more dramatic. Coriolanus is one of Shakespeare's harshest and most challenging studies of power, politics, and masculinity, based around the life of Caius Marcius.

Based on the Roman chronicles of Plutarch's Lives and Livy's History of Rome, the play is set in the early years of the Roman Republic. Its famous opening scene, particularly admired by Bertolt Brecht, portrays its citizens as starving and rebellious, horrified by the arrogant and dismissive attitude of Caius Marcius, one of Rome's most valiant but also politically naive soldiers.

Spurred on by his ambitious mother Volumnia, Caius takes the city of Corioles, is renamed Coriolanus in honor of his victory, and is encouraged to run for the senate. However, his contempt for the citizens, whom he calls "scabs" and "musty superfluity," ultimately leads to his exile and destructive alliance with his deadly foe, Aufidius.

Despite its relative unpopularity, Coriolanus is a fascinating study of both public and personal life. Its language is dense and complex, as is its representation of the tensions built into the fabric of Roman political life. Yet it also contains extraordinarily intimate scenes between Coriolanus and both his mother, who ultimately proves "most mortal" to her own son, and his enemy Aufidius, whose "rapt heart" is happier to see Coriolanus than his own wife.

One of Shakespeare's darker and more disturbing plays.

Richard II, written in 1595, occupies a significant place in the Shakespeare canon. It marks the transition from the earlier history plays dominated by civil war and stark power to a more nuanced representation of the political conflicts of England's past where character and politics are inextricably intertwined. It is the first of four connected plays—including 1 Henry IV, 2 Henry IV, and Henry V—generally considered Shakespeare's finest history plays.

The drama of Richard II centers on the power struggle between the grandiloquent King Richard and the plain-spoken, blunt Henry Bolingbroke, who is banished from Britain at the beginning of the play. But when Henry's father John of Gaunt dies, Richard confiscates his property with no regard to his son's rights. Bolingbroke returns to confront the king, who surrenders his crown and is imprisoned in Pomfret Castle, where he is soon murdered.

This new edition in the acclaimed Oxford Shakespeare series features a freshly edited version of the text. The wide-ranging introduction describes the play's historical circumstances, both the period that it dramatizes (the start of the wars of the roses) and the period in which it was written (late Elizabethan England), and the play's political significance in its own time and our own. It also focuses on the play's richly poetic language and its success over the centuries as a play for the stage. Extensive explanatory notes help readers at all levels understand and appreciate the language, characters, and dramatic action.

Bestselling author Orson Scott Card brings to life a new chapter in the saga of Ender's Earth. Earth and its society have been changed irrevocably in the aftermath of Ender Wiggin's victory over the Formics. The unity forced upon the warring nations by an alien enemy has shattered.

Nations are rising again, seeking territory and influence, and most of all, seeking to control the skills and loyalty of the children from the Battle School. But one person has a better idea. Peter Wiggin, Ender's older, more ruthless, brother, sees that any hope for the future of Earth lies in restoring a sense of unity and purpose. And he has an irresistible call on the loyalty of Earth's young warriors.

With Bean at his side, the two will reshape our future. Here is the continuing story of Bean and Petra, and the rest of Ender's Dragon Army, as they take their places in the new government of Earth.

An Unfinished Life offers an in-depth exploration of the life of John F. Kennedy, drawing on previously unavailable material and never-before-opened archives. This remarkable biography is packed with revelations, both large and small, about JFK's health, his love affairs, and the pivotal role his family played in his political ascent.

Robert Dallek brilliantly explores JFK's strengths and weaknesses, providing a vivid portrait of a bold, brave, complex, and human Kennedy. The book delves into RFK's appointment as Attorney General, the influence of Joseph Kennedy in helping his son win the White House, and the path JFK might have taken in the Vietnam entanglement had he survived.

An Unfinished Life is not just a biography but a critical balance of JFK's life, revealing how his health issues secretly influenced his presidency while he publicly maintained an image of robust good health.

It's 54 BCE. Gaius Julius Caesar is sweeping through Gaul, crushing the fierce, long-haired warrior-kings who stand in his way. His victories in the name of Rome are epic, but the leaders of the Republic are not pleased. They're terrified. Where will the boundless ambition of Rome's most brilliant soldier stop? He must be destroyed before he can overthrow the government and install himself as Dictator.

The "New York Times" bestselling author brilliantly reconstructs the mighty republic that once ruled the ancient world and celebrates the genius, passion, ruthlessness, and magnificence of the noblest Roman of all: Gaius Julius Caesar.

A shocking scientific discovery. A conspiracy of staggering brilliance. A thriller unlike any you've ever read....

When a NASA satellite discovers an astonishingly rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice, the floundering space agency proclaims a much-needed victory—a victory with profound implications for NASA policy and the impending presidential election. To verify the authenticity of the find, the White House calls upon the skills of intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton. Accompanied by a team of experts, including the charismatic scholar Michael Tolland, Rachel travels to the Arctic and uncovers the unthinkable: evidence of scientific trickery—a bold deception that threatens to plunge the world into controversy. But before she can warn the President, Rachel and Michael are ambushed by a deadly team of assassins. Fleeing for their lives across a desolate and lethal landscape, their only hope for survival is to discover who is behind this masterful plot. The truth, they will learn, is the most shocking deception of all.

Red Rabbit takes us back to the early days of Jack Ryan, long before he was President or head of the CIA. Before he fought terrorist attacks on the Super Bowl or the White House, even before a submarine named Red October made its perilous way across the Atlantic, Jack Ryan was a historian, teacher, and recent ex-Marine temporarily living in England while researching a book.

A series of deadly encounters with an IRA splinter group had brought him to the attention of the CIA's Deputy Director, Vice Admiral James Greer—as well as his counterpart with the British SIS, Sir Basil Charleston. When Greer asked him if he wanted to come aboard as a freelance analyst, Jack was quick to accept. The opportunity was irresistible, and he was sure he could fit it in with the rest of his work.

And then Jack forgot all about the rest of his work, because one of his first assignments was to help debrief a high-level Soviet defector. The defector told an amazing tale: Top Soviet officials, including Yuri Andropov, were planning to assassinate the Pope, John Paul II. Could it be true?

As the days and weeks go by, Ryan must battle, first to try to confirm the plot, and then to prevent it. This is a brave new world, and nothing he has done up to now has prepared him for the lethal game of cat-and-mouse that is the Soviet Union versus the United States. In the end, it will be not just the Pope's life but the stability of the Western world that is at stake... and it may already be too late for a novice CIA analyst to do anything about it.

The land of Terre d'Ange is a place of unsurpassing beauty and grace. It is said that angels found the land and saw it was good... and the ensuing race that rose from the seed of angels and men live by one simple rule: Love as thou wilt.

Phèdre nó Delaunay is a young woman who was born with a scarlet mote in her left eye. Sold into indentured servitude as a child, her bond is purchased by Anafiel Delaunay, a nobleman with very a special mission... and the first one to recognize who and what she is: one pricked by Kushiel's Dart, chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one.

Phèdre is trained equally in the courtly arts and the talents of the bedchamber, but, above all, the ability to observe, remember, and analyze. Almost as talented a spy as she is courtesan, Phèdre stumbles upon a plot that threatens the very foundations of her homeland. Treachery sets her on her path; love and honor goad her further. And in the doing, it will take her to the edge of despair... and beyond. Hateful friend, loving enemy, beloved assassin; they can all wear the same glittering mask in this world, and Phèdre will get but one chance to save all that she holds dear.

Set in a world of cunning poets, deadly courtiers, heroic traitors, and a truly Machiavellian villainess, this is a novel of grandeur, luxuriance, sacrifice, betrayal, and deeply laid conspiracies. Not since Dune has there been an epic on the scale of Kushiel's Dart-a massive tale about the violent death of an old age, and the birth of a new.

The War is over, won by Ender Wiggin and his team of brilliant child-warriors. The enemy is destroyed, the human race is saved. Ender himself refuses to return to the planet, but his crew has gone home to their families, scattered across the globe. The battle school is no more.

But with the external threat gone, the Earth has become a battlefield once more. The children of the Battle School are more than heroes; they are potential weapons that can bring power to the countries that control them. One by one, all of Ender's Dragon Army are kidnapped. Only Bean escapes; and he turns for help to Ender's brother Peter.

Peter Wiggin, Ender's older brother, has already been manipulating the politics of Earth from behind the scenes. With Bean's help, he will eventually rule the world.

Shadow of the Hegemon is the second novel in Orson Scott Card's Shadow Series.

The Gadfly is a compelling tale of love and conspiracy set against the backdrop of revolution. This classic novel, first published in 1897, explores themes of political awareness and personal sacrifice.

Based in part on the early life of Sidney Rosenblum, better known as "Reilly Ace of Spies", the story weaves together elements of historical fiction and personal drama, making it a pioneering work in the genre of socialist literature.

Join the protagonist on a journey filled with intrigue and emotion, as they navigate a world of revolutionary ideas and personal dilemmas.

We are behind, and below, the scenes of JFK's presidential election, the Bay of Pigs, the assassination—in the underworld that connects Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, D.C...

Where the CIA, the Mob, J. Edgar Hoover, Howard Hughes, Jimmy Hoffa, Cuban political exiles, and various loose cannons conspire in a covert anarchy...

Where the right drugs, the right amount of cash, the right murder, buys a moment of a man's loyalty...

Where three renegade law-enforcement officers—a former L.A. cop and two FBI agents—are shaping events with the virulence of their greed and hatred, riding full-blast shotgun into history...

James Ellroy's trademark nothing-spared rendering of reality, blistering language, and relentless narrative pace are here in electrifying abundance, put to work in a novel as shocking and daring as anything he's written: a secret history that zeroes in on a time still shrouded in secrets and blows it wide open.

One month in 1865 witnessed the frenzied fall of Richmond, a daring last-ditch Southern plan for guerrilla warfare, Lee's harrowing retreat, and then, Appomattox. It saw Lincoln's assassination just five days later and a near-successful plot to decapitate the Union government, followed by chaos and coup fears in the North, collapsed negotiations and continued bloodshed in the South, and finally, the start of national reconciliation.

In the end, April 1865 emerged as not just the tale of the war's denouement, but the story of the making of our nation. Jay Winik offers a brilliant new look at the Civil War's final days that will forever change the way we see the war's end and the nation's new beginning.

Uniquely set within the larger sweep of history and filled with rich profiles of outsize figures, fresh iconoclastic scholarship, and a gripping narrative, this is a masterful account of the thirty most pivotal days in the life of the United States.

Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire offers a fascinating glimpse into the world of late-eighteenth-century British aristocracy. This wonderfully readable biography tells the intimate story of Lady Georgiana Spencer, a woman who, for a time, was the undisputed leader of her society.

Georgiana, a great-great-great-great-aunt of Diana, Princess of Wales, achieved immediate celebrity in 1774 by marrying the Duke of Devonshire, one of England's richest and most influential aristocrats. Thrust into a world of wealth and power, she became the queen of fashionable society, admired by the Prince of Wales and a dear friend of Marie-Antoinette.

Not content with merely being a society hostess, Georgiana used her connections to enter politics, becoming more influential than many men holding office. Her public success hid a personal life filled with challenges, including a complicated relationship with her husband and her closest friend, leading to an uneasy ménage à trois.

Georgiana's life was marked by uncontrollable gambling, all-night drinking, drug taking, and love affairs with leading politicians. These aspects of her life provide a captivating insight into the era of the madness of King George III, the American and French revolutions, and the defeat of Napoleon.

A gifted historian, Amanda Foreman draws on extensive research to write colorfully and insightfully about Georgiana, whose beauty, flamboyance, and determination make her an astonishingly contemporary figure.

For the first time, all five novels in the epic fantasy series that inspired HBO's Game of Thrones are together in one boxed set. An immersive entertainment experience unlike any other, A Song of Ice and Fire has earned George R. R. Martin--dubbed the American Tolkien by Time magazine--international acclaim and millions of loyal readers. Now here is the entire monumental cycle:

A Game of Thrones
A Clash of Kings
A Storm of Swords
A Feast for Crows
A Dance with Dragons

Winter is coming. Such is the stern motto of House Stark, the northernmost of the fiefdoms that owe allegiance to King Robert Baratheon in far-off King's Landing. There Eddard Stark of Winterfell rules in Robert's name. There his family dwells in peace and comfort: his proud wife, Catelyn; his sons Robb, Brandon, and Rickon; his daughters Sansa and Arya; and his bastard son, Jon Snow. Far to the north, behind the towering Wall, lie savage Wildings and worse--unnatural things relegated to myth during the centuries-long summer, but proving all too real and all too deadly in the turning of the season.

Yet a more immediate threat lurks to the south, where Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King, has died under mysterious circumstances. Now Robert is riding north to Winterfell, bringing his queen, the lovely but cold Cersei, his son, the cruel, vainglorious Prince Joffrey, and the queen's brothers Jaime and Tyrion of the powerful and wealthy House Lannister--the first a swordsman without equal, the second a dwarf whose stunted stature belies a brilliant mind. All are heading for Winterfell and a fateful encounter that will change the course of kingdoms.

Meanwhile, across the Narrow Sea, Prince Viserys, heir of the fallen House Targaryen, which once ruled all of Westeros, schemes to reclaim the throne with an army of barbarian Dothraki--whose loyalty he will purchase in the only coin left to him: his beautiful yet innocent sister, Daenerys.

Time and again, Tom Clancy's novels have been praised not only for their big-scale drama and propulsive narrative drive but for their cutting-edge prescience in predicting future events.

In The Bear and the Dragon, the future is very near at hand indeed. Newly elected in his own right, Jack Ryan has found that being President has gotten no easier: domestic pitfalls await him at every turn; there's a revolution in Liberia; the Asian economy is going down the tubes; and now, in Moscow, someone may have tried to take out the chairman of the SVR—the former KGB—with a rocket-propelled grenade. Things are unstable enough in Russia without high-level assassination, but even more disturbing may be the identities of the potential assassins. Were they political enemies, the Russian Mafia, or disaffected former KGB? Or, Ryan wonders, is something far more dangerous at work here?

Ryan is right. For even while he dispatches his most trusted eyes and ears, including black ops specialist John Clark, to find out the truth of the matter, forces in China are moving ahead with a plan of truly audacious proportions. If they succeed, the world as we know it will never look the same. If they fail...the consequences will be unspeakable.

Blending the exceptional realism and authenticity that are his hallmarks with intricate plotting, razor-sharp suspense, and a remarkable cast of characters, this is Clancy at his best—and there is none better.

Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire series spans the history of the United States from the Revolution to the post-World War II years. With their broad canvas and large cast of fictional and historical characters, the novels in this series present a panorama of the American political and imperial experience as interpreted by one of its most worldly, knowing, and ironic observers.

Burr is a portrait of perhaps the most complex and misunderstood of the Founding Fathers. In 1804, while serving as vice president, Aaron Burr fought a duel with his political nemesis, Alexander Hamilton, and killed him. In 1807, he was arrested, tried, and acquitted of treason. In 1833, Burr is newly married, an aging statesman considered a monster by many. Burr retains much of his political influence if not the respect of all. And he is determined to tell his own story. As his amanuensis, he chooses Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler, a young New York City journalist, and together they explore both Burr's past and the continuing political intrigues of the still young United States.

In this beautifully written biography, Alison Weir paints a vibrant portrait of a truly exceptional woman and provides new insights into her intimate world. Renowned in her time for being the most beautiful woman in Europe, the wife of two kings and mother of three, Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the great heroines of the Middle Ages.

At a time when women were regarded as little more than chattel, Eleanor managed to defy convention as she exercised power in the political sphere and crucial influence over her husbands and sons.

Eleanor of Aquitaine lived a long life of many contrasts, of splendor and desolation, power and peril, and in this stunning narrative, Weir captures the woman—and the queen—in all her glory. With astonishing historic detail, mesmerizing pageantry, and irresistible accounts of royal scandal and intrigue, she recreates not only a remarkable personality but a magnificent past era.

Something has gone wrong. A group of American bombers armed with nuclear weapons is streaking past the fail-safe point, beyond recall, and no one knows why. Their destination—Moscow.

In a bomb shelter beneath the White House, the calm young president turns to his Russian translator and says, "I think we are ready to talk to Premier Kruschchev." Not far away, in the War Room at the Pentagon, the secretary of defense and his aides watch with growing anxiety as the luminous blips crawl across a huge screen map. High over the Bering Strait in a large Vindicator bomber, a colonel stares in disbelief at the attack code number on his fail-safe box and wonders if it could possibly be a mistake.

First published in 1962, when America was still reeling from the Cuban missile crisis, Fail-Safe reflects the apocalyptic attitude that pervaded society during the height of the Cold War, when disaster could have struck at any moment. As more countries develop nuclear capabilities and the potential for new enemies lurks on the horizon, Fail-Safe and its powerful issues continue to respond.

On a busy Washington morning, amid the shuffle of tourists and the brisk rush of government officials, the stately calm of the White House is shattered in a hail of gunfire. A group of terrorists has descended on the Executive Mansion, gaining access by means of a violent massacre that has left dozens of innocent bystanders murdered.

Through the quick actions of the Secret Service, the president is evacuated to his underground bunker, but not before almost one hundred hostages are taken. While the politicians and the military leaders argue over how to negotiate with the terrorists, one man is sent in to break through the barrage of panicked responses and political agendas surrounding the chaotic crisis.

Mitch Rapp, the CIA's top counterterrorism operative, makes his way into the White House and soon discovers that the president is not as safe as Washington's power elite had thought. Moving stealthily among the corridors and secret passageways of the White House, stepping terrifyingly close to the enemy, Rapp scrambles to save the hostages before the terrorists can extract the president from the safety of his bunker.

In a race against time, Rapp makes a chilling discovery that could rock Washington to its core: someone within his own government is maneuvering in hopes that his rescue attempt will fail.

The Public Burning is a groundbreaking novel that emerged as a controversial best-seller in 1977. It has since become one of the most influential novels of our time. This work of contemporary fiction is unique as it uses living historical figures as characters.

The novel reimagines the three fateful days in 1953 that culminated with the execution of alleged atomic spies, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The story is dominantly narrated by Vice-President Richard Nixon — the voraciously ambitious bad boy of the Eisenhower regime.

The novel features an enormous cast including Betty Crocker, Joe McCarthy, the Marx Brothers, Walter Winchell, Uncle Sam, his adversary The Phantom, and Time magazine incarnated as the National Poet Laureate.

All these characters, along with thousands more, converge in Times Square for the carnivalesque auto-da-fe at which the Rosenbergs are put to death. Not a single person present escapes implication in Cold War America's ruthless public spectacle.

New York Times bestselling author Colleen McCullough re-creates an extraordinary epoch before the mighty Republic belonged to Julius Caesar—when Rome's noblewomen were his greatest conquest.

His victories were legend—in battle and bedchamber alike. Love was a political weapon he wielded cunningly and ruthlessly in his private war against enemies in the forum. Genius, general, patrician, Gaius Julius Caesar was history. His wives bought him influence. He sacrificed his beloved daughter on the altar of ambition. He burned for the cold-hearted mistress he could never dare trust. Caesar's women all knew—and feared—his power. He adored them, used them, destroyed them on his irresistible rise to prominence. And one of them would seal his fate.

The War of the End of the World is one of the great modern historical novels. Inspired by a real episode in Brazilian history, Mario Vargas Llosa tells the unforgettable story of an apocalyptic movement, led by a mysterious prophet, in which prostitutes, beggars and bandits establish Canudos, a new republic, a libertarian paradise.

Cordelia Naismith captains a throwaway ship of the Betan Expeditionary Force on a daring mission to destroy an enemy armada. As she navigates deception within deception and treachery within treachery, she is forced into a separate peace with her chief opponent, Lord Aral Vorkosigan—known as "The Butcher of Komarr"—leading her to become an outcast on her own planet and the Lady Vorkosigan on his.

Sick of combat and betrayal, Cordelia longs for a quiet life, interrupted only by the ceremonial duties of the Lady Vorkosigan. However, the sudden death of the Emperor thrusts Aral into the role of guardian for the infant heir to the imperial throne of Barrayar. Now, both Aral and Cordelia are targets of high-tech assassins in a dynastic civil war reminiscent of Earth's Middle Ages but fought with cutting-edge biowar technology.

Neither Aral nor Cordelia could foresee the pivotal role their cell-damaged unborn son would play in Barrayar's bloody legacy. Join them on a journey filled with epic battles, heroic journeys, and unexpected alliances.

2 eBooks in 1! George R. R. Martin, a writer of unsurpassed vision, power, and imagination, has created a landmark of fantasy fiction. Now his two epic works, A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings are combined together in this eBook edition.

Sweeping from a harsh land of cold to a summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, A Game of Thrones tells a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards who come together in a time of grim omens. Here, an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal, a tribe of fierce wildings carry men off into madness, a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne, a child is lost in the twilight between life and death, and a determined woman undertakes a treacherous journey to protect all she holds dear.

Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, allies and enemies, the fate of the Starks hangs perilously in the balance, as each side endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

In the eagerly awaited second volume in this epic saga, he once again proves himself a master myth-maker, setting a standard against which all other fantasy novels will be measured for years to come. Time is out of joint. The summer of peace and plenty, ten years long, is drawing to a close, and the harsh, chill winter approaches like an angry beast.

Two great leaders--Lord Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon--who held sway over an age of enforced peace are dead... victims of royal treachery. Now, from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns, as pretenders to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms prepare to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war.

As a prophecy of doom cuts across the sky--a comet the color of blood and flame--six factions struggle for control of a divided land. Eddard's son Robb has declared himself King in the North. In the south, Joffrey, the heir apparent, rules in name only, victim of the scheming courtiers who teem over King's Landing. Robert's two brothers each seek their own dominion, while a disfavored house turns once more to conquest.

And a continent away, an exiled queen, the Mother of Dragons, risks everything to lead her precious brood across a hard hot desert to win back the crown that is rightfully hers. A Clash of Kings transports us into a magnificent, forgotten land of revelry and revenge, wizardry and warfare. It is a tale in which maidens cavort with madmen, brother plots against brother, and the dead rise to walk in the night.

Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy; a knight of the mind prepares a poison for a treacherous sorceress; and wild men descend from the Mountains of the Moon to ravage the countryside. Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, the price of glory may be measured in blood. And the spoils of victory may just go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel ... and the coldest hearts. For when rulers clash, all of the land feels the tremors.

Audacious, inventive, brilliantly imagined, A Clash of Kings is a novel of dazzling beauty and boundless enchantment--a tale of pure excitement you will never forget.

In the middle of the night, a controversial U.S. senator is found murdered in bed in his Georgetown pied-a-terre. The police turn up only one clue: a mysterious rhyme signed "Jack and Jill" promising that this is just the beginning. Jack and Jill are out to get the rich and famous, and they will stop at nothing until their fiendish plan is carried out.

Meanwhile, Washington, D.C., homicide detective Alex Cross is called to a murder scene only blocks from his house, far from the corridors of power where he spends his days. The victim: a beautiful little girl, savagely beaten—and deposited in front of the elementary school Cross's son, Damon, attends.

Could there be a connection between the two murders? As Cross tries to put the pieces together, the killer—or killers—strike again. And again. No one in Washington is safe—not children, not politicians, not even the President of the United States. Only Alex Cross has the skills and the courage to crack the case—but will he discover the truth in time?

A relentless roller coaster of heart-pounding suspense and jolting plot twists, Jack and Jill proves that no one can write a more compelling thriller than James Patterson, the master of the nonstop nightmare.

The Proud Tower offers a vivid portrait of the world in the years leading up to World War I, a time marked by rapid and unprecedented change.

During this fateful quarter century, a privileged few basked in Olympian luxury, while the underclass was heaving in its pain, power, and hate.

Barbara W. Tuchman brings the era to life, depicting the decline of the Edwardian aristocracy, the rise of Anarchists in Europe and America, and Germany's self-depicted hero, Richard Strauss.

The narrative explores Diaghilev’s Russian ballet, Stravinsky’s music, and the infamous Dreyfus Affair. It delves into the Peace Conferences in The Hague and the enthusiasm and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized by the assassination of Jean Jaurès on the eve of the Great War.

This work is part of Barbara W. Tuchman's Great War Series, alongside The Guns of August and The Zimmermann Telegram.

A runaway Jumbo jet has crashed into the Capitol Building in Washington, leaving the President dead along with most of the Cabinet and Congress. Dazed and confused, the man who only minutes before was confirmed as the new caretaker Vice-President is told that he is now President of the United States.

President John Patrick Ryan must navigate the complexities of running a government without a government. Where do you begin? Ryan knows that the eyes of the world are on him now—and many of them are unfriendly. In Beijing, Tehran, and even in Washington, there are those eager to take advantage.

Soon, they will make their moves; soon, they will present Jack Ryan with a crisis so immense that even he could not imagine it.

Absolute Power plunges readers into a world of political intrigue and suspense. When professional burglar Luther Whitney breaks into a Virginia mansion, he becomes an unwitting witness to a crime of unimaginable proportions.

Trapped behind a two-way mirror, Luther witnesses a brutal crime involving the President of the United States — a man who believes he can get away with anything. The shocking events he observes shatter his faith in justice and everything he holds dear.

The story unfolds into an unthinkable abuse of power and a criminal conspiracy, as a breathtaking cover-up is set in motion by those appointed to protect the nation's highest office. As Luther Whitney becomes the target of a relentless manhunt, he must navigate a dangerous world of deceit and corruption to bring the truth to light.

This novel is a high-octane thriller that explores the dark side of power and the lengths to which some will go to protect it. With its intricate plot and compelling characters, Absolute Power is a gripping tale of suspense and moral dilemmas.

Cyteen is a gripping tale of murder, politics, and genetic manipulation. Set on the distant planet of Cyteen, a brilliant young scientist rises to power, haunted by the knowledge that her predecessor and genetic duplicate met a mysterious end at the hands of a trusted advisor.

This novel provides an intricate framework of power dynamics and personal intrigue. C.J. Cherryh, the acclaimed author of Downbelow Station, showcases her talent for intense, literate storytelling. The narrative maintains a compelling interest throughout its complex and lengthy journey.

Razio Yamata is one of Japan's most influential industrialists, and part of a relatively small group of authority who wield tremendous power in the Pacific Rim's economic powerhouse. He has devised a plan to cripple the American greatness, humble the US military, and elevate Japan to a position of dominance on the world stage.

Yamata's motivation lies in his desire to pay off a Debt of Honor to his parents and to the country he feels is responsible for their deaths—America. All he needs is a catalyst to set his plan in motion.

When the faulty gas tank on one Tennessee family's car leads to their fiery death, an opportunistic U.S. congressman uses the occasion to rush a new trade law through the system. The law is designed to squeeze Japan economically. Instead, it provides Yamata with the leverage he needs to put his plan into action.

As Yamata's plan begins to unfold, it becomes clear to the world that someone is launching a fully-integrated operation against the United States. There's only one man to find out who the culprit is—Jack Ryan, the new President's National Security Advisor.

"Fortune's Favorites" is a captivating historical fiction novel set in the tumultuous times of ancient Rome. Blessed by the gods at birth with wealth and privilege, a new generation of Romans vies for greatness amidst the disintegrating remnants of their beloved Republic.

Amidst this backdrop, one figure towers above them all—a brilliant and beautiful boy whose ambition is unequaled, whose love is legendary, and whose glory is Rome's. This is the story of a boy who would one day be called Caesar.

Join the journey through a cataclysmic upheaval, where the chosen and the cursed are entangled in a savage struggle for power. Experience the ambition, love, and destiny that shape the course of history in this epic tale of ancient Rome.

Opening in Calcutta in the 1960s, Amitav Ghosh's radiant second novel follows two families—one English, one Bengali—as their lives intertwine in tragic and comic ways.

The narrator, Indian born and English educated, traces events back and forth in time, from the outbreak of World War II to the late twentieth century, through years of Bengali partition and violence, observing the ways in which political events invade private lives.

Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire series spans the history of the United States from the Revolution to the post-World War II years. With their broad canvas and large cast of fictional and historical characters, the novels in this series present a panorama of the American political and imperial experience as interpreted by one of its most worldly, knowing, and ironic observers.

To most Americans, Abraham Lincoln is a monolithic figure, the Great Emancipator and Savior of the Union, beloved by all. In Gore Vidal's Lincoln we meet Lincoln the man and Lincoln the political animal, the president who entered a besieged capital where most of the population supported the South and where even those favoring the Union had serious doubts that the man from Illinois could save it. Far from steadfast in his abhorrence of slavery, Lincoln agonizes over the best course of action and comes to his great decision only when all else seems to fail. As the Civil War ravages his nation, Lincoln must face deep personal turmoil, the loss of his dearest son, and the harangues of a wife seen as a traitor for her Southern connections.

Brilliantly conceived, masterfully executed, Gore Vidal's Lincoln allows the man to breathe again.

The Grass Crown is an epic tale of ambition, power, and betrayal set in the heart of ancient Rome. This gripping drama follows the life of Marius, the legendary general who saved Rome from barbarian invasion and achieved the unprecedented feat of becoming consul six times. However, as his influence wanes, a deadly enmity brews between him and his former ally, Sulla, who is now plotting his own rise to power.

Amidst this personal conflict, Rome faces existential threats both from within and from neighboring Italian states, as well as from the ferocious Asian conqueror. Births, deaths, prophecies, and rivalries intertwine to create a whirlwind of drama, offering readers a remarkable insight into the passion and torment of one of history’s greatest civilizations.

The world's threats are universal like the sun, but Ricardo Reis takes shelter under his own shadow. Back in Lisbon after sixteen years practicing medicine in Brazil, Ricardo Reis wanders the rain-sodden streets. He longs for the unattainably aristocratic Marcenda, but it is Lydia, the hotel chamber maid, who makes and shares his bed.

His old friend, the poet Fernando Pessoa, returns to see him, still wearing the suit he was buried in six weeks earlier. It is 1936, and the clouds of Fascism are gathering ominously above them, so they talk; a wonderful, rambling discourse on art, truth, poetry, philosophy, destiny, and love.

Too Loud a Solitude is a tender and funny story of Haňťa - a man who has lived in a Czech police state - for 35 years, working as compactor of wastepaper and books. In the process of compacting, he has acquired an education so unwitting he can't quite tell which of his thoughts are his own and which come from his books. He has rescued many from the jaws of the hydraulic press and now his house is filled to the rooftops. Destroyer of the written word, he is also its perpetrator.

But when a new automatic press makes his job redundant, there's only one thing he can do - go down with his ship. This is an eccentric romp celebrating the indestructibility - against censorship, political oppression, etc - of the written word.

Cancer Ward examines the relationship of a group of people in the cancer ward of a provincial Soviet hospital in 1955, two years after Stalin's death. We see them under normal circumstances, and also reexamined at the eleventh hour of illness. Together they represent a remarkable cross-section of contemporary Russian characters and attitudes.

The experiences of the central character, Oleg Kostoglotov, closely reflect the author's own: Solzhenitsyn himself became a patient in a cancer ward in the mid-1950s, on his release from a labor camp, and later recovered. Translated by Nicholas Bethell and David Burg.

On opposing sides, Captain Cordelia Naismith and Admiral Lord Aral Vorkosigan marry and live in aristocratic splendor on his home planet Barrayar. Cordelia agrees with the dying old emperor that the Empire would be better if Aral would serve, but he knows secrets she does not.

Captain Cordelia Naismith was sick of combat and betrayal, and looking forward to a quiet life on Barrayar as the wife of Lord Aral Vorkosigan. But her new husband has become Regent to the five-year-old boy who has succeeded to the throne of three planets, making Aral and his family targets in the deadly game of Barrayaran political intrigue.

How do you save the United States President from himself? What if the President is incompetent to deal with the greatest crisis of all? Jack Ryan never thought he would have to ask those questions as he prepares the ground for a Middle Eastern peace plan that, at last, might be the one to work.

But too many groups have invested too much blood. Shunned by their erstwhile Soviet sponsors and increasingly isolated by the realignment of the Mideast, these terrorists have one more desperate card to play, requiring a degree of ruthlessness never before seen. With one terrible act, the world is plunged into an instant nuclear crisis, and the floundering President is plunged into the ultimate nightmare.

Forces collide. Shots are exchanged. What had seemed to be an isolated and horrible incident appears to each side as the incendiary mischief of the other. With the world poised on the brink of nuclear war, Ryan and his FBI counterpart, Dan Murray, frantically seek a solution before the chiefs of state lose control of themselves—and the world.

From the bestselling author of The Thorn Birds comes a masterpiece of historical fiction that is fascinating, moving, and gloriously heroic. The reader is swept into the whirlpool of pageantry, passion, splendor, chaos and earth-shattering upheaval that was ancient Rome. Here is the story of Marius, wealthy but lowborn, and Sulla, aristocratic but penniless and debauched -- extraordinary men of vision whose ruthless ambition will lay the foundations of the most awesome and enduring empire known to humankind.

A towering saga of great events and mortal frailties, it is peopled with a vast, and vivid cast of unforgettable men and women -- soldiers and senators, mistresses and wives, kings and commoners -- combined in a richly embroidered human tapestry to bring a remarkable era to bold and breathtaking life.

"Mao II" is an extraordinary novel by Don DeLillo, exploring the complex interplay between words and images, novelists and terrorists, the mass mind and the arch-individualist.

At the heart of the book is Bill Gray, a famous reclusive writer who escapes the failed novel he has been working on for many years. He enters the world of political violence, a nightscape of Semtex explosives and hostages locked in basement rooms.

Bill's dangerous passage leaves two people stranded: his brilliant, fixated assistant, Scott, and the strange young woman who is Scott's lover—and Bill's.

This novel is a profound exploration of the interplay between art and terror, the individual and the collective, delivered with grim humor and sharp insight.

When a TV reporter is injured in a Dallas-bound jet crash, she enters a world of mistaken identity and political intrigue in this action-packed romantic suspense novel.

The crash of a Dallas-bound jet isn't just a tragedy for TV reporter Avery Daniels; it's an act of fate that hands her a golden opportunity to further her career. But it also makes her the crucial player in a drama of violent passions and deadly desires. After plastic surgery transforms her face, Avery is mistaken for the glamorous, selfish wife of Tate Rutledge, the famous senatorial candidate and member of a powerful Texas dynasty.

As she lays helpless in the hospital, Avery makes a shattering discovery: someone close to Tate planned to assassinate him. Now, to save him, she must live another woman's life — and risk her own.

Colombian drug lords, bored with Uncle Sam's hectoring, assassinate the head of the FBI. The message is clear: Bug off!

At what point do these druggies threaten national security? When can a nation act against its enemies? These are questions Jack Ryan must answer because someone has quietly stepped over the line.

Does anyone know who the real enemy is? How much action is too much? Which lines have been crossed? Ryan and his "dark side," a shadowy field officer known only as Mr. Clark, are charged with finding out. They expect danger from without... but the danger from within may be the greatest of all.