Shards

IT’S CALLED “THE EVENT,” AN UNIMAGINABLE CATACLYSM THAT SHATTERS 600 MILLION YEARS OF THE EARTH’S TIMELINE. Our world is gone, instantly replaced by a new one made of scattered remnants of the past, present, and future, dropped alongside one another in a patchwork of “shards”. Monsters from Jurassic prehistory, ancient armies, and high-tech robots all coexist in this deadly post-apocalyptic landscape. A desperate group of survivors sets out to locate the source of the disaster. They include 21st century Californian Amber Richardson, Cam, a young Celtic warrior from Roman Britannia, Alex Brice, a policewoman from 1985, and Blake, a British soldier from World War II. With other refugees from across time, they must learn the truth behind the Event, if they are to survive.

At the age of sixteen, Abigail Wyeth was thirty-three years old. Born in the twentieth century, she now lived in the twenty-seventh. Having died in 2026 at the age of thirty-one, her mind and soul were harvested and placed into a computer "for the good of mankind." After she'd served the purpose intended, her mind was used to oversee Earths' PlanNet defenses and end the Terran/Martian Wars. She was the housekeeper to madman. An environmental control for an apartment building. A seductress who would revel in anything done to her. A computer that performed four basic functions for over a century. Whatever the highest bidder wanted. She was saved from all that and her memories restored in 2676. Now, in 2678, Abigail was a vibrant sixteen-year old girl. She had a new name, a new identity, new friends and a bright life ahead of her. All that remained of her past were the training and experiences of her original life and the piercing shards of her false personas that were slowly destroying her mind.

A New York Times Notable Book: “Brilliant . . . With verbal glee, Prcic serves up a darkly comic vision of the terrors and misunderstandings of immigration” (Shelf Awareness). Ismet Prcic’s brilliant, provocative, and energetic debut novel is about a young Bosnian, also named Ismet Prcic, who has fled his war-torn homeland and is now struggling to reconcile his past with his present life in California. He is advised that in order to make peace with the corrosive guilt he harbors over leaving his family behind, he must “write everything.” The result is a great rattlebag of memories, confessions, and fictions: sweetly humorous recollections of Ismet’s childhood in Tuzla appear alongside anguished letters to his mother about the challenges of life in this new world. As Ismet’s foothold in the present falls away, his writings are further complicated by stories from the point of view of another young man—real or imagined—named Mustafa, who joined a troop of elite soldiers and stayed in Bosnia to fight. When Mustafa’s story begins to overshadow Ismet’s new-world identity, the reader is charged with piecing together the fragments of a life that has become eerily unrecognizable, even to the one living it. Shards is a thrilling read—a harrowing war story, a stunningly inventive coming of age, and a heartbreaking saga of a splintered family. “Fierce, funny and real, it also says much about war, exile, guilt and fear.” —Chicago Sun-Times, Favorite Books of 2011

Across the vast expanse of the Great Deep float billions of shattered universes known as the Shards. Populated with vengeful demons and tormented humans, the Shards need Earth just as plants need water to survive. Earth itself is held together by 36 righteous people, 36 hidden saints known as the Lamed Vav. Kill but a few Lamed Vav and the Earth will shatter, and all the Shards that rely upon it will die in a horrible cataclysm. Daniel Fisher is abducted on his wedding day by the demon king, Ashmedai, and he learns he is a Lamed Vavnik, one of these hidden righteous persons upholding the world. The demon Mashit has usurped the throne of demonkind from Ashmedai and has been murdering the Lamed Vav in order to collapse the Earth and bring its great power raining down on all the demon-populated Shards. On a desert-covered Shard teeming with monstrous creatures, pursued by a fearsome demon army, Daniel and Ashmedai, saint and demon, must team up to defeat Mashit before she destroys all of existence with her insane plan. In order to survive, Daniel must ally with evil Ashmedai. Yet who but a saint—a Lamed Vavnik—can save the world? “A surreal and exotic adventure in a unique mythological setting. Scary, exhilarating fun!” - N.K. Jemisin, Hugo award-winning author of The Fifth Season. “A fantastic twist on Jewish mythology...a radical reinvention of Jewish faith and folklore, not to mention the portal fantasy..."One city’s rubble is the next city’s foundation,” Kressel writes. Not only does that simple, profound idea underpin King of Shards’ plot, it’s the method to the book’s majestic, resonant, reality-twisting madness.” — NPR Books “King of Shards is an imaginative, intelligent, and soaring debut that mixes Jewish folklore/mysticism and modern-day social politics. The result is a unique spin on epic fantasy that is both timeless and timely, and a hell of lot of fun. You’ll want to follow Daniel and Rana through the Shards. Trust me.” —Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and Disappearance at Devil’s Rock. “Kressel draws heavily on Hebrew legend and biblical lore to build a robustly imagined fantasy world…Kressel advances his plot briskly through a series of alliances, betrayals, separations, and reunions, and the veiled motives of several of his characters keep his story pleasingly unpredictable. His skill at extrapolating traditional religious lore into the stuff of fantasy bodes well for future books in the series.” — Publishers Weekly “With surprising twists and a deep and detailed universe, King of Shards, the first in a trilogy, is likely to be remembered for more than its Jewish roots.” - Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog

Six teens struggle to discover the source of their strange and horrific abilities in this first book of The Star Shards Chronicles. Dillon has the terrifying power to create massive amounts of destruction with the slightest tweak of his will. Deanna is so consumed by fear, it has become like a black hole, drawing to her the very things that terrify her. Then, when the glare of a supernova sixteen light-years away illuminates the night sky, they have a vision: There are six of them out there, all teenagers, and all suffering from supernatural afflictions that disfigure their bodies and souls. Only by finding one another will the six ever be strong enough to defeat these mysterious forces that, bit by bit, are devouring their souls from the inside out. Acclaimed author Neal Shusterman “combines personal quest, horror, and science fiction into an absorbing exploration of good and evil, guilt, forgiveness and personal responsibility” (VOYA) in this thrilling start to a riveting trilogy. Originally published by Tor Fantasy in 1995.

The Newbery Medal-winning tale of an orphan boy whose dream of becoming a master potter leads to unforeseen adventure in ancient Korea. Tree-ear is an orphan boy in a 12th-century Korean village renowned for its ceramics. When he accidentally breaks a delicate piece of pottery, he volunteers to work to pay for the damage. Putting aside his own dreams, Tree-ear resolves to serve the master potter by embarking on a difficult and dangerous journey, little knowing that it will change his life forever. "Despite the odds against him, Tree-ear becomes courageous, brave and selfless, a hero as enduring as the porcelain Park so lovingly describes." (New York Times) “Intrigues, danger, and a strong focus on doing what is right turn a simple story into a compelling read. A timeless jewel.” (Kirkus starred review) *A broken piece of pottery sets events in motion as an orphan struggles to pay off his debt to a master potter. This finely crafted novel brings 12th-century Korea and these indelible characters to life." (School Library Journal starred review) "Tree-ear's determination and bravery in pursuing his dream of becoming a potter takes readers on a literary journey that demonstrates how courage, honor and perseverance can overcome great odds and bring great happiness. Park effectively conveys 12th century Korea in this masterful piece of historical fiction." (Kathleen Odean, chair of the Newbery Award Selection Committee)

The Arthur C. Clarke award-winning author of Children of Time brings us an extraordinary space opera about humanity on the brink of extinction, and how one man's discovery will save or destroy us all. The war is over. Its heroes forgotten. Until one chance discovery . . . Idris has neither aged nor slept since they remade him in the war. And one of humanity's heroes now scrapes by on a freelance salvage vessel, to avoid the attention of greater powers. After earth was destroyed, mankind created a fighting elite to save their species, enhanced humans such as Idris. In the silence of space they could communicate, mind-to-mind, with the enemy. Then their alien aggressors, the Architects, simply disappeared—and Idris and his kind became obsolete. Now, fifty years later, Idris and his crew have discovered something strange abandoned in space. It's clearly the work of the Architects—but are they returning? And if so, why? Hunted by gangsters, cults and governments, Idris and his crew race across the galaxy hunting for answers. For they now possess something of incalculable value, that many would kill to obtain.

These walls have watched the witches; the witches have watched the world. These walls now turn against them -- some evil's been unfurled. . . . The one thing any Halliwell witch has always been able to count on is Halliwell Manor, the ancestral home of the Charmed Ones and one of San Francisco's historical landmark homes. The grand old house has sheltered generations of women, and bits of Charmed history are practically built into the walls. So when the Manor seems to have turned against its inhabitants, needless to say, the Halliwell sisters start to worry. It begins simply: The hot water heater is broken. No big: Leo's great around the house. But this is no simple plumbing problem. Soon, the Manor seems to be messing with the girls, Leo, and Wyatt in increasingly malicious ways. Thankfully, the Book of Shadows has created a safe zone for itself in the attic. But the Charmed Ones can hardly live up there forever. . . . Can they find out what's turned their safe haven into an evil lair before it's too late -- for the Manor, and for them?

A new epic fantasy series from the New York Times bestselling author chosen to complete Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time® Series

Michael Livingston's The Shards of Heaven reveals the hidden magic behind the history we know, and commences a war greater than any mere mortal battle Julius Caesar is dead, assassinated on the senate floor, and the glory that is Rome has been torn in two. Octavian, Caesar's ambitious great-nephew and adopted son, vies with Marc Antony and Cleopatra for control of Caesar's legacy. As civil war rages from Rome to Alexandria, and vast armies and navies battle for supremacy, a secret conflict may shape the course of history. Juba, Numidian prince and adopted brother of Octavian, has embarked on a ruthless quest for the Shards of Heaven, lost treasures said to possess the very power of the gods-or the one God. Driven by vengeance, Juba has already attained the fabled Trident of Poseidon, which may also be the staff once wielded by Moses. Now he will stop at nothing to obtain the other Shards, even if it means burning the entire world to the ground. Caught up in these cataclysmic events, and the hunt for the Shards, are a pair of exiled Roman legionnaires, a Greek librarian of uncertain loyalties, assassins, spies, slaves . . . and the ten-year-old daughter of Cleopatra herself. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.