The Hidden Oasis

With the help of her dead sister's friend, Flin Brodie, mountain climber Freya Hannen sets out in search of the legendary lost oasis of Zerzura in Egypt, which supposedly houses a mythic stone, and could help Freya find out the truth behind her sister Alex's mysterious death. By the author of The Last Secret of the Temple. Reprint.

A woman uncovers a millennia-old Egyptian conspiracy in this novel from “one of the best writers of international suspense in the business” (Steve Berry). Over four thousand years ago, the ninety-four-year reign of pharaoh Pepi II ended in chaos. In the dead of night, a party of priests set out into the desert, dragging with them a sled carrying a mysterious object. None of them returned. In modern Egypt, Freya Hannan arrives for the funeral of her estranged sister, Alex, who is said to have committed suicide. But as Freya goes through her sister’s belongings, she comes to suspect that Alex was murdered. Soon, Freya realizes that Alex’s life was as mysterious as her death. And the search for the truth will ensnare Freya in a lethal conspiracy going back millennia—pushing her to hunt not only for her sister’s killer, but also for an ancient artifact that could tilt the global balance of power. Full of breakneck thrills and daring escapes combined with the genuine feel for the ancient past that only a true archaeologist can bring, “The Hidden Oasis is a rip-roaring gem of a read” (Raymond Khoury).

Modern dams and canals have filled the Southwest with bizarre wonders: bustling metropolises hundreds of miles from water sources, alfalfa farms stretching to the horizon, fishermen reeling in Asian carp while standing on manicured lawns. Because we love to suspend disbelief, these wonders reassure us that we can make this land like any other place. They sustain our faith in reclamation, a faith that has allowed the West to bloom into its own abstracted present. But living within an abstraction is still a life. Sonoran Water uses text and photographs to explore life in the modern Salt River Valley through the waterways that have been made to sustain it and which may ultimately reclaim this land for the desert. This 50-page craft book combines text, risographs, and inkjet photographs.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Now a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg. “Enchanting . . . Willy Wonka meets The Matrix.”—USA Today • “As one adventure leads expertly to the next, time simply evaporates.”—Entertainment Weekly A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready? In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the OASIS, a vast virtual world where most of humanity spends their days. When the eccentric creator of the OASIS dies, he leaves behind a series of fiendish puzzles, based on his obsession with the pop culture of decades past. Whoever is first to solve them will inherit his vast fortune—and control of the OASIS itself. Then Wade cracks the first clue. Suddenly he’s beset by rivals who’ll kill to take this prize. The race is on—and the only way to survive is to win. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Entertainment Weekly • San Francisco Chronicle • Village Voice • Chicago Sun-Times • iO9 • The AV Club “Delightful . . . the grown-up’s Harry Potter.”—HuffPost “An addictive read . . . part intergalactic scavenger hunt, part romance, and all heart.”—CNN “A most excellent ride . . . Cline stuffs his novel with a cornucopia of pop culture, as if to wink to the reader.”—Boston Globe “Ridiculously fun and large-hearted . . . Cline is that rare writer who can translate his own dorky enthusiasms into prose that’s both hilarious and compassionate.”—NPR “[A] fantastic page-turner . . . starts out like a simple bit of fun and winds up feeling like a rich and plausible picture of future friendships in a world not too distant from our own.”—iO9

An adrenaline-packed thriller and archaeological adventure by Paul Sussman, an outstanding new storyteller In 523 BC, the Persian emperor Cambyses dispatched an army across Egypt's western desert to destroy the oracle of Amun at Siwa. Legend has it that somewhere in the middle of the Great Sand Sea, his army was overwhelmed by a sandstorm and destroyed. Fifty thousand men were lost. A mutilated corpse washes up on the banks of the Nile. An antiques dealer is murdered. An eminent British archaeologist is found dead at the ancient necropolis of Saqqara. At first, the incidents appear unconnected. Inspector Yusuf Khalifa of the Luxor police is suspicious, however. And so too is the archaeologist's daughter, Tara Mullray. As each seeks to uncover the truth, they find themselves thrown together in a desperate race for survival—one that forces them to confront not only present-day adversaries but also ghosts from their own pasts. From a mysterious fragment of ancient hieroglyphic text to rumors of a fabulous lost tomb in the Theban Hills, from the shimmering waters of the Nile to the dusty back streets of Cairo, Khalifa and Mullray are drawn ever deeper into a labyrinth of violence, intrigue, and betrayal. It is a path that will eventually lead them into the forbidding, barren heart of the western desert, and the answer to one of the greatest mysteries of the ancient world. At once an adrenaline-packed thriller and a wonderfully evocative archaeological adventure, The Lost Army of Cambyses marks the debut of an outstanding new storyteller.

An ancient secret threatens to unleash a modern war in this international-bestselling “thriller on par with the best literature out there” (James Rollins). Jerusalem, 70 AD: As the invading Romans destroy the Holy Temple, a young Jewish boy is hidden away—chosen as the guardian of a great secret. And for seventy generations, the secret is kept safe . . . But now, in order to ignite a new conflict between Israel and the Arab world, a Jewish radical is prepared to reveal what has been hidden for centuries. The only ones who can stop the coming bloodshed are a beautiful young Palestinian journalist and two detectives—one Israeli, one Egyptian—in an unlikely alliance. As their separate searches for the truth intertwine, they discover there are some in this war-torn region who believe true peace can only be found in death . . . Full of the detail and in-depth knowledge only a bestselling author and true-life archaeologist could deliver, this is a “tightly-plotted, richly-observed, thought-provoking thriller” (Raymond Khoury). “Sussman, an archeologist, puts in plenty of satisfying twists and turns, and grounds the story in the violence and intrigue of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” —Publishers Weekly

Ancient Egyptian healer and scribe Sesha is ready for another role: spy. Be sure to read Sesha’s first adventure, The Lost Scroll of the Physician. Forced to flee Thebes or face death, Sesha and her friends, Paser and Reb, travel up the Nile and into the desert in search of a hidden oasis. Led by a freed spy, they plan to rescue Pharaoh’s daughter Princess Merat, given to a Hyksos chieftain against her will. Before they can get there, though, they have to battle lurking crocodiles, endless dunes, and blinding sandstorms. When the group finally straggles into the Hyksos camp, they find the rebels preparing for combat. But as Sesha and her friends spend time with the rival tribe, the lines in the sand begin to blur. When she takes on a dangerous secret mission and learns about a prophecy that could change the course of history, Sesha has to decide where her future — and the real danger — lies.

Falling for my ex-fiancée’s brother was not the plan when I proposed... After traveling to Vegas to elope, I ended up leaving with a broken heart. I never expected to see my ex-girlfriend, Camilla, again. Or for her older brother to be the one to pick up the shattered pieces and make me feel whole again. But I felt more for him from the moment we met than I did for Camilla during our entire relationship. All my life, I’ve liked girls. Then Cash walked in, and all the air was sucked out of the room... or maybe it was just my lungs. I was confused. Suddenly feeling things I’ve never felt before was messing with my head and my heart. Should I give in to my heart or fight what could be the best thing to ever happen to me?

Egypt 2153 BC Eighty priests set out under cover of darkness into the western desert, taking with them a mysterious object swathed in cloth. Four weeks later, having reached their destination, they calmly slit each other's throats... Albania, 1986 A plane takes off from a remote airfield, bound for the Sudan. On board a cargo that will forever change the Middle East. Somewhere over the Sahara the plane disappears... The western desert, the present day A group of Bedouin discover a mummified corpse half-buried in the dunes. With it are a roll of camera film and a miniature clay obelisk inscribed with a curious hieroglyphic sign... Three unconnected events Or so it seems until Freya Hannen arrives in Egypt for the funeral of her sister, a desert explorer who has inexplicably taken her own life... For Freya it is the start of a terrifying, life-or-death adventure - one that will lead her and Egyptologist Flin Brodie deep into the forbidding wastes of the Sahara. Their goal: one of archaeology's greatest mysteries and the astonishing secret at its heart...

This is a book about our inner power to live and flourish in a challenging world. In 1934, a thirteen-year-old boy from a small village in western Egypt is on his first trip across the desert when he discovers something about his life that transforms his future. He's traveling with his seventy-year-old uncle, who is exceptionally wise for any stage of life. The boy and his older relative are also accompanied by a caravan of merchants and animals traveling to Cairo to bring goods to market. The young man has had no idea what awaits him on this trip. His uncle will decide to share with him the basic elements of a practical and yet profound philosophy of life, as they deal with events and challenges that appear throughout the journey. And this wisdom for living will prove to have come at just the right time, when the boy learns that he is on his way, not just to a marketplace, but to a life change that will thrust him into new dangers and opportunities beyond anything he has ever imagined. This book is the short prologue to a forthcoming series of seven novels entitled, Walid and the Mysteries of Phi.