John Lee

The Spartans of ancient Greece were a powerful and unique people, a society of warrior-heroes who exemplified the heroic virtues of self-sacrifice, community endeavor, and achievement against all odds. Paul Cartledge engagingly examines the rise and fall of this singular society.

A classic novel of family, isolation and a blighted Ireland from the award—winning author of “The Sea” depicts the end of innocence for a boy and his country. Once the big house on an Irish estate, Birchwood has turned into a dilapidated family manor filled with memories and despair. One disaster succeeds another, until young Gabriel Godkin runs away to join a traveling circus and look for his long-lost twin sister. Soon he discovers that famine...

The immortal knight, Sir Richard of Ashbury, hunts his nemesis through centuries of war... AD 1190, England. A young knight's family is slaughtered. As the lords of Europe seek to retake Jerusalem from the mighty Saladin, Sir Richard swears an oath of vengeance against Earl William de Ferrers, who has returned from the dead with an insatiable thirst for violence. Richard stalks William and his savage knights across Europe to the Holy Land, fights...

Named one of the best novels of the year by both Locus and Science Fiction Chronicle, Alastair Reynolds's debut Revelation Space redefined the space opera. With Chasm City, Reynolds invites you to reenter the bizarre universe of his imagination as he redefines Hell...The once-utopian Chasm City-a domed human settlement on an otherwise inhospitable planet-has been overrun by a virus known as the Melding Plague, capable of infecting any body, organic...

His memoir sets down his wartime adventures before being incarcerated in Stalag Luft III and then in extraordinary detail describes various escape attempts, which culminated with the famous March breakout. After escaping, Vanderstok roamed Europe for weeks, passing through Leipzig, Utrecht, Brussels, Paris, Dijon and Madrid, before making it back to England. He reported to the Air Ministry and two months after escaping, on 30 May 1944 he returned...

Thus Spoke Zarathustra is one of the most extraordinary - and important - texts in Western philosophy. It was written by Friedrich Nietzsche between 1883 and 1885. He cast it in the form of a novel in the hope that his urgent message of the 'death of God' and the rise of the superman (Ubermensch) would have greater emotional as well as intellectual impact. Though tarnished somewhat by inappropriate adoption by the Nazi movement in the mid-20th century,...

In the conclusion of the Time Odyssey series, The Firstborn, the alien race that built the iconic black monolith, wait for a sign as they plan to stop the advance of humankind through the use of a mysterious technology that is indistiguishable from magic

An innovator praised as one of the inventors of "the new space opera," Peter F. Hamilton has also been hailed as the heir of such golden-age giants as Heinlein and Asimov. His star-spanning sagas are distinguished by deft plotting, engaging characters, provocative explorations of science and society, and soaring imaginative reach. Now, in one of the most eagerly anticipated offerings of the year, Hamilton brings his acclaimed Void trilogy to a stunning...

Acclaimed, award-winning author James L. Nelson—praised as “a master of both his period and the English language” by Patrick O'Brian—returns to the world of sea and sail in The French Prize. Jack Biddlecomb has much to live up to, being as he is the eldest son of the esteemed Captain Isaac Biddlecomb, wealthy merchant captain, leading light of the War for American Independence, and newly minted congressman. Jack finds himself off to a promising...