Ten tales are told by the souls of animals killed in human conflicts in the past century or so, from a camel in colonial Australia to a cat in the trenches in World War I, from a bear starved to death during the siege of Sarajevo to a mussel that died in Pearl Harbour. Each narrator also pays homage to an author who has written imaginatively about animals during much the same time span: Henry Lawson, Colette, Kafka, Virginia Woolf, Tolstoy, Günter Grass, Julian Barnes, and others. These stories are brilliantly plotted, exquisitely written, inevitably poignant but also playful and witty. They ask us to consider profound questions. Why do animals shock us into feeling things we can't seem to feel for other humans? Why do animals allow authors to say the unsayable? Why do we sometimes treat humans as animals, and animals as humans? Can fiction help us find moral meaning in a disillusioned world?
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A charming Australian story of two little rock sprites who fall into the hands of Octo the Octopus and escape, only to be captured by Pegler the Pirate, a seagull with a lame leg, who sails a ship with the black sails, with a ban of queer little animals of the bush with gipsy blood in them, who were wandering on the sea because they were tired, of the land. Peglar imprisons them in his sea castle. Can Marl the fairy rescue them? Told and illustrated by Pixie O'Harris. -
Book II of Harry Potter. Harry is in his second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Just to start the new school year right, he is liberated from his bedroom prison by the Weasley boys driving their Dad's flying car after a messy encounter with Dobby the house elf, an obnoxious aunt and a heavily decorated cake. Much to the boys' disgust and Mrs. Weasley's girlish delight, their new Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher is Gilderoy Lockhart, a narcissistic, egotistical con-man and the school is terrorised by attacks on students by an unseen enemy that Gilderoy is too scared to tackle. The Chamber of Secrets has been opened....Cover art by Cliff Wright. -
Book I of Harry Potter. Harry Potter thinks he's an ordinary boy. His parents, as far as he knows, died in a car crash and his only relatives are his Uncle and Aunt Dursley and awful Cousin Dudley. But when an owl arrives with Harry's letter advising him that he is to be admitted to Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, his life is turned upside down. He learns about Platform 9 3/4, how to fly on a broomstick, how to play Quidditch and engages in a deadly duel with the dark wizard who murdered his parents. Cover art by Thomas Taylor. -
Book II of the Warrior of Mars trilogy. Michael Kane, 20th century scientist travels again through space and time to face the perils of eons-old Mars. I found myself in a tangle of soft yielding flesh that seemed boneless...And the faces! They were vile parodies of human faces and resembled nothing so much as the ugly little vampire bat of Earth, flat faces with huge nostrils let into the head. gashes of mouths full of sharp little fangs, half-blind eyes, dark and wicked... Originally published as Blades of Mars. Cover art by Tim White. -
Book II of The Winter King's War. Tristan had rescued Allaire from the dread fastness of Nimir, evil master of Winterwaste, restored the tenth ring to Princess Elisena and now stands reluctantly revealed as Calandra’s king - but his right is almost universally disputed, his ancient castle has no walls, his wife is betrothed to a dead man, and his throne will kill him during his crowning unless he can lay hands on the long-lost sword of the Last King. And his homegrown magic is no more reliable than it’s ever been. He seeks the sword by magical means, without success. Galan of Radak - and his sorcerer Reynaud - are laying siege to Crogen castle. After an attempt on his life, Tristan departs for Kovelir, convinced that Crewzel’s fortune-telling cards can give him a clue to the missing sword’s location. -
Irissa was the last of the sorcerous Torlocs, untutored in magic and abandoned upon this decaying world by her people. Kendric was one of the Six of Swords, gifted with a legendary weapon to guard the Realms from harm. But now he was an outcast and his death was sought without reason by the other Five. Sorceress and swordsman, thrown together, each filled with ancient prejudices against the other. But only by combining her uncertain power with his remaining skills could they hope to survive. Rule was a world formed upon magic, but now the magic was failing and there would soon be no place for it. And destiny had chosen them to make one last stand against the dark forces that were waiting at the Gate of Valna, seeking to destroy their world. Cover art by Steve Crisp.
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Fourteen-year-old Cosmo Hill longs to escape from the Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys. When his chance comes, he grabs it but things go fatally wrong. Cosmo feels his life force ebbing away, sucked out of him by a strange blue parasite - when a wise-cracking gang of kids bursts in, blast the creature and save him. They are the Supernaturalists, and Cosmo's new life with this unlikely 'family' is about to begin...Cover art by Tony Fleetwood.
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Kosa Saag casts its tremendous shadow over half the world. It is the Wall, an immense and solitary mountain, dominating the lowland landscape of teeming humanity. Strange and bewildering gods live at the summit, on the roof of the world: the First Climber brought back the gift of fire from them, and the secrets of hunting and growing food. Poilar Crookleg has the blood of the First Climber in his veins. His father was a Pilgrim and his father before him - but thousands of years have passed since the time of He Who Climbed and many thousands of Pilgrims have disappeared as Poilar's father did, or died, or gone mad, following His footsteps to the summit. Poilar's journey, through dreamlike new realms of danger and seduction, in a diminishing company of other young Pilgrims, is an epic journey of discovery. Cover art by Jim Burns.
