Showing results by author "A. A. Attanasio" in All Categories

A young man's odyssey of self discovery in a world eerily alien, yet hauntingly familiar. Set 13 centuries in the future, A. A. Attanasio meticulously creates a brilliantly realized Earth, rich in detail and filled with beings brought to life with intense energy. In this strange and beautiful world, Sumner Kagan will change from an adolescent outcast to a warrior with god-like powers and in the process take us on an epic and transcendent journey.

Seven billion years from now, long after the Sun has died and human life itself has become extinct, alien beings reincarnate humanity from our fossilized DNA drifting as debris in the void of deep space. We are reborn to serve as bait in a battle to the death between the Rimstalker, humankind's reanimator, and the zotl, horrific creatures who feed vampire-like on the suffering of intelligent lifeforms.

The demon Lailoken, as old as time, is tricked by angelic powers, the Fire Lords, and trapped in a human body. He becomes Merlinus, a wandering wise man expert in magic, destined to work for good among humans, opposed by the Furor, Odin. An encounter with the unicorn - a spirit similarly earthbound - brings him to Ygrane, queen of the Celts, and she sets him a task to find her king, a man seen in vision and fated to be her love-match.

Headhunters, sorcerers, pirates, and Indian princes thrive in this adventurous, poetic tale of a young outcast in Borneo. Born in 1609, son of a native woman and a Dutch sea captain he never knew, Jaki Gefjon grows up in the jungle as a sorcerer's apprentice. Later kidnapped by pirates, he befriends his captor, Trevor Pym, notorious for his dreaded man-of-war, Wyvern. The scientific marvels on the European privateer become the young soul-catcher's passion - until he falls for Lucinda.

Attanasio continues The Perilous Order of Camelot, the epic fantasy series begun in The Dragon and the Unicorn, with the story of young Arthor on his journey to Camelot. When Merlin discovers that Arthor's only joy is killing, he vows to turn the youth around. Merlinus has fostered the future king of Britain with Kyner, a Celtic chieftain, protected by obscurity from the jealous hatred of the sorceress Morgeu. As Arthor grows to manhood, though, he becomes a twisted creature, loving violence and hating himself. What kind of king will he be?

Another mind-bending science fiction epic from a true visionary, Centuries explores a barely recognizable future where humans control their own evolution. Genetic manipulation and artificial intelligence shape an astounding destiny for our species. With these wondrous changes come unexpected new truths of heart and mind that challenge the very definition of human.

One star-chained evening in a Manhattan bathroom, Carl Schirmer spontaneously combusts! His body transforms into light, mysteriously snatched from his banal life by an alien intelligence 130 billion years in the future. There, all spacetime is collapsing into a cosmic black hole, the Big Crunch – and a bold, cosmic destiny awaits Carl. Rebuilt from the remnants of his light by extraterrestrials for a cryptic purpose, he awakens in time’s last world, the strangest of all – the Werld.

Irth is a world where magic rules - magic that radiates from the Abiding Star. The nobility, possessors of most of this mystic energy, dwell in floating cities that drift above their realms, plotting against each other for domination. The nobility cast into the abyss those who fail in their attempts to hold or usurp power. There, the outcasts fall into the cold world of the Dark Shore - onto Earth - whence no one has ever returned...until now.

Charlie Outis has no idea of what the world might be like in the far future after he decides to have his brain frozen with the slim hope of it being revived one day. But even 1,000 years from now, brains are a valuable commodity - even brains without heads. But who does the brain belong to? And who controls a mind without a body.

In the Year of Our Lord 524, I am the wrath of God. None can defeat me in battle, for I am the joy of the blade. Beardless as a Roman, my chin is the Lucky Life—bold, square and dimpled at its center like the eye of a die. Mine is the nose of Apollo above lips as enigmatic as any Greek statue. I carry all the seasons onward from my thirteenth summer in my hair, yellow dark as dusk and long as wind plowing the west at day’s end. The scent of my flesh is the incense of trampled grass, and my breath is cinnamon. That fragrance alone is the supernatural mark of the fairy that reared me from...

The boy-king Arthor has beaten back the berserker wolf warriors of the Saxon god, uniting his island kingdom - but at a terrible cost. For the Grail, the chalice of the Last Supper and the magical shield of Britain, has been stolen. Without the Grail's protection, Britain lies parched and barren, a demon-haunted landscape where sulfurous vapors taint the air. To find the Grail, Arthor's mother, Ygrane, must strike a dark bargain with Bright Night, elf-prince of the "pale people", in the hollow hills.

Arthor, Eagle of Thor, with Merlin's help has claimed the throne of Britain. Already rolling on the roads from Tintagel to Camelot is the great wheel that will become the Round Table. Though he possesses the legendary sword Excalibur, the boy-king "Arthor" discovers that he must earn the respect of the warring lords of Britain before he can truly claim his place at their head. The third volume in Attanasio's epic re-creation of the Arthurian cycle follows young "Arthor" through his first difficult year of kingship.

Fifty thousand years ago, three young friends band together for a perilous journey to find a new home after plague devastates their coastal tribe. Accompanied by a blind horse and armed with meager weapons and their own elusive courage, Hamr, Timov, and Duru defy savage odds to survive in the strange and brutal realm of Ice Age Europe. This incredible quest takes them through primeval forests stalked by cave lions and across vast glacial moraines of thundering woolly rhinoceros - to the Thundertree clan. These forest people accept Duru, the girl, for her magical powers.

During the 1970s New York City was a mecca for heroin and cocaine usage. The majority of these drugs were trafficked and sold by traditional organized crime families. A special unit was put together to gather information on these groups and subsequently dismantle their networks. This unit of the NYPD was able to accomplish this through many hard-working hours and the assistance of an informant, namely "Kenny O." This memoir is the actual story of the relationship of Kenny O and Tony Pesca, the NYPD officer assigned to work with him.

A Manhattan coven, Octoberland, weaves ancient black magic to preserve the life of its 7,000-year-old leader, Nox. The sorcerer staves off death by leaching years from his followers’ blood. But Nox’s reckless search for eternal youth has opened the gate to - Irth. From this alien world of wizards, witch queens, and blacker magic yet, goblins invade Earth! Meanwhile, on Irth darkness lurks at the heart of a city rebuilt from ashes - as a weak-minded ruler and his renegade witch wife hoard technological trinkets from the Dark Shore…from Earth.

A gnome wanders among strange worlds of immeasurable beauty and terror on a quest for magic to restore the health of a goddess. If he fails, all creation will dissolve. And so he must dare anything to succeed, even trespass a realm of terrible darkness, pain, and dread sorcery - Earth. The Lady of the Garden, one of the godlike Nameless Ones, has used her magic to dream into existence the worlds of the Bright Shore. But now her unborn child lies motionless in her womb.

Featuring seven captivating, terrifying, and poetic short stories giving form to a universe both wonderful and mysterious: Visit an alternate America discovered and settled by imperial Chinese — Sleuth with a hardboiled detective in ‘30s Honolulu — Tour hell with an accidental demon hunter — Meet the Designers of our universe — Investigate the inner life of a vampire yoga instructor — Discover branch universes of evil beauty — and watch an AI confront the ghosts of our blood.

During the height of the 2003 Iraqi war, Captain John Russo, a Marine helicopter pilot, risks his life to save the crew of a downed helicopter. He is severely wounded and receives the Silver Star and the Purple Heart award. Subsequently, his injury causes him to be discharged from the United States Marine Corps. Upon returning home to New York City, his mother, who had been ill, dies. His heartbroken father, Luca, decides to return to the land of his birth: Sicily.

One day, spunky 13-year-old motherless spelunker Jane Riggs, newly installed by her widowed geologist father in Bosky Glen, Mrs. Babcock's historic Massachusetts house near the wild countryside, rappels herself into an under-the-knoll witch's kitchen and finds the 400-year-old grimoire, a Wiccan training manual, of Hyssop Joan, a white witch Puritan villagers had tormented into going black.

Subsequent to the attack on the USS Cole in October of 2000, British intelligence reports pinpointed bin Laden's location in a safe house outside of Abyan, Yemen. A top secret project, code named Perfect Justice, was carried out by a team of highly-trained CIA operatives, two male and two female, in a commando-style raid. It was to be a Black operation, one that would be conducted in absolute secrecy under the cover of official deniability.