Showing results by narrator "Janice Card" in All Categories

Isabella, Mary, and Lauren are going to be bridesmaids in Kristi's wedding. On Sunday after Sunday, at bridal shower after bridal shower, they coo over toasters, eat tiny sandwiches, and drink mimosas. They're all happy for Kristi, but they do have the ups and downs of their own lives to cope with. Isabella is working at a mailing-list company, where she's extremely successful, and wildly unhappy. Mary is in love with a man who may never love any woman as much as he loves his mother. And Lauren, a waitress at a midtown bar, finds herself drawn to a man she's pretty sure she hates.

Danny North knew from early childhood that his family was different - and that he was different from them. While his cousins were learning how to create the things that commoners called fairies, ghosts, golems, trolls, werewolves, and other such miracles that were the heritage of the North family, Danny worried that he would never show a talent, never form an "outself"....

Twenty five years ago, the alien Givers came to Earth and bestowed upon the human race the greatest technology ever seen—four giant towers known as Ladders that rise 36,000 miles and culminate in space stations that power the entire planet. Then, for reasons unknown, the Givers disappeared.

Two girls, two centuries apart. One never knowing the other. But when Andi finds Alexandrine’s diary, she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There’s comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal’s antique pages - until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine’s words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present.

This is a darkly hilarious coming-of-age novel and a richly plotted suspense tale told through the distinctive voice of its heroine, Blue van Meer. After a childhood spent moving from one academic outpost to another with her father, Blue is clever and possessed of a vast lexicon of knowledge. But when a drowning and the shocking death of a teacher lead to a confluence of mysteries, Blue is left to make sense of it all with only her gimlet-eyed instincts and cultural references to guide - or misguide - her.

On a seemingly ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, Julia and her family awake to discover, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth has suddenly begun to slow. The days and nights grow longer and longer, gravity is affected, the environment is thrown into disarray. Yet as she struggles to navigate an ever-shifting landscape, Julia is also coping with the normal disasters of everyday life.

At the end of Shadow of the Giant, Bean flees to the stars with three of his children—the three who share the engineered genes that gave him both hyper-intelligence and a short, cruel physical life. The time dilation granted by the speed of their travel gives Earth's scientists generations to seek a cure, to no avail. In time, they are forgotten—a fading ansible signal speaking of events lost to Earth's history. But the Delphikis are about to make a discovery that will let them save themselves, and perhaps all of humanity in days to come.

All seems lost as a giant comet hurtles toward Earth, while Robbi’s Laddertop is thrown into chaos by the unleashing of Energy Spiders that now prowl the Power Web. As Robbi races against time to save the Laddertop and reveal its final secret, Azure and the rest of her research team discover the horrible truth about the comet and the existence of a different, malevolent group of aliens: The Takers.

When little Zanna's oldest brother died just before Christmas, she was left with the gift she had made for him - a picture that only he would have understood. Every Christmas, Zanna's gift is brought out and displayed as a way of including their lost brother in the celebration. This is the story of the life of that family, and of the many gifts they gave each other that could only be understood with love.

Listen to the best new science-fiction and fantasy short stories from up-and-coming writers. Established in 1983 by L. Ron Hubbard expressly for the aspiring writer, Writers of the Future has become the most respected and significant forum for new talent in all aspects of speculative fiction.

A classic, coming of age novel from award-winning author Judy Blume about the bonds that form between children when a Black family moves into an all White neighborhood. Iggie’s House just wasn’t the same. Iggie was gone, moved to Tokyo. And there was Winnie, cracking her gum on Grove Street, where she’d always lived, with no more best friend and two weeks left of summer. Then the Garber family moved into Iggie’s house - two boys, Glenn and Herbie, and Tina, their little sister. The Garbers were Black and Grove Street was White and always had been.

In a post-apocalyptic America, Jamie Teague helps a group of travelers make their way past the murderous Bushwhackers. Jamie comes to find that the strangers are Mormons headed for Utah to avoid being massacred. Knowing that they will die without his help, he agrees to take them as far as his cabin.

This story is included in Orson Scott Card's collection The Folk of the Fringe.

This third volume of Orson Scott Card's five-volume anthology of short stories features ten fantasies and fables full of princesses and giants, bears and monkeys, magic and revelation. Discover the pitfalls of paradise, how to handle a dragon, the true secret of happiness, and much more. Card offers background commentaries for each story in a series of afterwords and introductions.

From a master of suspense comes a chilling novel that explores the dangers lurking closer than you think. Because even in the perfect family, you never know what is going on behind closed doors….

Sadie Wynn doesn't want a new life; her old one suits her just fine. But times are hard in drought-plagued Missouri, and Daddy thinks they'll be better off in Texas. Sadie hates this strange new place, where even children must work at the cannery to help make ends meet and people are rude to her disabled father. Yet when trouble comes, it is the kindness of these new neighbors that helps the family make it through.

Science isn't exactly Maeve's favorite subject, but she’s still excited to be going to the Sally Ride Science Festival at MIT with her hunky tutor, Matt. Sure, the BSG and her annoyingly brilliant younger brother are going as well, but it’s still almost kind of a date, isn’t it? The festival gives the BSG a super idea - an environmental science fair at Abigail Adams Junior High. But plans for a bubble gum factory nearby put Avery and Katani on opposite sides of an environmental issue - and Avery finds herself in a bubble gum war with the Queens of Mean!

It was like a nightmare, but there was no waking up. When the night began, Nora had two best friends and an embarrassingly storybook one true love. When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands and an echoing scream that stopped only when the tranquilizers pierced her veins and left her in the merciful dark. But the next morning, it was all still true: Chris was dead. His girlfriend Adriane, Nora's best friend, was catatonic. And Max, Nora's sweet, smart, soft-spoken Prince Charming, was gone.

It's not easy being the middle child, especially when your dad is a Navy chief. Meet Piper Reed, a spunky nine-year-old who has moved more times than she can count on one hand. From Texas to Guam, wherever Piper goes, adventure follows, inspired by her active imagination, free-wheeling spirit, and a bit of sister magic.

In the best-selling tradition of Loving Frank and March comes a novel for anyone who loves Little Women. Millions of readers have fallen in love with Little Women. But how could Louisa May Alcott-who never had a romance-write so convincingly of love and heart-break without experiencing it herself?

After the death of her father, sixteen-year-old Iris Wight is uprooted from her hometown in Maine and sent to live on a farm with her hard-bitten aunt Sue and her hulking, monosyllabic cousin, Book. Immediately, Iris, a vegetarian and animal lover, clashes with Aunt Sue, who mistreats her livestock, fritters away Iris' small inheritance, and thinks nothing of striking Iris for the smallest offense. Grief-stricken and alone, Iris finds solace in her aunt’s herd of goats. But when Iris sets two of the young goats free to save them from slaughter, the tensions between her and Aunt Sue come to a frightening and violent head.