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The Hobbit tells the famous
story of Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit who is caught up in the affairs of
wizards. His journey through Mirkwood and the climactic confrontation
with the dragon Smaug served as the launching point for Tolkien's
transformative trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. Many of the
essential elements of Tolkien's classic saga have their roots in this
children's book.
The first impression of the first
edition ran as a limited printing of 1500 copies, and authentic
copies with the dust jacket will include a well known hand
correction, in black ink, of a misspelling of the last name of
Reverend Charles Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll) on the back
flap. A first edition, first printing of the original U.K. edition
can run over $40,000. Signed copies of this edition have been
appraised at over $100,000 U.S. Later printings of the first
edition also retain much value for collectors. The first U.S.
Edition, printed in 1938 by Houghton Mifflin Company, is prized and
is commonly sold to collectors at prices well over $2,000.
Chips to the cover, a missing
dustcover, wear to the spine, and damage to the map in the endpaper,
are some of the more common flaws for this book.
The story remains popular, and stands
as one of the most enduring (and endearing) stories of the last
century. The Hobbit sparked a creative explosion in
speculative fiction, a fire that burns brightly to this day. The
revival in interest in recent years, in part due to the popularity of
the film series inspired by Tolkien's books only shows the
timelessness of his story, and the importance of his work.
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A Game
of Thrones is the first of seven planned novels in A Song of Ice and
Fire, an epic fantasy series by American author George R. R. Martin.
It was first published in August 1996. The novel won the 1997 Locus
Award, and was nominated for both the 1998 Nebula Award and the 1997
World Fantasy Award. The novella Blood of the Dragon , comprising the
Daenerys Targaryen chapters from the novel, won the 1997 Hugo Award
for Best Novella. In January 2011
the novel became a New York Times bestseller and reached #1 on the
list in July 2011. A signed first edition in good condition can run
from $1,500 to $3,500. The
first five books of the seven book series have been published as of
2018:
A GAME OF THRONES A CLASH OF KINGS A STORM OF SWORDS A
FEAST OF CROWS A DANCE WITH DRAGONS
The sixth book – the Winds of Winter, is still being written,
but rumored to be released in 2018. “Winter
is coming. Such is the stern motto of House Stark, the northernmost
of the fiefdoms that owe allegiance to King Robert Baratheon in
far-off King’s Landing. There Eddard Stark of Winterfell rules in
Robert’s name. There his family dwells in peace and comfort: his
proud wife, Catelyn; his sons Robb, Brandon, and Rickon; his
daughters Sansa and Arya; and his bastard son, Jon Snow. Far to the
north, behind the towering Wall, lie savage Wildings and
worse—unnatural things relegated to myth during the centuries-long
summer, but proving all too real and all too deadly in the turning of
the season.
Yet a more immediate threat lurks to the south, where Jon Arryn,
the Hand of the King, has died under mysterious circumstances. Now
Robert is riding north to Winterfell, bringing his queen, the lovely
but cold Cersei, his son, the cruel, vainglorious Prince Joffrey, and
the queen’s brothers Jaime and Tyrion of the powerful and wealthy
House Lannister—the first a swordsman without equal, the second a
dwarf whose stunted stature belies a brilliant mind. All are heading
for Winterfell and a fateful encounter that will change the course of
kingdoms.
Meanwhile, across the Narrow Sea, Prince Viserys, heir of the
fallen House Targaryen, which once ruled all of Westeros, schemes to
reclaim the throne with an army of barbarian Dothraki—whose loyalty
he will purchase in the only coin left to him: his beautiful yet
innocent sister, Daenerys.” - from georgerrmartin.com
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Fahrenheit 451 (Ballantine Books, 1953) by Ray Bradbury is a dystopian novel that presents a future American society in which the masses are hedonistic and critical thought through reading is outlawed. Written in the early years of the Cold War, the novel is a critique of what Bradbury saw as issues in American society of the era. Bradbury combined two of his early short stories, "The Pedestrian" and "Bright Phoenix," into The Fireman, a novella published in the February 1951 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. Bradbury's publisher at Ballantine Books then suggested that he expand the work to make into a novel—Fahrenheit 451.
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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2) finds the hero of Hogwarts back to his humble home with the Dursleys for summer break. Between their efforts, and that of a strange and much-abused house-elf, Harry feels like he might never make it back to complete his wizard training!
Even back at Hogwarts, danger abounds! A mysterious "Chamber of Secrets" has been opened, and the young wizard and his friends must use everything they can to save each other from certain doom! The truth lies behind a magical diary, a ghost who lives inside a toilet, a pompous new teacher and ends with the Dark Wizard Voldemort.
Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adolescent Literature (2008) , British Book Award (1999) , Smarties Prize (1999) , Prijs van de Jonge Jury (2002) , Booklist 1999 Editor's choice (1999)
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, released on 16 July 2005, is the sixth of seven novels from British author J. K. Rowling's popular Harry Potter series. Set during Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts, the novel explores Lord Voldemort's past, and Harry's preparations for the final battle amidst emerging romantic relationships and the emotional confusions and conflict resolutions characteristic of mid-adolescence.
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Claire Randall is leading a double life. She has a husband in one century, and a lover in another...In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon--when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach--an "outlander"--in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of our Lord...1743.Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire's destiny in soon inextricably intertwined with Clan MacKenzie and the forbidden Castle Leoch. She is catapulted without warning into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life ...and shatter her heart. For here, James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a passion so fierce and a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.From the Trade Paperback edition.
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh and final of the Harry Potter novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The book was released on 21 July 2007, ending the series that began in 1997 with the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. This book chronicles the events directly following Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005), and leads to the long-awaited final confrontation between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort.
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The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel written by philologist and Oxford University professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit (1937), but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in stages between 1937 and 1949, much of it during World War II.
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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5) shows us how the plot begins to thicken in this renowned series. The tale grows darker and becomes psychologically intense as the teenaged boy wizard much handle his social life as well as the dark forces that seek to take him down!
The greater community begins to doubt Harry and the existence of Voldemort's return, and Hogwarts is overtaken by an oppressive representative from the Ministry of Magic. We meet the dread Dementors, and Harry loses loved ones in this tale of his exhausting fifth year!
Bram Stoker Award for Works for Young Readers (2003) , Anthony Award for Young Adult (2004) , Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adolescent Literature (2008) , Books I Loved Best Yearly (BILBY) Awards for Older Readers (2004) , Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award (2006) ...more Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award (2006) , Golden Archer Award for Middle/Junior High (2005) , ALA Teens' Top Ten (2004) , Carnegie Medal Nominee (2003)
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Originally
published as a short story in 1977 in Analog Science Fiction and
Fact , Ender's Game is a science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card,
published in book form in 1985 by Tor.
A
futuristic novel, the protagonist, Ender Wiggin is taken at a very
young age to a training center known as the Battle School, where he
learns military tactics and maneuvers. As part of his supposed
training, he is sent on a simulation battle only to find - upon his
victory against the invading Buggers - that it was not in fact a
simulation at all, but was in fact real.
Ender's
Game has remained popular and collectible since its publication. It
won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for Science fiction and later a
major motion picture was made from it in 2013. As a result, it is
very collectible, and a signed first edition, while not particularly
rare, can be found for $2,000-3,000. Easton Press later issued a
leather bound signed edition , which is typically available for
several hundred dollars. The aforementioned original appearance, in
short story form can be found as well in the same price range.
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Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through
the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, tell the story of a young
girl in a fantasy world filled with peculiar, anthropomorphic
creatures. The classic tale of literary nonsense takes the reader on an
exploration of logic and absurdities. The Alice books — sometimes
combined or referred to with the abbreviated title Alice in Wonderland —
have been translated into at least 97 languages with over a hundred
different editions. The books have also been adapted numerous times into
films (both live action and cartoon), plays, and musicals.
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Dragonfly in Amber, the second book in the best-selling Outlander series, is written by Diana Gabaldon. Her books are difficult to classify by genre, since they contain elements of romantic fiction, historical fiction, and science fiction. The stories center around a time-travelling 20th-century nurse (Claire Randall) and her 18th-century Scottish husband (Jamie Fraser), and are located in Scotland, France, the West Indies, and America.
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The first in the epic science fiction series of the same name, Dune is set on the desert planet Arrakis, host to "the Spice" - the most important resource in the universe, needed for interplanetary travel and coveted for its effects on longevity and granting incredible psychic powers among humans. Amidst an intergalactic power struggle, would-be heir to the planet's stewardship Paul Atreides is cast out into the desert to die following a coup. Joining a group of zealots called the Fremen, Paul soon becomes considered their messiah - Mahdi - and recognizes in them a formidable fighting force with whom he can retake control of Arrakis. Dune won both the Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Nebula Award for Best Novel.
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Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter #1)
J. K. Rowlings amazing first novel, H arry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone , was released as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States.
We start off by meeting Harry Potter and his horrible family. Harry is an orphan, and lives in a tiny room under the stairs, serving his family by cooking and cleaning.
One day, he gets a letter from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy, and his life takes a serious turn!
Join Harry as he explores Hogwarts, makes lasting friendships, and begins his life as an intrepid young wizard in this award-winning story!
Winner of: British Fantasy Award (1999) , Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adolescent Literature (2008) , British Book Award for Children's Book of the Year (1998) , Smarties Prize (1997) , Prijs van de Nederlandse Kinderjury (2002) ...more Prijs van de Nederlandse Kinderjury (2002) , Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award (2001) , South Carolina Book Award for Junior Book Award (2001) , Grand Canyon Reader Award for Teen Book (2000) , Charlotte Award (2000) , Nene Award (2000) , Massachusetts Children's Book Award (2000) , Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award (2001) , Blue Hen Book Award for Chapter Book (2001) , Nevada Young Readers' Award for Young Reader Category (2000) , Sasquatch Reading Award (2000) , Golden Archer Award for Middle/Junior High (2000) , Indian Paintbrush Book Award (2000) , Carnegie Medal Nominee (1997) , ALA's Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults (1999)
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The Dragon Reborn (abbreviated as tDR by fans) is the third book of American author Robert Jordan's fantasy series The Wheel of Time. It was published by Tor Books and released on September 15, 1991. The unabridged audio book is read by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading.
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Commonly named among the Great American novels, The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, is generally regarded as the
sequel to his earlier novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; however, in
Huckleberry Finn, Twain focused increasingly on the institution of
slavery and the South. Narrated by Huckleberry “Huck” Finn in Southern
antebellum vernacular, the novel gives vivid descriptions of people and
daily life along the Mississippi River while following the adventure of
Huck and a runaway slave, Jim, rafting their way to freedom.
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A Storm of Swords is the third of seven planned novels in A Song of Ice and Fire, an epic fantasy series by American author George R. R. Martin. It was first published on 8 August 2000 in the United Kingdom, with a United States edition following in November 2000. Its publication was preceded by a novella called Path of the Dragon, which collects some of the Daenerys Targaryen chapters from the novel into a single book. To date, A Storm of Swords is the longest novel in the series.
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A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)
The Seven Kingdoms have fallen asunder, as the sadistic teenager, Joffrey of House Lannister, ascends the Iron Throne following the death of his "father," Robert the Usurper.
The Stark family in the North rises to power to combat this ascension, and the empowered Daenerys, the exiled last heir of the former ruling family, seeks a way to return to Westeros and rule it.
Meanwhile the Night's Watch, the orphans and criminals who guard Westeros from the barbarians who live beyond the Wall find their numbers dwindling in the face of fantastical forces.
Nebula Award Nominee (2000) , Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel (1999)
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The Road is a 2006 novel by American writer Cormac McCarthy. It is a post-apocalyptic tale of a journey taken by a father and his young son over a period of several months, across a landscape blasted by an unnamed cataclysm that destroyed all civilization and, apparently, almost all life on earth. The novel was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in 2006.
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This is the third novel in the bestselling outlander series. Jamie
Fraser is lying on the battlefield of Culloden, where he rises wounded,
to face execution or imprisonment. Either prospect pales beside the pain
of loss - his wife is gone. Forever. But sometimes forever is shorter
than one thinks. In 1746, Claire Fraser made a perilous journey through
time, leaving her young husband to die at Culloden, in order to protect
their unborn child. In 1968, Claire has just been struck through the
heart, discovering that Jamie Fraser didn't die in battle. But where is
Jamie now? With the help of her grown daughter, Claire sets out to find
the man who was her life - and might be once again.
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A Feast for Crows is the fourth of seven planned novels in A Song of Ice and Fire, an epic fantasy series by American author George R. R. Martin. The novel was first published on 17 October 2005 in the United Kingdom, with a United States edition following on 8 November 2005; however, it appeared ahead of the publication date in several UK bookshops. Its publication was preceded by a novella named Arms of the Kraken, which collected the first four Iron Islands chapters together.
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Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) by George
Orwell has become the definitive dystopian novel of the twentieth
century. Originally published in on June 8, 1949 by Secker and
Warburg in the United Kingdom, the book follows the main character,
Winston Smith, through his disillusionment with totalitarianism and a
doomed struggle of resistance. George Orwell is a pen-name, Orwell's
real name was Eric Blair.
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Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade:
A Duty-Dance with Death is a satirical novel by Kurt Vonnegut and is generally
recognized as his most influential and popular work. Set around World War II,
the novels tells of the story of Billy Pilgrim, a chaplain’s assistant, and his
experiences and journeys through time. Billy sees when, how, and why he will
die, resulting in his becoming fatalistic. The refrain “so it goes” is used
when death, dying, and mortality occur and it appears in the book 106 times.
Additionally, the novel can be read as semi-autobiographical: Vonnegut was
present during the firebombing of Dresden, a central event in the novel.
Shortly after publication, Slaughterhouse-Five
was nominated for two best novel recognitions, a Nebula Award and a Hugo Award,
though it lost both to Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. The Modern
Library ranked Slaughterhouse-Five eighteenth on its list of the “100 Best”
English-language novels of the 20th century in 1998. It is also listed in TIME’s
“100 Best Novels” (since 1923).
However, mainly due to its irreverent tone and
obscene content, Slaughterhouse-Five has been the subject of many attempts at
censorship. The novel treats one of the most horrific massacres in European
history—the firebombing of Dresden—with mock-serious humor and clear antiwar
sentiment. It also depicts sexuality to a revolutionary extent as one of the
first literary acknowledgments that homosexual men, referred to in the novel as
“fairies,” were among the victims of the Nazi Holocaust. Thus,
Slaughterhouse-Five is listed in the American Library Association's list of the
“Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–1999” as well as the ALA's “Most
Frequently Challenged Books of 2000–2009.”
The novel has been adapted more than a handful
of times, most notably a film adaptation by the same name made in 1972.
Although the film did poorly in the box office, it was critically praised,
winning the Prix du Jury at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival.
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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4) keeps having horrible dreams that wake him with the scar on his forehead throbbing. He is relieved to return to the magical realm from his summer break early to attend the Quidditch World Cup with the Weasleys, but the relief quickly gives way to a dark threat that looms over the magical world. Being a teenager is hard enough without having a Dark Lord seeking your destruction!
Hugo Award for Best Novel (2001) , Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adolescent Literature (2008) , Publieksprijs voor het Nederlandse Boek (2001) , Golden Archer Award for Middle/Junior High (2002) , Indian Paintbrush Book Award (2002)
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The Two Towers is the second volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. It is preceded by The Fellowship of the Ring and followed by The Return of the King.
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The Return of the King is the third and final volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, following The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers.
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" IRRESISTIBLE! " -- The Boston Globe: Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide ("A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have") and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox--the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years. Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? Why do we spend so much time between wearing digital watches? For all the answers stick your thumb to the stars. And don't forget to bring a towel!"[A] WHIMSICAL ODYSSEY...Characters frolic through the galaxy with infectious joy."--Publishers WeeklyFrom the Paperback edition. - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
aired for the first time at 10:30pm on Wednesday, 8th March 1978 on
the BBC as a radio comedy. The radio show's popularity spawned books,
a televisions series, several stage plays, a computer game and
feature films.
The novel adaptation of Adam's radio
series is a misnamed “Trilogy” of six books, five written by
Douglas Adams – that sold more than 15 millions copies in his
lifetime - and a sixth by Eoin Colfer.
At the release of the fourth book the
series was named "trilogy in four parts," and the US
edition of the fifth book was originally released with the legend
"The fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named
Hitchhiker's Trilogy" on the cover. Subsequent re-releases of
the other novels bore the legend "The [first, second, third,
fourth] book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's
Trilogy". In addition, the blurb on the fifth book describes it
as "the book that gives a whole new meaning to the word
'trilogy'"
Before his death from a heart attack on
May 11, 2001, Adams was considering writing a sixth novel in the
Hitchhiker's series. Eoin Colfer, an Irish writer of Children's
Books, most famous for his Artemis Fowl series, wrote the sixth book
in the Hitchhiker's series in 2008–09.
Books in the Series (Trilogy) are as
follows:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy
The Restaurant at the End of the
Universe
Life, the Universe and Everything
So Long, and Thanks for All the
Fish
Mostly Harmless
And Another Thing...
Two omnibus editions were created by
Douglas Adams to combine the Hitchhiker series novels and to "set
the record straight". The stories came in so many different
formats that Adams stated that every time he told it he would
contradict himself. Therefore, he stated in the introduction of The
More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide that "anything I put
down wrong here is, as far as I'm concerned, wrong for good."
The two omnibus editions were The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's
Guide, Complete and Unabridged (published in 1987) and The
Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide, Complete and Unabridged (published
in 1997).
Inspired in part by Ken Walsh's
Hitch-hiker's Guide to Europe published
in 1971, which stresses the importance of towels to the travelling
hitch-hiker, an important article to the Hitchhiker's in Adam's
galaxy as well.
When Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster was
launched into space on the maiden flight of the Falcon Heavy rocket
in February 2018, it had the words DON'T PANIC on the dashboard
display and carried amongst other items a copy of the Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy and a towel.
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Fahrenheit 451 (Ballantine Books, 1953) by Ray Bradbury is a dystopian novel that presents a future American society in which the masses are hedonistic and critical thought through reading is outlawed. Written in the early years of the Cold War, the novel is a critique of what Bradbury saw as issues in American society of the era. Bradbury combined two of his early short stories, "The Pedestrian" and "Bright Phoenix," into The Fireman, a novella published in the February 1951 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. Bradbury's publisher at Ballantine Books then suggested that he expand the work to make into a novel—Fahrenheit 451.
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Publishedin 1978
The Faded Sun series by Cherryh has won much acclaim. Book #1 received the Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel (1979) , Nebula Award Nominee for Novel (1978) , and Locus Poll Award Nominee for Best SF Novel (1979).
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A Feast for Crows is the fourth of seven planned novels in A Song of Ice and Fire, an epic fantasy series by American author George R. R. Martin. The novel was first published on 17 October 2005 in the United Kingdom, with a United States edition following on 8 November 2005; however, it appeared ahead of the publication date in several UK bookshops. Its publication was preceded by a novella named Arms of the Kraken, which collected the first four Iron Islands chapters together.
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So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish is the fourth book of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series written by Douglas Adams. Its title is the message left by the dolphins when they departed Planet Earth just before it was demolished to make way for a hyperspatial express route, as described in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
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Originally
published as a short story in 1977 in Analog Science Fiction and
Fact , Ender's Game is a science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card,
published in book form in 1985 by Tor.
A
futuristic novel, the protagonist, Ender Wiggin is taken at a very
young age to a training center known as the Battle School, where he
learns military tactics and maneuvers. As part of his supposed
training, he is sent on a simulation battle only to find - upon his
victory against the invading Buggers - that it was not in fact a
simulation at all, but was in fact real.
Ender's
Game has remained popular and collectible since its publication. It
won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for Science fiction and later a
major motion picture was made from it in 2013. As a result, it is
very collectible, and a signed first edition, while not particularly
rare, can be found for $2,000-3,000. Easton Press later issued a
leather bound signed edition , which is typically available for
several hundred dollars. The aforementioned original appearance, in
short story form can be found as well in the same price range.
-
The War of the Worlds (1898) is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells describing an invasion of late Victorian England by Martians equipped with advanced weaponry. It is a seminal depiction of an alien invasion of Earth. The novel is narrated by an unnamed writer of scientific articles. Throughout the narrative he struggles to reunite with his wife, while witnessing the Martians rampaging through the southern English counties. The plot has been related to invasion literature of the time.
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Invisible Man is a novel written by HG Wells, first published as a serial in Pearson's Weekly in 1897 before being published as a book by C. Arthur Pearson in 1897. The story follows the scientist Griffith, who through experimentation has become the Invisible Man of the title. Griffith's initial, almost comedic, adventures are soon overshadowed by the bizarre streak of terror he unleashes upon the inhabitants of a small village, and the novel is noted for its horror, suspense and psychological nuance.
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Frank Herbert was born in Tacoma, Washington, and educated at the University of Washington, Seattle. He worked a wide variety of jobs--including TV cameraman, radio commentator, oyster diver, jungle survival instructor, lay analyst, creative writing teacher, reporter and editor of several West Coast newspapers--before becoming a full-time writer. He died in 1986.
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Douglas Adams was born in 1952 and educated at Cambridge. He was the author of five books in the Hitchhiker’s Trilogy, including The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; The Restaurant at the End of the Universe ; Life, the Universe and Everything; So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish ; and Mostly Harmless . His other works include Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency ; The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul ; The Meaning of Liff and The Deeper Meaning of Liff (with John Lloyd); and Last Chance to See (with Mark Carwardine). His last book was the bestselling collection, The Salmon of Doubt , published posthumously in May 2002. You can find more about Douglas Adam's life and works at douglasadams.com. From the Trade Paperback edition.
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Stranger in a Strange Land is a best-selling 1961 Hugo Award-winning science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human raised by Martians on the planet Mars, upon his return to Earth in early adulthood. The novel explores his interaction with — and eventual transformation of — Earth culture. The novel's title refers to the Biblical Book of Exodus. According to Heinlein in Grumbles from the Grave, the novel's working title was The Heretic.
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Out of the Silent Planet is the first novel of a science fiction trilogy written by C. S. Lewis, sometimes referred to as the Space Trilogy, Ransom Trilogy or Cosmic Trilogy. The other volumes are Perelandra (also published as Voyage to Venus) and That Hideous Strength, and a fragment of a sequel was published posthumously as The Dark Tower. The trilogy was inspired and influenced by David Lindsay's A Voyage to Arcturus (1920). According to his biographer A. N.
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The Day of the Triffids is a post-apocalyptic novel written in 1951 by the English science fiction author John Wyndham. Although Wyndham had already published other novels, this was the first published under the John Wyndham pen-name. It established him as an important writer, and remains his best known novel. When Bill Masen wakes up blindfolded in hospital there is a bitter irony
in his situation. Carefully removing his bandages, he realizes that he
is the only person who can see: everyone else, doctors and patients
alike, have been blinded by a meteor shower. Now, with civilization in
chaos, the triffids - huge, venomous, large-rooted plants able to
'walk', feeding on human flesh - can have their day. The Day of the
Triffids , published in 1951, expresses many of the political concerns
of its time: the Cold War, the fear of biological experimentation and
the man-made apocalypse. However, with its terrifyingly believable
insights into the genetic modification of plants, the book is more
relevant today than ever before.
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![His Dark Materials. [Full set, with the extras]. 1. Northern Lights 2. The Subtle Knife 3. The Amber Spyglass. 4. Lyra's Oxford. 5. 'Alethiometer' pamphlet](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/211/379/45379211.0.m.jpg)
