Monsters under Glass


Book Description

Monsters under Glass explores our enduring fascination with hothouses and exotic blooms, from their rise in ancient times, through the Victorian vogue for plant collecting, to the vegetable monsters of twentieth-century science fiction and the movies, comics, and video games of the present day. Our interest in hothouses can be traced back to the Roman emperor Tiberius, but it was only in the early nineteenth century that a boom in exotic plant collecting and new glasshouse technologies stimulated the imagination of novelists, poets, and artists, and the hothouse entered the creative language in a highly charged way. Decadent writers in England and Europe—including Charles Baudelaire and Oscar Wilde—transformed the hothouse from a functional object to a powerful metaphor of metropolitan life, sexuality, and being replete with a dark underside of decay and death; and of consciousness itself, nurtured and dissected under glass. In a study as wide-ranging, vivid, and beautiful as our beloved exotic blooms themselves, Jane Desmarais charts the history and influence of these humid, tropical worlds and their creations, providing a steamy window onto our recent past.




Stained Glass Monsters


Book Description

Creatures from the Eferum are a world-wide problem: creeping through tears in the fabric of space, they feast on every unprotected human they can find. Tyrland has a solution in the Kellian: faster and stronger than humans, they are Tyrland's clawed, shadowy monster hunters. But no matter how faithfully they serve, or how true their sworn word, they are too different, too separate, to ever be entirely trusted. Rennyn Claire is a complication. Secretive and obscenely powerful, she knows entirely too much about a massive new threat to Tyrland's safety. Worst of all, she is linked to a past that the Kellian would rather forget. All three of these things – monsters, Kellian, and an entirely overpowered mage – are about to land in Kendall Stockton's lap. The last thing Kendall wants is to try to play conscience to someone who can swat her like a bug. But innocent lives are at stake, and no-one else seems willing to ask if what is necessary is the right thing to do. And who, exactly, is the monster? Keywords: fantasy, high fantasy, fantasy romance, epic fantasy, australian author




Glass


Book Description

Kristina's descent continues in the New York Times bestselling sequel to Crank, now with a refreshed look and a trade paperback trim size. One little bit, my heart revs high, then settles into quick- step mode. How I've missed that race and pound. How I've missed the lack of control. Crank. Glass. Ice. Crystal. Whatever you call it, it's all the same: a monster. Kristina thinks she can control it. Now with a baby to care for, she is determined to be the one deciding when and how much, the one calling the shots. But the monster is strong, and before she knows it, Kristina is back in its grip...and it won't let go. The sequel to Crank, this is the continuing story of Kristina and her descent back to hell.




The Grapes of Math


Book Description

From triangles, rotations and power laws, to cones, curves and the dreaded calculus, Alex takes you on a journey of mathematical discovery with his signature wit and limitless enthusiasm. He sifts through over 30,000 survey submissions to uncover the world’s favourite number, and meets a mathematician who looks for universes in his garage. He attends the World Mathematical Congress in India, and visits the engineer who designed the first roller-coaster loop. Get hooked on math as Alex delves deep into humankind’s turbulent relationship with numbers, and reveals how they have shaped the world we live in.




The Glass Flame


Book Description

A man’s death in the Smoky Mountains raises the suspicions of his estranged wife in this suspenseful novel by a New York Times–bestselling author. Vietnam veteran David Hallam is in Tennessee working as an arson investigator for an insurance company when he sends his wife, Karen, an unnerving note: “If anything happens to me down here, don’t let it pass as an accident . . .” Ten days later, he dies in a fire and the only thing Karen can feel is guilt—for all the years she wasted in an unsalvageable marriage and for the relief she feels at finally having the sadistic and abusive man out of her life. But despite all that transpired between them, Karen leaves New York City for Belle Isle, in the heart of the Smoky Mountains, to bury her husband. Once there, Karen can finally put the past to rest—or so she thinks. Instead, she is drawn into a tangled and deadly web of disputed fortune, family jealousy, conspiracy, adultery, and murder. A New York Times–bestselling author and recipient of the Edgar and Agatha Awards, “Phyllis Whitney is, and always will be, the Grand Master of her craft” (Barbara Michaels). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Phyllis A. Whitney including rare images from the author’s estate.




MARY SHELLEY: MONSTER HUNTER Vol. 1


Book Description

Originally published as Mary Shelley Monster Hunter #1-5.




There's a Monster in My Opu


Book Description

A young boy who lives in Hawaii, hears a monster in his stomach all day, until he eats a snow cone and the monster goes away.




The Fire in the Glass


Book Description

London, 1914. Lily's visions could stop a killer... if she'll trust a reclusive aristocrat with her darkest secret.A monster stalks the gaslit streets of Edwardian London, draining the blood of the city's mediums. Lily Albright knows who's next.Lily is plagued by visions of the future she can never change. When a mysterious fiend threatens someone she loves, she's determined this time will be different.But she can't do it alone. To save a life, Lily must reveal her darkest secrets to someone she has little reason to trust-the reclusive Lord Strangford, a man haunted by his own unusual powers.From the glittering galleries of Bond Street to the rookeries of Southwark, Lily and Strangford plunge into a dark conspiracy that lies at the heart of England's rising eugenics movement.To thwart it, Lily must face a past rife with betrayal-and embrace the power she has spent her entire life trying to escape.




Through the Dragon Glass


Book Description

This early work by Abraham Grace Merritt was originally published in 1917 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'Through the Dragon Glass' is a fantasy short story by the author of the 'Moon Pool'. It tells the tale of adventurous explorers who discover an unknown world. Abraham Grace Merritt - also known by his byline, A. Merritt - was born on the 20th January, 1884 in New Jersey, America. Merritt's stories typically revolved around conventional pulp magazine themes. His heroes are gallant Irishmen or Scandinavians, his villains treacherous Germans or Russians and his heroines often virginal, mysterious and scantily clad. Merritt married twice, once in the 1910s to Eleanore Ratcliffe, with whom he raised an adopted daughter, and again in the thirties to Eleanor H. Johnson.




#06 Wrapped Up in You


Book Description

Staci Glass feels cursed-whenever there's a crisis, she's stuck in the middle. Now her best friend, Faith, has a new hobby, and against her better judgment, Staci conjures up the courage to go along. They join a trio of wannabe witches for a magical ceremony in an Incan history exhibit. Their chanting is loud enough to raise the dead, it seems. Why else would a shriveled-up mummy go missing-and a mysterious Incan prince suddenly appear? Prince Pachacutec-or "Chuck"-is a man with a past. He died tragically five hundred years ago, but that's all ancient history as far as Staci is concerned. He is everything she could want-kind, charming, and drop-dead gorgeous. But the witches aren't willing to live and let live. Will Staci fight for Chuck? Or do the witches have a point when they say reanimated corpses make bad boyfriends?