Two hundred years after a nuclear apocalypse forced humanity to flee earth, humans still remember the most feared warriors of that planet—-the Paratwa, genetically modified killers who occupy two bodies controlled by one vicious mind.

The legendary Paratwa named Reemul, known as the Liege-Killer, was the strongest of them all. Now someone has revived Reemul from stasis and sent him to terrorize the peaceful orbital colonies of Earth. Is this an isolated incident, or has the one who unleashed this terrible power announced a gambit for control over the entire human race?

This is the story arc of Christopher Hinz’s stirring trilogy consisting of Liege-Killer, Ash Ock and The Paratwa . Liege-Killer won the Compton Crook Award for best first novel and earned a nomination for the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer.

You can buy the trilogy in a variety of formats including Kindle.

Dave Duncan’s “Handful of Men” quartet is now available in Kindle.

Picking up the story where his “”Man of His Word” trilogy left off, Duncan launches a new and magical adventure in Pandemia. The titles in order of publication are The Cutting Edge, Upland Outlaws, The Stricken Field and The Living God. All may be viewed and ordered on the Dave Duncan page on the E-Reads website.

The great adventure chronicled in the “Man of His Word” quartet ended happily enough. The good folk of Krasnegar discovered that a beautiful princess could, indeed, succeed her royal father and rule in her own right, and rule very well, too. And when Queen Inos married Rap, the former stableboy, he turned out to be a very good king. He never admitted that he was a sorcerer, and everyone knew that Rap was a Man of His Word, so that was all right.

The years passed. Rap and Inos raised a family, prospering in their remote little kingdom. But trouble was brewing in the great world outside. The aged Imperor grew ever more erratic, more tyrannical. His grandson Shandie, the boy Rap had befriended, was now a great soldier, struggling to suppress ever-growing upheaval in the borderlands while he waited to inherit the throne. Strange prophecies of upheaval and disaster spread. When the rumors reached even to Krasnegar, Rap scoffed at them as superstition–until one night a god appeared and confirmed that the truth was likely to be far worse. On his travels long ago, Rap himself had made a terrible blunder. Because of that, the world of Pandemia was now poised on the brink of utter disaster. The last thing Rap wanted was another adventure.

That’s too bad, because want it or not, he’s about to have one.  It all begins in The Cutting Edge.

Thanks to E-Reads’ reissue program Dave Duncan is at last receiving the recognition he has earned and deserved over a career packed with stirring, witty, romantic and thrilling works impeccably narrated as if woven on the loom of a master textile artist.  His “Seventh Sword” novels are far and away the biggest selling fantasy trilogy in E-Reads’ history. You can find them and almost two dozen other Duncans on his author page.

Now comes the breathtaking quartet of novels known as “A Man of His Word“, consisting of Magic Casement, Faery Lands Forlorn, Perilous Seas and Emperor and Clown, with handsomely redesigned covers for both the e-book and the paperback editions.

A princess and a stableboy? It sounds like the worst sort of hackneyed formula romance. Think again, for A Man of His Word may well be the most original fantasy you will ever read. Duncan’s astonishing magic manifests itself in utterly unexpected ways, some of which the late Lester del Rey admitted he had not met in fifty years as writer and editor. The world itself is unique, for there are no humans in Pandemia, only imps, elves, gnomes, jotnar, and many more, all of whom you will recognize as “human”.

In the first book, Magic Casement, the tale begins gently, even slowly, with Inosolan enjoying an idyllic childhood in a tiny backwater kingdom, too carefree and innocent even to understand that the feelings she shares with her friend Rap are more than friendship. Mystery, menace, and the gods appear in short order, and from then on the story grows in scope and power to straddle the world, and adversity thrusts rapid maturity on Rap and Inos. Populated by unforgettable characters–Aunt Kade, Little Chicken, Doctor Sagorn, and many more–Pandemia is an incredible world of credible people and infinite surprises.

One reader commented

“I think this is my favorite fantasy series of all time. The reluctant swordsman series was great, but A Man of His Word was a revelation — up until this series, I had no idea of fantasy’s potential. I remember reviews at the time complaining that Duncan’s series had subverted the fantasy genre, but for me it was the series that saved us from endless Tolkien rewrites. There was nothing like it before; not even the great James Branch Cabell comes close to Duncan’s originality in this series. Once you start the first book, you canot put any of it down. It is totally addictive. A must have for any fantasy fan. You don’t know the genre at all if you don’t know this series.”

The fantasy swordsmen that populate Dave Duncan’s novels are among E-Reads’ bestselling books. Now comes Longdirk, a Highlands outlaw whose blade slices through foes like a farmer’s scythe.

In Demon Sword, the first novel in the “Years of Longdirk” trilogy, all of Europe is under the control of the Khan, whose conquering armies swept across the West in 1244. Scotland, in addition, lies under the heel of England. Young Toby Strangerson, a half-English bastard, reared by a witchwife, wants only to shed his hated “Sassenach” blood and free his beloved highlands.

Toby wields a sword as the outlaw Longdirk. The sword can cut down men like so many stalks of corn. But stranger winds are swirling and howling across the lochs, eldritch winds that are ridden by “hobs” and “wisps” and demons. The enemy Sassenach king is also a sorcerer. His demon soul needs a body and his Black Arts can free Europe from the Khan’s Golden Horde.

Demon Sword and its sequels Demon Rider and Demon Knight were originally published under the pen name Ken Hood but Duncan is stepping out from behind his shield.

Watch the Dave Duncan author page for release information about Demon Rider and Demon Knight. You’ll also see some two dozen fantasy treats from a brilliant master available for download or print paperback..

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s To The High Redoubt is an epic fantasy adventure by the creator of the widely-read series of novels about the immortal vampire Le Comte de Saint-Germain.

In his quest for power, Bundhi, Lord of Darkness and stealer of souls, has taken family, vision and freedom from Surata, the last surviving adept in tantric alchemy, before selling her into slavery in a distant land. But he has underestimated the depth of Surata’s power and he could not foresee that destiny would bring her a champion, Arkady, soldier of fortune and destined hero. As their mutual trust deepens and the wellspring of power from which Surata draws her magic is steadily revealed, the two form an unbeatable force as they challenge their enemy in the very heart of his empire.

E-Reads has begun publishing Yarbro’s Saint Germain vampire novels, so keep your eye on her author page for news of new releases.

Piers Anthony is best known for his long-running Magic of Xanth series, of which many titles have appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. Another immensely popular series is “Cluster,” and E-Reads is publishing it. Today we bring you the eponymous first novel of five.

The “Cluster” adventures are set in a future focused on colonization of distant planets. Sphere Sol is about 100 light years in diameter, centered on the Earth’s sun. Surrounding this sphere are similar ones centered on another star such as Polaris or Canopus. Colonization is accomplished by instantaneous teleportation, called matter transmission or mattermission. Cryonically preserved colonists are sent out in “freezer” ships.

Because of the difficulty of colonization and the smaller population bases, all spheres suffer spherical regression– that is, the greater the distance from source star to colony, the lower the level of technology that survives. Social organizations regress backward to historical periods of the home planet’s past. Outworld, Sphere Sol’s farthest colony, is populated by paleolithic tribes who hunt with flint spears and make fire. Colonists know about the interstellar empire and the home worlds “mattermit” government and security personnel to all colony worlds.

Every living being radiates a force-field which can be observed using Kirlian photography

Every living thing has a Kirlian aura that can be measured. Through transfer, a refinement of mattermission technology, the mind and personality of individuals with high aura can be sent to animate a body physically distant but a hosted aura fades at the rate of about 1 unit per Earth day and higher-Kirlian individuals last longer and thus have more freedom of movement.

The first three novels in the sequence, Cluster, Chaining the Lady and Kirlian Quest form a linked trilogy. Thousandstar and Viscous Circle come later and take place in the time sequence between the second and third volumes of the original trilogy.

Look for all five titles on the Piers Anthony page of the E-Reads website. And visit Piers Anthony’s website

RC

After Marco Vassi, the brilliant erotic writer and a dear personal friend, lost his struggle with HIV I paid tribute to him in an essay, An Intrepid Voyager to a World of Searing Erotic Fantasies. And I vowed to reissue his books  when I launched our E-Reads program. We have fulfilled that promise with release of ten of his works.  The latest is The Erotic Comedies .

The Erotic Comedies is a collection of fables and memoirs by America’s foremost erotic writer does for our era what Boccaccio, Swift, and Balzac did for theirs – exposes the human animal in all its absurdity. Vassi takes erotic writing to its extremes and then further, unraveling the seams of our most secret fantasies. His subjects are radical lesbians, male supremacists, transsexuals, establishment normals, therapists, revolutionaries, gynecologists, gurus and even God – created in Vassi’s own image, of course – all of whom are reduced to the ridiculous in a shower of bawdy laughter.

Capturing the sizzling vitality of the erotic upheaval of his age while also grasping its peculiar pretensions, he creates a gallery of unforgettable characters who are only ourselves become somehow larger than life. As with other great humorists, Vassi has a serious purpose: to explode the prevailing myths so the reader is forced to respond to his or her eroticism with unprogrammed intelligence. When everything from monogamy to coprophilia is presented from the perspective of the cosmic horse-laugh, no one can avoid finding his or her own role in the human comedy.

Richard Curtis

In Survivor, the coda to William W. Johnstone’s bestselling “Ashes” series, Jim LaDoux, the grandson of the legendary General Ben Raines, has seen his grandfather and the last of his family die in the beginnings of the plague that sweeps the world, leaving many millions dead and a civilization struggling to survive and re-build after yet another in a what seems like an endless series of crippling blows.

LaDoux, having stayed alone for six months in the isolated Idaho cabin built by his ancestors, realizes that he must get out and find life and hope or he will surrender to despair and death. As he starts traveling, he finds a young woman, Bev, who had been on a Believer mission and who has barely survived an attack by Rejects. The Rejects are a chaotic and violent movement of outcasts who have seen all the destruction and horror of the last few years and have formed a single belief: that there can be no God in a world such as they’ve lived in.

As they travel together, they find love for each other and they have to deal with members of both sides of the struggle and then encounter yet a third faction, the Rebels, who believe that Ben Raines’s set of beliefs is still alive and that faith, courage and firepower combined can beat back the evil that threatens to end the world.

Homesmind is an intelligent force that guides the fates of the inhabitants of the extraordinary world created by Pamela Sargent in her Watchstar trilogy, brought to you for the first time in e-book by E-Reads. Each novel focuses on another female, and in the climactic novel the stories come together in a comet-like blaze. Though it’s categorized as young adult it crosses over into a thrilling read for mature audiences too.

In the first novel, Watchstar , Daiya is faced with a dilemma that will determine her fate. If she fails, her life will be spent with the feared Merged Ones. Confused and torn between worlds near and far, she harbors a secret and must find a way to move to a safe place where she can survive.

In the second Eye of the Comet, young Lydee had always known this strange comet-world to be Home. She had always felt the presence and control of the omnipresent Homesmind. Struggling with her future, she discovers the destiny she is meant for–the fate she will fulfill within her community. And it frightens her…. She will act as a bridge between her comet Home and her species’ native Earth.

In  Homesmind, the capstone of the trilogy, Anra is a solitary, born without the power to mindspeak – communicate in unspoken thoughts. In the past, she would have been killed at birth but the arrival of the Wanderer, the comet controlled by the cybernetic intelligence known as the Homesmind has changed everything. The people of the comet, the skydwellers, now supply solitaries with implants that allow artificial mindspeaking. The solitaries are sequestered in a single village willing to care for such children.

Anra and her new brethren are thought to be the possible bridge between the people of Earth and the skydwellers but the gap may be too great: the people of Earth consider solitaries an abomination – and the skydwellers as soulless.

Click here to see other Pamela Sargent titles offered by E-Reads including her famous Venus trilogy.

Journey to the treacherous and tempestuous Highlands of fifteenth century Scotland in Hannah Howell’s Highland Bride, a passionate tale of a feisty beauty determined to uncover the softer side of the iron-willed warrior who has wed her, bedded her…and stolen her heart.

Though she has yet to be courted by any man, spirited Gillyanne Murray decides the time has come to visit the dower lands gifted to her by her father’s kinsmen. She arrives to find the small keep surrounded by three lairds, each one vying for her hand…and property. Though resolved to refuse them all, the threat of battle on her threshold forces her to boldly choose a suitor: Sir Connor MacEnroy, a handsome, daring knight of few words. As his wife, Gillyanne is stunned by his terse, cold distance–and her own yearning to feel passion in his arms. Now, bringing her healing touch to a land and a keep ravaged by treachery and secret enemies, she dares to reach out for the one thing she fears she may forever be denied…her husband’s closely guarded heart.

E-Reads boasts fifteen captivating highland novels by Howell. Make it your summertime project to read them all!