Shadow Conspiracy II

Description

Shadow Conspiracy II revisits the shared Victorian world of transferable souls and intelligent machines. Judith Tarr’s irrepressible Emma Rigby prances through a new adventure with automata. Nancy Jane Moore brings us more missions for the mysterious warrior woman, Jane Freemantle. We have new characters to play with, too. Chris Dolley brings to life a wonderful parody reminiscent of P.G. Wodehouse.

Then there are the historical characters who keep popping into our works of fiction. Amy Sterling Casil introduces us to insane artist Richard Dadd and makes us redefine madness. Irene Radford visits Dr. John McLaughlin and his wife Marguerite in the Oregon Country with some questions about when no government is too much government. Pati Nagle gives us some more insight into the life of mystical Marie LeVeau. And always, Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, hovers in the background along with her father, Lord Byron.

Join in the fun, the gadgets, the adventure, and the Romance of steampunk in the second volume of Shadow Conspiracy.

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Shadow Conspiracy II revisits the shared Victorian world of transferable souls and intelligent machines. Judith Tarr’s irrepressible Emma Rigby prances through a new adventure with automata. Nancy Jane Moore brings us more missions for the mysterious warrior woman, Jane Freemantle. We have new characters to play with, too. Chris Dolley brings to life a wonderful parody reminiscent of P.G. Wodehouse.

Then there are the historical characters who keep popping into our works of fiction. Amy Sterling Casil introduces us to insane artist Richard Dadd and makes us redefine madness. Irene Radford visits Dr. John McLaughlin and his wife Marguerite in the Oregon Country with some questions about when no government is too much government. Pati Nagle gives us some more insight into the life of mystical Marie LeVeau. And always, Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, hovers in the background along with her father, Lord Byron.

Join in the fun, the gadgets, the adventure, and the Romance of steampunk in the second volume of Shadow Conspiracy.

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A Princess of Passyunk

Description

Philadelphia, 1950‘s: a boy, a baseball, a cockroach. Unlikely place. Unlikely characters. Unlikely love story.

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Philadelphia, 1950‘s: a boy, a baseball, a cockroach. Unlikely place. Unlikely characters. Unlikely love story.

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The Shadow Conspiracy

Description

In the Year Without a Summer, a group of mad geniuses descended on Geneva. In an attempt to save the body and mind of George Byron, they performed a dreadful and forbidden experiment that forever changed history—and tore their own lives apart.

Years later, Byron’s daughter Ada has inherited her father’s genius. With Charles Babbage, inventor of the analytical engine, she invents the “automatic sciences,” allowing the creation of machines that mimic human action, and even human thought. Once again, history has changed. Mechanical spiders perform menial tasks. Intelligent locomotives keep their own time schedules. Massive dirigibles and flying automata have flung the Empire—and piracy—into the sky itself.

But even a golden age casts a long shadow, and silent forces are moving in the darkness. Whispers of a conspiracy to destroy the Empire are beginning to surface. The fate of the Geneva experiment and the mad geniuses that created it remains unknown.

And the fate of the world itself rests in the hands of Ada Lovelace.

In The Shadow Conspiracy, Book View Café’s lineup of bestselling, award-winning authors combines forces to create an unforgettable shared world of steam-powered science, fantastic magic, and dark conspiracy.

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In the Year Without a Summer, a group of mad geniuses descended on Geneva. In an attempt to save the body and mind of George Byron, they performed a dreadful and forbidden experiment that forever changed history—and tore their own lives apart.

Years later, Byron’s daughter Ada has inherited her father’s genius. With Charles Babbage, inventor of the analytical engine, she invents the “automatic sciences,” allowing the creation of machines that mimic human action, and even human thought. Once again, history has changed. Mechanical spiders perform menial tasks. Intelligent locomotives keep their own time schedules. Massive dirigibles and flying automata have flung the Empire—and piracy—into the sky itself.

But even a golden age casts a long shadow, and silent forces are moving in the darkness. Whispers of a conspiracy to destroy the Empire are beginning to surface. The fate of the Geneva experiment and the mad geniuses that created it remains unknown.

And the fate of the world itself rests in the hands of Ada Lovelace.

In The Shadow Conspiracy, Book View Café’s lineup of bestselling, award-winning authors combines forces to create an unforgettable shared world of steam-powered science, fantastic magic, and dark conspiracy.

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Laldasa: Beloved Slave

Description

As a writer of science fiction and fantasy, I've often sat on convention panels with titles like, ‘Hey, you got mystery in my fantasy!’ or ‘Oops, there’s romance in my science fiction!’ I don't have a recipe for what happened in Laldasa—I just wrote it to taste. So if I got mystery in your SF, I only did it because, darn it, I think it makes for a richer ‘dish.’

Laldasa is Sanskrit for “beloved slave” and I think it's a fitting title for a story of class boundaries, racial prejudices and the one power capable of overcoming them. It's the story of one small woman battling a political machinery over which she has no control and one supposedly powerful man who realizes that he is as much a pawn of the machinery as the casteless woman he befriends.

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As a writer of science fiction and fantasy, I've often sat on convention panels with titles like, ‘Hey, you got mystery in my fantasy!’ or ‘Oops, there’s romance in my science fiction!’ I don't have a recipe for what happened in Laldasa—I just wrote it to taste. So if I got mystery in your SF, I only did it because, darn it, I think it makes for a richer ‘dish.’

Laldasa is Sanskrit for “beloved slave” and I think it's a fitting title for a story of class boundaries, racial prejudices and the one power capable of overcoming them. It's the story of one small woman battling a political machinery over which she has no control and one supposedly powerful man who realizes that he is as much a pawn of the machinery as the casteless woman he befriends.

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Brewing Fine Fiction

Description

"Check any bookstore and you'll find a host of titles on writing. Some are good, some not so good. Every author has his or her own strengths and weaknesses. But in Brewing Fine Fiction; Advice For Writers From the Bookview Café, you get a smorgasbord of professional advice and expertise. From the plausibility of fantasy, by Ursula LeGuin, to Deborah Ross's comments on reviews, you'll find every facet of the craft and writing life covered. For the wealth of information, experience, and diversity, all under one cover, you can't beat it."

— Mary Rosenblum, Longridge Writers Group Instructor

Book View Café's members include international bestselling authors and winners of the National Book Award, the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and many others. Most have sold multiple novels to major publishers. Many have taught writing at workshops around the world. The knowledge of these professional authors is gathered into a volume that will help both new and experienced writers cope with the creative challenges and the nuts-and-bolts business issues of a career in writing fiction.

Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, Amy Sterling Casil, Brenda W. Clough, Lori Devoti, Chris Dolley, Laura Anne Gilman, Sue Lange,
Ursula K. Le Guin, Vonda N. McIntyre, Nancy Jane Moore, Pati Nagle, Steven Harper Piziks, Irene Radford, Patricia Rice,
Madeleine E. Robins, Deborah J. Ross, Sherwood Smith, Jennifer Stevenson, Judith Tarr, Gerald M. Weinberg, Sarah Zettel

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"Check any bookstore and you'll find a host of titles on writing. Some are good, some not so good. Every author has his or her own strengths and weaknesses. But in Brewing Fine Fiction; Advice For Writers From the Bookview Café, you get a smorgasbord of professional advice and expertise. From the plausibility of fantasy, by Ursula LeGuin, to Deborah Ross's comments on reviews, you'll find every facet of the craft and writing life covered. For the wealth of information, experience, and diversity, all under one cover, you can't beat it."

— Mary Rosenblum, Longridge Writers Group Instructor

Book View Café's members include international bestselling authors and winners of the National Book Award, the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and many others. Most have sold multiple novels to major publishers. Many have taught writing at workshops around the world. The knowledge of these professional authors is gathered into a volume that will help both new and experienced writers cope with the creative challenges and the nuts-and-bolts business issues of a career in writing fiction.

Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, Amy Sterling Casil, Brenda W. Clough, Lori Devoti, Chris Dolley, Laura Anne Gilman, Sue Lange,
Ursula K. Le Guin, Vonda N. McIntyre, Nancy Jane Moore, Pati Nagle, Steven Harper Piziks, Irene Radford, Patricia Rice,
Madeleine E. Robins, Deborah J. Ross, Sherwood Smith, Jennifer Stevenson, Judith Tarr, Gerald M. Weinberg, Sarah Zettel

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Taco Del and the Fabled Tree of Destiny

Description

Visit a future San Francisco in which Golden Gate Park and the Presidio are thriving farms, luxury hotels are the palaces of neighborhood kings and book shops are treasuries of wisdom. This is the world of Taco Del, Merlin to His Majesty, King of Embarcadero. In this world, the young wizard must unravel a great mystery to save his besieged kingdom. King Elvis wants to steal its secrets, mysterious outsiders want to expel its citizens, an ancient and sinister Force threatens spiritual domination. Salvation rests on the slender shoulders of Taco Del and his unlikely allies—a red-haired Chinese girl, a ghostly tribe of Mission Indians and a small fir tree named Doug.

A brief review by Vonda N. McIntyre: “The book charmed me. I fell in love with Taco and Firescape — and Doug. Bohnhoff’s prose is inventive, yet transparent: a dialect comprehensible to contemporary readers but also perfectly evolved for its near-future setting. It can also be very, very funny. When I had to put the story down, I looked forward to picking it up again. After I finished it, I kept expecting to be able to go back to it, because the characters’ lives extended beyond ‘The End.’ I hope I get to read those adventures, too.” — Vonda N. McIntyre

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Visit a future San Francisco in which Golden Gate Park and the Presidio are thriving farms, luxury hotels are the palaces of neighborhood kings and book shops are treasuries of wisdom. This is the world of Taco Del, Merlin to His Majesty, King of Embarcadero. In this world, the young wizard must unravel a great mystery to save his besieged kingdom. King Elvis wants to steal its secrets, mysterious outsiders want to expel its citizens, an ancient and sinister Force threatens spiritual domination. Salvation rests on the slender shoulders of Taco Del and his unlikely allies—a red-haired Chinese girl, a ghostly tribe of Mission Indians and a small fir tree named Doug.

A brief review by Vonda N. McIntyre: “The book charmed me. I fell in love with Taco and Firescape — and Doug. Bohnhoff’s prose is inventive, yet transparent: a dialect comprehensible to contemporary readers but also perfectly evolved for its near-future setting. It can also be very, very funny. When I had to put the story down, I looked forward to picking it up again. After I finished it, I kept expecting to be able to go back to it, because the characters’ lives extended beyond ‘The End.’ I hope I get to read those adventures, too.” — Vonda N. McIntyre

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