Herbert George “H. G.” Wells (1866 – 1946) was an English writer, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre, although he was also prolific with contemporary novels, history, and politics and social commentary. His most notable science fiction works include The War of the Worlds (which tops today’s Buffet), The Time Machine, The Invisible Man and The Island of Doctor Moreau.
The War of the Worlds is a first-person narrative of the adventures of an unnamed protagonist and his brother in Surrey and London as Earth is invaded by Martians. Written between 1895 and 1897, it is one of the earliest stories that detail a conflict between mankind and an extraterrestrial race. The popularity of the book has never waned, as it has spawned half a dozen feature films, radio dramas, a record album, various comic-book adaptations, a television series, and sequels or parallel stories by other authors. It has even influenced the work of scientists, notably Robert Hutchings Goddard.
In 1938, actor and future filmmaker Orson Welles adapted The War of the Worlds for a radio program, presented as a series of simulated news bulletins, which suggested to many listeners that an actual alien invasion by Martians was currently in progress. The broadcast led to outrage and panic by some listeners, who had believed the events described in the program were real.
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The War of the Worlds
Science Fiction & Fantasy > Classics
Author: H.G. Wells
The chilling novel account of a Martian invasion of London in the nineteenth century—a science fiction classic for all time.
This is the granddaddy of all alien invasion stories, first published by H.G. Wells in 1898. The novel begins ominously, as the lone voice of a narrator tells readers that “No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s…”
Things then progress from a series of seemingly mundane reports about odd atmospheric disturbances taking place on Mars to the arrival of Martians just outside of London. At first the Martians seem laughable, hardly able to move in Earth’s comparatively heavy gravity even enough to raise themselves out of the pit created when their spaceship landed. But soon the Martians reveal their true nature as death machines 100-feet tall rise up from the pit and begin laying waste to the surrounding land.
Wells quickly moves the story from the countryside to the evacuation of London itself and the loss of all hope as England’s military suffers defeat after defeat. With horror his narrator describes how the Martians suck the blood from living humans for sustenance, and how it’s clear that man is not being conquered so much a corralled. — Synopsis written by Craig E. Engler.
The War of the Worlds inspired the international bestseller The Map of the Sky by Félix J. Palma. This Kindle edition includes an excerpt of The Map of the Sky.
Blood of Others
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Author: Rick Mofina
The disappearance and murder of a lonely San Francisco insurance clerk puts a relentless crime reporter and legendary homicide cop on separate tracks in their pursuit of a killer.
The suspect lures solitary women out of their quiet worlds and into his nightmare as he races the clock and travels the globe searching for the one woman who will forgive the unforgivable.
In the course of a widening investigation, Olivia Grant, a shy gift store sales manager who aches to escape her painful solitude, meets Ben Wyatt, an outcast San Francisco cop on the case, Wyatt is a man gripped with self-doubt over the shooting of his former partner.
Blood of Others is a study of loneliness and human frailties; a story steeped in terrifying suspense that threatens to destroy the lives of those drawn into it as it rockets to a heart-pounding conclusion.
Just a Little Lie
Romance > Contemporary
Author: Mallory Rush
Mariah Garnet didn’t mean any harm when she sent her older sister’s picture to Sgt. Sol Standish—her pen-pal stationed in the Middle East—and forgot to mention that at 18 she’s on a fast track to becoming a surgeon like her dad.
Then Sol is badly wounded in combat, and there’s no time to straighten things out before Mariah grants him his last wish—her hand in marriage—over the phone.
Sol didn’t expect to live, or return home with a battered body and defeated spirit, to face a new bride who isn’t at all what he’d expected.
Now Mariah must convince him that she’s much more than the little lies that landed his ring on her finger.
The Kindness of Strangers
Mystery > Police Procedurals
Author: Julie Smith
The sixth book in the Edgar Award-winning Skip Langdon mystery series Julie Smith.
Politics makes the strangest bedfellows of all and in New Orleans, a psychopath is running for mayor. Not just the usual harmless megalomaniac—a murderer and a monster. His supporters and a good proportion of would-be voters think he’s just a kindly preacher-man and handily crucify anyone who says otherwise. Enter Detective Skip Langdon, who met the Rev. Errol Jacomine on a case, finds him pretty much the personification of evil, and can point to a pile of corpses to prove it.
But Langdon’s fresh out of street cred. On administrative leave after shooting someone, she’s become the Cassandra of the police department—everything she says gets put down to paranoia. So finding the proof to discredit Jacomine becomes her obsession until he kidnaps a couple of kids she cares about—and then it turns into a mission from hell.
Langdon has to bull her way through a hurricane to find the small army of Jacomine’s thugs who’ve got 15-year-old Sheila, the closest thing she has to a niece, and Sheila’s friend, who’s having the mother of inappropriate love affairs—with someone dangerously close to Jacomine.
Lady of Devices
Science Fiction > Alternative History > Steampunk
Author: Shelley Adina
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London, 1889. Victoria is Queen. Charles Darwin’s son is Prime Minister. And steam is the power that runs the world.
At 17, Claire Trevelyan, daughter of Viscount St. Ives, was expected to do nothing more than pour an elegant cup of tea, sew a fine seam, and catch a rich husband. Unfortunately, Claire’s talents lie not in the ballroom, but in the chemistry lab, where things have a regrettable habit of blowing up. When her father gambles the estate on the combustion engine and loses, Claire finds herself down and out on the mean streets of London. But being a young woman of resources and intellect, she turns fortune on its head. It’s not long before a new leader rises in the underworld, known only as the Lady of Devices.
When she meets Andrew Malvern, a member of the Royal Society of Engineers, she realizes her talents may encompass more than the invention of explosive devices. They may help her realize her dreams and his . . . if they can both stay alive long enough to see that sometimes the closest friendships can trigger the greatest betrayals . . .
Breakers
Science Fiction > Alien Invasion
Author: Edward W. Robertson
In New York, Walt Lawson is about to lose his girlfriend Vanessa. In Los Angeles, Raymond and Mia James are about to lose their house. Within days, none of it will matter.
When Vanessa dies of the flu, Walt is devastated. But she isn’t the last. The virus quickly kills billions, reducing New York to an open grave and LA to a chaotic wilderness of violence and fires. As Raymond and Mia hole up in an abandoned mansion, where they learn to function without electricity, running water, or neighbors, Walt begins an existential walk to LA, where Vanessa had planned to move when she left him. He expects to die along the way.
Months later, a massive vessel appears above Santa Monica Bay. Walt is attacked by a crablike monstrosity in a mountain stream. The virus that ended humanity wasn’t created by humans. It was inflicted from outside. The colonists who sent it are ready to finish the job–and Earth’s survivors may be too few and too weak to resist.
Eternity Base
Genre Fiction > Action & Adventure > War
Author: Bob Mayer
Maverick federal employee Sammy Pintella, obsessed with uncovering the fate of her MIA father, makes a startling discovery while rifling through some inactive government files. A dozen, faded black and white photos seem to point to the existence of a secret US Military base built in the frozen wastelands of Antarctica during the height of the Cold War.
Aided by Special Forces veteran Dave Riley, she heads for Antarctica. But they aren’t alone. Spies, North Koreans and other shadowy forces are also en route, because deep inside Eternity Base is something people will go to extreme lengths to get: a cache of nuclear warheads.
Chasing the Lost (The Green Beret Series)
Genre Fiction > Action & Adventure > War
Author: Bob Mayer
Horace Chase arrives on Hilton Head Island to pay his last respects at the Intracoastal Waterway where his late mother’s ashes were spread and to inspect the home his mother left him in her will. He’s been recently forced into retirement, his divorce is officially final, and now he’s standing in the middle of the front yard of his ‘new’ house where a tree has crashed right through the center of it.
What could possibly go wrong?
Within six hours of arriving on Hilton Head, Chase is exchanging gunfire with men who’ve kidnapped a young boy and tried to grab the boy’s mother, Sarah Briggs. Soon he’s waist deep in an extortion plot to funnel a hundred million dollars of Superbowl on-line gambling money into an offshore bank account or else the boy dies.
Dave Riley has long retired from the military and living peacefully on sleepy Dafuskie Island off the coast of South Carolina. Sort of. Actually he’s bored, feeling old, and just a bit cranky running his deceased uncle’s small-time bookie operation.
Afton of Margate Castle
Historical Romance
Author: Angela Hunt, Angela Elwell Hunt
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Beautiful, headstrong Afton is taken from her parents at an early age and raised in the castle, a companion to the earl’s daughter. Schooled in the ways of kings and surrounded by splendor, Afton falls in love with the earl’s son, brave, Calhoun, her childhood protector.
But Calhoun’s mother, the Lady Endeline, has much different plans for him than marriage to a villein’s daughter. Suddenly Afton’s world is torn viciously apart. She is cast out of the castle, given to a man she fears and despises as a reward for his loyalty—an all too clear reminder that, for all her dreams, she is nothing but a villein.
Now all she has left is a burning desire for vengeance . . .
Child of the Ghosts
Horror > Dark Fantasy
Author: Jonathan Moeller
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For fans of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s “Sword & Sorceress”, Tamora Pierce, Robin McKinley, and Jennifer Roberson, here is a new story of a woman’s fight against an ancient evil.
When her life is torn apart by sorcery and murder, young Caina Amalas joins the mysterious Ghosts, the legendary spies and assassins of the Emperor of Nighmar. She learns the secrets of disguise and stealth, of assassination and infiltration.
But even that might not be enough to save her.
For the evil that destroyed her family seeks to devour the entire world…
The Ultimate Diet Guide – For Busy Women
Diets & Weight Loss > Exercise & Fitness
Author: Jennifer Jolan
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Jennifer Jolan has done it again. This time, in the Ultimate Diet Guide, she shows you why all the other so-called diets that work fast for women are actually causing you to stay fat. Here are some of the secrets inside this bestselling weight loss book:
- A common food that stops ALL overweight women from losing more than a few pounds no matter what you do.
- A psychological “trick” that is almost guaranteed to permanently keep lost weight off.
- How a simple “twist” on the old low carb diet can speed up fat loss without losing muscle or energy.
- The #1 most effective way to burn body fat ever invented.
- How to make sure you don’t self-sabotage yourself when you start to lose weight.
- How to instantly boost your energy levels higher than you ever thought possible – without consuming coffee, soda, caffeine or other stimulants that are bad for your health.
Purple Squirrel: Stand Out, Land Interviews, and Master the Modern Job Market
Job Hunting & Careers > Guides
Author: Michael B. Junge
Most job seekers spend dozens or hundreds of hours hunting for work and are lucky to receive even a handful of responses from interested employers. Others update a few online profiles and magically the phone starts ringing. Have you ever wondered why a given resume compels instant interview requests while others produce almost no response at all? Or why some people consistently convert interviews into job offers?
Would you be interested in discovering how a handful of insider strategies can completely transform your job search and professional trajectory? If the answer to any of these is “yes,” then you’ve come to the right place. Managers, critics, and industry experts agree…Purple Squirrel is the best job seeker and career book in decades.”
Awaken
Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author: Sarah M. Ross
Lucy Donovan was supposed to have a weekend of fun in the sun, celebrating her upcoming graduation from college. In a split second, everything changed. A drunk driver ended Lucy’s mortal life. Lucy opens her eyes to a world she never imagined possible and a new destiny: as a Patronus, a guardian of spirits. Adjusting to her new role and abilities while negotiating this confusing realm will test her limits and push her further than she ever dreamed she would go.
From wayward spirits who don’t want her help to soul stealing vampires, and even a stuck-up British royal, Lucy must brave them all to save one spirit she can’t bear to lose. Further complicating her confusing life is an inexplicable yet growing connection she feels to a member of her team, Max, whose mysterious behavior leaves her both confused and intrigued.
Waking up dead was just the beginning of her problems. Lucy’s death is about to become the greatest adventure of her life.
Recommended for readers. 15+
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2