DAMAGED GOODS

AN ORIGINAL DOCTOR WHO NOVEL

'Wherever this cocaine has travelled, it hasn't gone alone. Death has been its attendant. Death in a remarkably violent and inelegant form.

The Doctor, Chris and Roz arrive at the Quadrant, a troubled council block in Thatcher's Britain. There's a new drug on the streets, a drug that's killing to a plan. Somehow, the very ordinary people of the Quadrant are involved. And so, amidst the growing chaos, a bizarre trio moves into number 43.

The year is 1987: a dead drug dealer has risen from the grave, and an ancient weapon is concealed beneath human tragedy. But the Doctor soon discovers that the things people do for their children can be every bit as deadly as any alien menace - as he uncovers the link between a special child, an obsessive woman, and a desperate bargain made one dark Christmas Eve.

DOCTOR WHO

RUSSELL T DAVIES is an award-winning TV dramatist, having created the controversial adult soap opera Revelations and the acclaimed BBC children's serieals Century Falls and Dark Season.  He loves Doctor Who, and all television.

'The Brigadier's going to shoot you, Jo,' the Doctor said grimly, 'and then he's going to shoot me. Both of us are going to die.'

The Doctor builds a machine designed to predict the future. It shows the Brigadier murdering him and Jo in cold blood. Unable to tell where or when this event is destined to occur, the Doctor and Jo decide that they must stay apart.

Jo is sent on a top-secret mission to the war-torn Arab nation of Kebiria. But upon arrival, she is immediately arrested and consigned to a brutal political prison. The Kebirians have something to hide: deep in the North African desert, an alien infestation is rapidly growing. And the Doctor and UNIT soon discover that unless it is stopped, the alien presence will spread to overrun the entire world.

From amazon.com:

For a decade, Darrow led a revolution against the corrupt color-coded Society. Now, outlawed by the very Republic he founded, he wages a rogue war on Mercury in hopes that he can still salvage the dream of Eo. But as he leaves death and destruction in his wake, is he still the hero who broke the chains? Or will another legend rise to take his place?

Lysander au Lune, the heir in exile, has returned to the Core. Determined to bring peace back to mankind at the edge of his sword, he must overcome or unite the treacherous Gold families of the Core and face down Darrow over the skies of war-torn Mercury.

But theirs are not the only fates hanging in the balance.

On Luna, Mustang, Sovereign of the Republic, campaigns to unite the Republic behind her husband. Beset by political and criminal enemies, can she outwit her opponents in time to save him?

Once a Red refugee, young Lyria now stands accused of treason, and her only hope is a desperate escape with unlikely new allies.

Abducted by a new threat to the Republic, Pax and Electra, the children of Darrow and Sevro, must trust in Ephraim, a thief, for their salvation - and Ephraim must look to them for his chance at redemption.

As alliances shift, break, and re-form - and power is seized, lost, and reclaimed - every player is at risk in a game of conquest that could turn the Rising into a new Dark Age.

VOLUME 2 OF THE JEDI ACADEMY TRILOGY

STAR WARS

DARK APPRENTICE

As the New Republic takes devastating losses in the ongoing war with the scattered remnants of the Empire, the galaxy's future depends on three small children - among them the Jedi Twins - born to incredible powers and perils, as an extraordinary new Star Wars® saga unfolds...

While the New Republic struggles to decided what to do with the deadly Sun Crusher - a new doomsday weapon stolen from the Empire by Han Solo - the renegade Imperial Admiral Daala uses her fleet of Star Destroyers to conduct guerrilla warfare on peaceful planets.  And now she threatens the watery world of Admiral Ackbar.  But as the battle for a planet rages, and even greater danger emerges at Luke Skywalker's Jedi academy.  A brilliant student deleves dangerously into the dark side of the Force and unleashes the spirit of an ancient master of the evil order that warped Darth Vader himself.  Working together, they may become an enemy greater than any the New Republic has ever fought... more powerful than even a Jedi Master can face.

"SOMEWHERE BETWEEN GULLIVER'S
TRAVELS AND THE LORD OF THE RINGS!"
- TIME

Welcome to Riverworld.  Where everyone who ever died, from Karl Marx to Tom Mix to Joan of Arc, wakes up the day after death on the banks of a giant river, to take part in what many consider to be the greatest adventure in all Science Fiction.

"YOU ARE IN THIS BOOK.
SO IS EVERYONE WHO EVER LIVED..."
- BUFFALO EVENING NEWS

DRAGONS? FAIRIES? FROG PRINCES?
SIR DOMINIK FLANDRY?

In a John Grimes Rim Adventure?  Strange things happen out where the stellar medium grows thin, out where it is difficult to say if you remain within the galaxy or you're falling through the intergalactic void.  Add to that strangeness an Outsider ship filled with technology so far in advance of the human as to appear magical, and the catalytic presence of Commodore John Grimes, and anything can happen - anything at all.

The authorized continuation of the legendary Star Wars saga and sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling Heir to the Empire continues in a novel of intrigue, warfare, and shattering evil - as Luke Skywalker confronts the very face of the Dark Side.

DARK FORCE RISING

The dying Empire's most cunning and ruthless warlord - Grand Admiral Thrawn - has taken command of the remnants of the Imperial fleet and launched a massive campaign aimed at the New Republic's destruction.  Meanwhile, Han and Lando Calrissian race against time to find proof of treason inside the highest Republic Council - only to discover instead a ghostly fleet of warships that could bring doom to their friends and victory to their enemies.

Yet most dangerous of all is a new Dark Jedi, risen from the ashes of a shrouded past, consumed by bitterness... and scheming to currupt Luke Skywalker to the Dark Side.

+ BUZZFEED'S BEST SCI-FI OF 2015
+ IO9'S VERY BEST SF/F BOOKS OF 2015
+ GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD 2015 NOMINEE

"In The Dark Forest you will find a treasure trove of bold, fresh concepts.  Cixin Lui spins out their implications with skill, beauty, and relentless logic, portraying humanity at its best and worst.  The Three-Body Trilogy may be one of the greatest epics of twenty-first-century science fiction.  It will chill, stir, and inspire." -David Brin

The Three-Body Problem gave English-speaking readers their first taste of China's most beloved science fiction author, Cixin Liu, quickly gathering as much acclaim in the United States as it had in China.  The Three-Body Trilogy continues with the near-future speculative fiction masterpiece The Dark Forest

Earth is reeling from the revelation of a coming alien invasion - in four centuries time.  The Trisolarans' human collaborators have been defeated, but the aliens have seeded the earth with sophons, subatomic particles that allow them instant access to all human information, so Earth's defenses are totally exposed to the enemy.  Only the human mind remains opaque.

This is the motivation for the Wallfacer Project, a daring plan that grants four people enormous resources to design secret strategies, hidden through deceit and misdirection from Earth and Trisolaris alike.  Three of the Wallfacers are influential statesmen and scientists, but the fourth is a total unknown.  Luo Ji, an unambitious Chinese astronomer and sociologist, is baffled by his new status.  All he knows is that he's the one Wallfacer that Trisolaris wants dead.

"Dazzling ideas and an unsettling, nonlinear, almost nonnarrative structure that demands patience but offers huge rewards.  Once again, a highly impressive must-read."  -Kirkus Reviews (starred review, Best of 2015)

THE FIRST IN A TRILOGY OF ALL-NEW NOVELS BASED ON THE POPULAR FILM!

Following the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Sarah Connor and her son, John, had thought they'd been able to alter the future so that neither the artificially intelligent SkyNet nor its Terminator killing machines would ever be created.  But if they were so successful, why, then, are they now being hunted by yet another Terminator that's traveled back in time to ensure that John never grows up to be the charismatic leader of the few humans that survived Judgment Day?  And when a band of human warriors from an alternate timeline make an unexpected appearance, have they come to help John - or the killing machine...?

Told from the perspective of John himself, The New John Connor Chronicles provides insight to the thoughts and fears of a young man who already knows what Fate has in store for him - and the burdens he has to bear along the path he must travel to become humanity's future savior.

AN ALL-NEW ADVENTURE BY THE AUTHOR OF THE TEMPTING OF THE WITCH KING

The New Jedi Order continues as Jaina Solo struggles with anger and despair after the Jedi Knights' harrowing adventure behind enemy lines.

Though the Jedi strike force completed its deadly mission into Yuuzhan Vong territory, the price of success was tragedy: not everyone made it out alive.  In a daring getaway, hotshot pilot Jaina Solo stole an enemy ship, taking along her fellow survivors - and leaving behind a huge piece of her heart.

With the enemy in hot pursuit, Jaina is forced to seek haven in the unprotected, unfriendly Hapes Cluster, where the Jedi are held responsible for a past tragedy - and where the royal family has grim plans for their famous Jedi guest.  Even more sinister are the intentions of the Yuuzhan Vong, desperate to capture Jaina for a hideous sacrifice.

Grief-stricken and obsessed with revenge, Jaina is blind to these threats - and to the overpowering evil dangerously close to consuming her.  In the coming conflagration, Jaina will be fighting not for victory or vengeance, but for her very being....

STAR TREK
THE NEXT GENERATION

DARK MIRROR

Stardate 44010.2
the twenty-fourth century

One hundred years ago, four crewmembers of the U.S.S. Enterprise™ crossed the dimensional barrier and found a mirror image of their own universe, populated by nightmare duplicates of their shipmates.  Barely able to escape with their lives, they returned, thankful that the accident which brought them there could not be duplicated - or so they thought.

But now the scientists of that empire have found a doorway into our universe.  Their plan: to destroy from within, to replace one of our Starships with one of theirs.  Their victims: the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D, who now find themselves engaged in combat against the most savage enemies they have ever encountered... themselves.

'He's one of my own people, Vistoria, and he's hunting me.'

Darkheart: a faded neutron star surrounded by dead planets.  But there is ice on one of these icy rocks - the last enclave of the Earth Empire, frozen in the image of another time.  As the rest of the galaxy enjoys the fruits of the fledgling Federation, these isolated Imperials, bound to obey a forgotten ideal, harbour a dark obsession.

The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria arrive to find that the Federation has at last come to reintegrate this lost colony, whether they like it or not.  But all is not well in the Federation camp: relations and allegiances are changing.  The fierce Veltrochni - angered by the murder of their kinsmen - have an entirely different agenda.  And someone else is manipulating the mission for his own mysterious reasons - another time traveller, a suave and assured master of his work.

The Doctor must uncover the terrible secret which brought the Empire to this desolate sector, and find the source of the strange power maintaining their society.  But can a Time Lord, facing the ultimate temptation, control his own desires?

DESPERATE ALLIANCE!

The Robotech Expeditionary Force had been stranded on the far side of the galaxy as the result of damage to their Super Dimensional Fortress during the battle with the Invid hordes.  Their chances for survival were slim.

Suddenly, a starship unlike anything that had ever flown before appeared - manned by an incredible assortment of beings who meant to challenge the might of the Invid Regent himself!

REF volunteers signed aboard, with their mighty war mecha in tow, for a campaign that would either mean the total destruction of the freedom fighters or liberty for the planets of -

THE SENTINELS

The planet Ceres Alpha is being 'developed'.  The surface crawls with gigantic city-machines that are churning and rebuilding the world, seeding it with tomorrow's vegetation so that full-scale colonisation can follow.

But Gaskill Tyran, head of the biosphere-engineers WorldCorp, is finding things more difficult than he would like.  The whole project seems to be falling apart under an ever-increasing burden of mysteries.

Why has a batch of strange babies been born with telekinetic powers?  Why wont the terraforming go according to pan?  Why are there more and more problems with the comp systems that run the city-machines?

It seems there may be conspirators.  A rival Corporation with its eye on the contract for Ceres Alpha.  And Tyran's patience is now wearing thin.

But then he gets his answer.  A mysterious infiltrator known only as the Doctor.

With unsurprising action and imagination, New York Times bestselling Author Machael A. Stackpole continues The New Jedi Order with DARK TIDE I: ONSLAUGHT, testing the heroes pf the past along with the next generation of Jedi against fearsome enemies from beyond the galactic rim...

It is a perilous time for the New Republic.  Just when unity is needed most, mistrust is on the rise.  Even the Jedi feel the strain, as rogue elements rebel against Luke Skywalker's leadership.  When alien invaders known as the Yuuzhan Vong strike without warning, the New Republic is thrown on the defensive.

Luke must weild all the awesome powers of a Jedi Master to defeat the gravest threat since Senator Palpatine.  A Leia Organa Solo and Gavin Darklighter lead desperate refugees in a fighting retreat from Yuuzhan Vong forces, Mara Jade Skywalker, Jedi apprentices Jacen and Anakin Solo, and Jedi Knight Corran Horn find themselves tested as never before by a faceless, implacable foe determined to smother the light of the New Republic forever beneath a shroud of darkest evil...

New York Times bestselling author Michael A. Stackpole continues the New Jedi Order epic with DARK TIME II: RUIN, a thrilling Star Wars adventure in which the Jedi Knights must fight their most trecherous battle - against an unrelenting evil intent on devouring the galaxy...

The alien Yuuzhan Vong have launched an attack on the worlds of the Outer Rim.  They are merciless, without regard for life - and they stand utterly outside the Force.  Their ever-changing tactics stump the New Republic military.  Even the Jedi, once the greatest guardians of peace in the galaxy, are rendered helpless by this imprevious foe - and their solidarity has begun to unravel.

While Luke struggles to keep the Jedi together, Knights Jacen Solo and Corran Horn set off on a reconnaissance mission to the planet Garqi, an occupied world.  There, at last, they uncover a secret that might be used to undermine the enemy - if only they can stay alive long enough to use it!

Acclaimed author of the Jedi Academy trilogy, Kevin J. Anderson is backwith a blockbuster novel, returning to Luke Skywalker's home planet of Tatooine.

DARKSABER

Luke returns home with Han Solo, hoping to make contact with Obi-Wan Kenobi.  Instead, what they find is disturbing news: the Hutts, criminal warlords of the galaxy, arebuilding a secret superweapon, a reconstruction of the original Death Star superlaser, to be called the Darksaber.  This planet-crushing power will be in the ruthless hands of Durga, a creature without conscience or mercy.  And there is trouble on another front: Admiral Daala is very much alive and, in league with Pallaeon, is marshalling forces to destroy the Rebels.  Soon they and Luke will face the ultimate test of their power - one in which all the temptations of the dark side of the Force becon....

PRAISE FOR KEVIN J. ANDERSON'S
JEDI ACADEMY TRILOGY
"Anderson has all but assumed the title of chancellor of Star Wars University." - Starlog

Just one day.  That's all you get.  The world's crowded, and the government appreciates your cooperation.  You're allowed one day each week to live your life.  The rest of the week, you're "stoned" - frozen solid.

Unless, of course, you're a daybreaker.  Then you can live every day of the week.  You can assume seven different personalities and work seven different jobs.  You can slip from culture to culture, in seven different worlds.

Unless, of course, you get caught... or go crazy.

DAYWORLD
Beginning a new series by the bestselling creator of RIVERWORLD

"FARMER'S BEST BOOK IN YEARS."
- LOCUS

WARNING:
The Daybreaker has escaped.

His name is Jeff Caird.  His crime: being awake seven days a week, living seven different lives in a world where each citizen is allowed only one day a week.  A world where there just isn't enough room.  Not for the expanding population.  Not for personal freedom, either...

Unless you fight for it.

DAYWOLD
REBEL

The second book of
Philip josé Farmer's dazzling new series

PRAISE FOR DAYWORLD:
"An exciting, intriguing adventure!"
- Science Fiction Review
"An important work from a major author."
- Fantasy Review
"Farmer's best!"
- New York Daily News

Who but Professor Bernice Summerfield, interstellar archaeologist, raconteur, boozer and wit, would get other people to write her autobiography albeit under threat of death from two bounty hunters sent by a publisher far too concerned about little things like deadlines?

These stories are an ideal introduction to the life of Bernice Summerfield: falling off cliffs, getting sacrificed to orange pygmies, saving the universe and trying to buy a new frock. Cliffhanging escapes! Adventure on distant planets! Scones for tea!

'All right, let's start with the basics. The world ended on the twelfth of October, Nineteen Seventy...'

I don't know why I'm writing this. It's not like anybody's going to read it. At least, nobody who cares about the fact that I'm a desperate, dying, 23-year-old human being who's just had the whole of history taken away from her.

To whoever's out there, to whatever's left, this is the way things were, just before the end. This is the story about the last days of London, about murder and love and waking up in the ruins, about all the people buried in the wreckage...

I'm lying, obviously. This is my story. This is what I was doing, when October the twelfth came. Because, let's face it, I'm the only one who really matters.

I'm the only one who got out alive.

'We've a killer brain-eater on board, half of us are dead, and all you want to do is discuss your wretched fish. Do you sense a problem with your priorities?'

Jason Kane is out to impress his ex-wife, Bernice, and he has found the perfect way of doing it. He's convinced she knows the location of the legendary planet of Ardethe - a site of untold riches and forbidden knowledge. So, after rifling through her bag for information, he sets off with his trusty crewman Emile to a barren and isolated rock.

As usual, Jason's plans go awry. Very soon people begin to die - and die quite horribly. They have awakened something beneath the planet's surface that's feasting on human brains. And when a ship full of hard-bitten female convicts arrives in the skies about the desolate world, the situation becomes even more complicated.

Someone is pulling the strings and watching the carnage. It could be any of the desperate prisoners, the reclusive crew, or the suspicious governor. Not knowing who the true foe is, Jason calls for help. Assistance arrives in the form of his old companion Christopher Cwej - just the man you'd want by your side in a tricky situation. but something terrible has happened to Chris, and now he can't even remember his own name.

"With one glance he will destroy your body and wither your soul."

Second-Lieutenant Lethbridge-Stewart gets more than he bargained for when he is assigned to map out Greek islands at the end of the Second World War.  Even if he lives to tell the tale, will he remember it?

Years later, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and his colleagues at UNIT investigate a spate of unexplained deaths and murders.  Meanwhile, the Third Doctor and Jo are caught up in strange events in the small English Village of Hob’s Haven.

As preparations get underway for a massive pop concert, a sinister cult prepares for a day of reckoning - business as usual for UNIT.  But can the Brigadier help prevent the end of the world?  His friends and colleagues are not so sure, because this time, the Brigadier has fallen in love...

This special 40th Anniversary Doctor Who adventure features the Third Doctor, Jo Grant, and UNIT.  It is written by Barry Letts - Producer of the Third Doctor’s television stories - and Terrance Dicks - Script Editor for the latter part of the Second Doctor’s era and all the Third Doctor television stories.

BLOOD OFFERING

Solitaire: a unique ring of heavy-metal moons.  For decades after its discovery an unexplained "effect sphere" kept all hyperships away from the metal-hungry galaxy's most tantalizing prize.  Until a research ship penetrated the Cloud entirely by accident - when the man at the helm died of a heart attack just before entering the sphere.  For the first time a hypership's drive did not fail as it approached Solitaire.  For the researchers the difficult part came when it was time to leave.

Now every ship heading for the Ring Mines carries two death-row felons - one for entry, the other for exit.  It's as bizarre a method as the effect it encounters, but it works... until the hero of Deadman Switch discovers that one of his condemned criminals isn't guilty....

DEADMAN SWITCH

There is no such thing as a good night.

You may think you can hide away in dreams.  Safely tucked up in bed, nothing can touch you.

But, as every child knows, there are bad dreams.  And bad dreams are where the monsters are.

The Doctor knows all about monsters.  And he knows that sometimes they can still be there when you wake up.  And when the horror is more than just a memory, there is nowhere to hide.

Even here, today, tonight... in the most ordinary of homes, and against the most ordinary people, the terror will strike.

A young boy will suffer terrifying visions...

...and his family will encounter a deathless horror.

Only the Doctor can help - but first he must uncover the fearsome secret of the Deadstone Memorial.

This is another in the series of adventures for the Eighth Doctor.

Three mightly empires poised for war!

In the far-off Magellan Cluster, the savage Dakhaari, the militaristic Czhans and the evil backstabbing Saloi are at each other's respective throats over a tiny, peaceful planet of Moriel. The Hollow Gods have decreed that a satellite be built in which they must settle their differences or else. But just who has the tact and diplomacy to arbitrate these talks?

Meanwhile, Roz and Chris are on Moriel with the Czhanist army, knocking seven bells out of the native populace. Why have they launched this sneak attack? Will it wreck the talks completely? Are they participating in the Hollow God's hidden agenda - a plan that will result in the death of billions?

And while the others are otherwise occupied, Benny is stranded, lost and alone, facing the most terrifying challenge of her life - someone who will haunt her for the rest of her days. He's called Jason.

MAROONED ON A DOOMED WORLD!

Four months passed without a word from the Sentinels, and the members of the Expeditionary Mission to Tirol were beginning to fear the worst.  This, even as they entered into truce negotiations with the being who might have been responsible for the destruction of the Sentinels' starship - the Invid Regent himself.

Meanwhile, the survivors of the Farrago remained hopelessly stranded on Praxis, a planet in cataclysm, hastened to endtime by the dark designs of the Invid Regis.  But deep within that world's transferred core were answers to the Sentinels' prayers; if they could only reach them before Praxis tore itself apart.  For Rick and Lisa Hunter, Cabell, and the others, the moment had arrived for desperate actions...

AND TIME WAS RUNNING OUT!

THE DEATH OF ART

AN ORIGINAL DOCTOR WHO NOVEL

He did not know if his powers could save him until the horses' hooves had crushed his ribs and his heart had stopped beating. After that, it was obvious.

1880s France: the corrupt world of the Third Republic. A clandestine brotherhood is engaged in a desperate internal power struggle; a race of beings seeks to free itself from perpetual oppression; and a rip in time threatens an entire city. The future of Europe is at stake, in a war fought with minds and bodies altered to the limits of human evolution.

Chris finds himself working undercover with a suspicious French gendarme; Roz follows a psychic artist whose talents are attracting the attention of mysterious forces; and the Doctor befriends a shape-shifting member of a terrifying family. And, at the heart of it all, a dark and disturbing injustice is being perpetrated. Only an end to the secret war, and the salvation of an entire race, can prevent Paris from being utterly destroyed.

DOCTOR WHO

SIMON BUCHER-JONES is yet another civil servant woth a long-standing love of SF, Fantasy and DOCTOR WHO.  He currently pretends to know about computers for the Home Office, but would rather you all bought his book.

DEATH
In Ben Bova's novel New Earth, Jordan Kell led the first human mission beyond the solar system.  There they discovered only devastation: the ruins of an ancient alien civilization.  But one alien Al survived, and it revealed to Jordan Kell that an explosion in the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy has created a wave of deadly radiation, expanding out from the core toward Earth.  Unless the human race acts to save itself, all life on Earth will be wiped out.

Kell and his team return to Earth to carry the warning.  But they arrive centuries after their departure and find that their world has changed almost beyond recognition.  Not only has a second wave of greenhouse flooding caused sea levels to rise, but society has been changed by the consequences of the climate shift.  Few people want to face Jordan Kell's news.  He must convince Earth's new rulers that the human race is in danger of extinction unless it acts to forestall the death wave coming from the galaxy's heart.
WAVE

Mutually assured destruction has led to decades of peace between humanity and the Trisolarans, but a new force is awakening and this delicate balance can no longer hold....

Death's Ens is the New York Times bestselling conclusion to Cixin Liu's tour de force series that began with The Three-Body Problem.

PRAISE FOR THE THREE-BODY PROBLEM

"Extraordinary"  -The New Yorker

"A breakthrough book...  A unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, politics and history, conspiracy theory and cosmology." -George R. R. Martin

"The War of the Worlds for the twenty-first century...  Packed with a sense of wonder."  -The Wall Street Journal

"Stunning, elegant...  A science fiction epic of the most profound kind."  -NPR

Ten stories - Seven Doctors - One enigma

Los Angeles. The war's over, the GIs are home, Truman's in the White House and the mobsters are making a killing - as usual. Into the office of a private investigator walks a mysterious little man with a story that's out of this world. He says he's lost his memory. He wants the PI to help him. When he turns out his pockets, he produces a pile of bizarre objects, each of which restores a memory and solves a part of the puzzle.

And the memories seem to belong to seven different people.

Decalog is a new concept in Doctor Who fiction: A cycle of ten linked stories. The stories are written by authors who are well known to readers of the New Adventures or Doctor Who magazines - Paul Cornell, Marc Platt, Vanessa Bishop, Jim Mortimore, Andy Lane - and have been brought together by Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker, who are part of the team that researches and writes in-depth factual books about Doctor Who such as The Sixties and the Handbook series.

Ten Stories - Seven Doctors - No Fixed Abode

Imaginatively entitled DECALOG 2, this is the second collection of Doctor Who short fiction.  And this time the theme is the Doctor's home - inasmuch as a peripatetic Time Lord can be said to have a home.

As before, the editors have gathered a galaxy of star writers to illuminate the theme.  Many of the contributors will be well known to the readers of the New Adventures and the Missing Adventures series of novels: Daniel Blythe, Paul Cornell, Andy Lane, David McIntee and Gareth Roberts are prolific Doctor Who authors.  And as before this volume also includes contributions from new writers.

In these stories, among many other unexpected occurrences, the Doctor meets a pretender to the English throne, Nyssa meets a ghost, Zoe gets lost in time, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is dismissed from UNIT, and K-9 is in electrifying form.  And the Kandyman is on Tara in a verse play in iambic pentameters.

Ten Stories - Seven Doctors - One Chain of Events

'The consequences of having the Doctor crashing around our universe can be colossal... The Doctor is a time traveller.  Never forget that, because it is central to an understanding of what makes him so terribly dangerous.  Most of us, in our tiny, individual ways are involved in the writing of history.  Only the Doctor is out there rewriting it.'

But even the Doctor may not see the threads that bind the universe together.  Perhaps, instead, he cuts right through them.  Who knows what events he sets in motion without even realizing?  Who knows what consequences may come back - or forward - to haunt him?

Ten completely new tales from the universe of Doctor Who.  Seven Doctors' lives, inexorably linked in a breathtaking chain of consequences.

As always, the editors have assembled a dazzling array of writing talent, from award winning TV script writers to acclaimed New Adventures authors.  And, as before, there are the usual contributions from talented new writers.

'Take Arcadia apart if you have to.'

The middle of the twenty-fifth century. The Dalek war is drawing to an untidy close. Earth's Office of External Operation is trying to extend its influence over the corporations that have controlled human-occupied space since man first ventured to the stars.

Agent Isabelle Defries is leading one expedition. Among her barely-controllable squad is an explosives expert who calls herself Ace. Their destination: Arcadia.

A non-technological paradise? A living laboratory for a centuries-long experiment? Fuel for a super-being? Even when Ace and Benny discover the truth, the Doctor refuses to listen to them.

Nothing is what it seems to be.

The civil war among the alien atevi has ended.  Tabini-aiji, dynamic ruler of the Western Association, has reclaimed his former power, and once again resides in the capital.  But factions that remain loyal to the opposition are still present, and the danger these rebels pose is far from over.

Bren Cameron, the brilliant human diplomat allied with Tabini, has graciously chosen to visit Najida, his country estate on the west coast.  He feels that the political tensions in the capital might ease if he is not present, and after two years in space and his return to a planet still imperiled by revolution, he relishes the peace and tranquility his lovely coastal home affords.

But peace and tranquility are not in the cards for Bren.

Desperate for freedom and adventure, disregarding the obvious danger, Cajieri, Tabini’s young son, escapes the tightly guarded capital with his bodyguards and arrives to surprise Bren in the country.  But he is not the only surprise guest, for Ilisidi, the aiji-dowager, Tabini’s wily and powerful grandmother, has been dispatched to secure her great-grandson’s safety.

However, Najida, formerly a safe haven, is no longer the sanctuary it once was.  For a neighbor’s estate - the ancestral home of Lord Geigi, a close associate of Bren’s - has been left without strong leadership.  Lord Geigi now resides on and runs the atevi space station, and in his absence, rebel clans have infiltrated his home.  When these rebels attack Bren, Cajieri, and the dowager, they have no choice but to recall Geigi from space.

With Lord Geigi, Ilisidi, Bren, and Cajieri all under one roof, they pose an irresistible target for the enemy.  And Bren’s pastoral retreat, now swarming with bodyguards, becomes a locked-down and armed fortress.  These four individuals - three of the most powerful politicians on the planet, and the heir to the aiji - are not without their own resources.  But can they overcome their adversaries and end this guerilla war that is the last vestige of revolution?

When a lighthouse keeper reports seeing a ball of light plunging into the sea off Tayborough Sands, UNIT sends Mike Yates to investigate.  The last thing he expects to find there is an old friend - with a new face...

The Doctor and his companions arrive on a pleasure beach in the 1970's, hoping for time off after their recent adventures.  But they do not get to relax for long.  Violent incidents are at an all time high in the area and people are going missing - or else changing into something more than human...

The Doctor soon realises a sinister presence lurks in the cold seas off Tayborough Sands - a presence with sinister designs on humanity.

WHALEBOYS -
DON BURLEY - hero of tomorrow, tall, handsome... and shepherd of the mammoth whale herds which graze the seas, growing fat and healthy and ripe for man's dinner table.

And WALT FRANKLIN - mystery man of The Reefs.  What secret from the past waited to plunge him into a life-and-death struggle with the sea?  Could he conquer the old terror that kept him apart from his fellows and drove him to search for the treasures of the oceans which could change man's future?

THE DEEP
RANGE

"Clarke has produced a novel that ranks way up with his very best."
- Galaxy Science Fiction

"It is superior adventure fiction by one of the best performers in his field."
- San Francisco Chronicle

"This is one piece of science fiction that can be recommended to skeptical adults who with reason fight shy of space operas."
- Library Journal

Other exciting science fiction
by Arthur C. Clarke
available by Signet editions:
A CITY AND THE STARS
A FALL OF MOONDUST
GLIDEPATH
ISLANDS IN THE SKY
THE LOST WORLDS OF 2001
THE NINE BILLION NAMES OF GOD
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SKY
REPORT ON PLANET 3
THE SANDS OF MARS
TALES OF TEN WORLDS
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
THE WIND OF THE SUN

From amazon.com description:

After thousands of years searching, humans stand on the verge of first contact with an alien race. Two human groups: the Qeng Ho, a culture of free traders, and the Emergents, a ruthless society based on the technological enslavement of minds.The group that opens trade with the aliens will reap unimaginable riches. But first, both groups must wait at the aliens' very doorstep for their strange star to relight and for their planet to reawaken, as it does every two hundred and fifty years....Then, following terrible treachery, the Qeng Ho must fight for their freedom and for the lives of the unsuspecting innocents on the planet below, while the aliens themselves play a role unsuspected by the Qeng Ho and Emergents alike.More than just a great science fiction adventure, A Deepness in the Sky is a universal drama of courage, self-discovery, and the redemptive power of love.

A Deepness in the Sky is a 1999 Nebula Award Nominee for Best Novel and the winner of the 2000 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

THE POLITICS OF SPACE

It has been over two centuries since the starship Phoenix disappeared into space, leaving a colony of humans to fend for themselves on the world of the alien atevi.

Since then humans have lived in exile using a single diplomat, the paidhi, to trade bits of advanced technology for continued peace and safety.

Now the unexpected return of the Phoenix has shattered the fragile political balance of these two nearly incompatible races.  For the captains of the Phoenix offer the atevi something the planet-bound humans never could - access to the stars.  In return the captains ask for atevi manpower and supplies to rebuild their long-derelict space station and refuel their aging starship.

Nearly ten years later, the atevi have three functioning space shuttles, and teams of atevi engineers labor in orbit to renovate the space station.

But these monumental advances not only add a dangerously powerful third party to an already precarious diplomatic situation, but rouse pro- and anti-space factions in atevi society to near-incendiary levels.  To help negotiate these treacherous diplomatic waters, Tabini-aiji, the powerful head of the atevi's Western Association, has sent the only human he fully trusts into space: his own paidhi, Bren Cameron.

However the threat of possible invasion by hostile aliens who attacked Phoenix's station in a far-off sector of space hangs over them all.  And when one of the senior captains of the Phoenix confesses that this distant station was not completely destroyed, as had been previously thought - that there may be friends and family who still survive - the crew mutinies.

How can Bren hope to mediate on a station overcome by a rebellious crew intent on taking the Phoenix on a rescue mission back into hostile alien territory?