Clay's Ark

The Patternist Series

Book 3
Open Road Media
17
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In a “haunting, apocalyptic, compelling” near future, one man and his daughters must stop an alien virus from becoming a deadly global epidemic (Essence).
Blake Maslin and his two daughters are driving to Flagstaff when bandits swarm their car. At gunpoint, the marauders kidnap one of Blake’s children, promising to keep her safe in return for medical care. Warily, the doctor goes with them, not realizing that he has just taken the first step down a terrifying path that will consume his life. The gunmen take him deep into the desert, to a colony of people infected with a gruesome alien disease. It causes weakness, sallow skin, and birth defects so horrible that the children who suffer them cannot rightly be called human. The victims have quarantined themselves in the desert lest their illness spread and doom mankind. But as their willingness to accept isolation falters, Blake becomes the last hope for the survival of an uncontaminated Earth.

Octavia E. Butler’s groundbreaking and award-winning science fiction and dystopian novels have inspired generations of readers all over the world. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Octavia E. Butler including rare images from the author’s estate.
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More by Octavia E. Butler

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Seed to Harvest: The Complete Patternist Series
Octavia E. Butler
The complete Patternist series—the acclaimed science fiction epic of a world transformed by a secret race of telepaths and their devastating rise to power.
In the late seventeenth century, two immortals meet in an African forest. Anyanwu is a healer, a three-hundred-year-old woman who uses her wisdom to help those around her. The other is Doro, a malevolent despot who has mastered the power of stealing the bodies of others when his wears out. Together they will change the world. Over the next three centuries, Doro mounts a colossal selective breeding project, attempting to create a master race of telepaths. He succeeds beyond his wildest dreams, splitting the human race down the middle and establishing a new world order dominated by the most manipulative minds on Earth. In these four novels, award-winning author Octavia E. Butler tells the classic story that began her legendary career: a mythic tale of the transformation of civilization. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Octavia E. Butler including rare images from the author’s estate.
Parable of the Sower
Book 1
The Nebula Award–winning author of Kindred presents a “gripping” dystopian novel about a woman fleeing Los Angeles as America spirals into chaos (The New York Times Book Review).

Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, war, and chronic shortages of water, gasoline, and more. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others.
 
When fire destroys their compound, Lauren’s family is killed and she is forced out into a world that is facing apocalypse. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind.
 
From a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship who has won multiple Nebula and Hugo Awards, this iconic novel is “a gripping tale of survival and a poignant account of growing up sane in a disintegrating world” (The New York Times Book Review).

 This ebook features an illustrated biography of Octavia E. Butler including rare images from the author’s estate.

Reviews

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4.1
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Additional Information

Publisher
Open Road Media
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Published on
Jul 24, 2012
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Pages
224
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ISBN
9781453263600
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Features
Flowing text, Google-generated PDF
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Best For
Web, Tablet, Phone, eReader
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Language
English
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Genres
Fiction / Alternative History
Fiction / Science Fiction / Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic
Fiction / Science Fiction / Genetic Engineering
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Content Protection
This content is DRM protected.
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Continue the series

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Patternmaster
Octavia E. Butler
A tyrant’s heirs battle to control the minds of every human on Earth in this thrilling finale of the Nebula Award–winning author’s epic Patternist saga.
A psychic net hangs across the world, and only the Patternists can control it. They use their telepathic powers to enslave lesser life forms, to do battle with the diseased, half-human creatures who rage outside their walls, and, sometimes, to fight amongst themselves. Ruling them all is the Patternmaster, a man of such psychic strength that he can influence the thoughts of all those around him. But he cannot stop death, and when he is gone, chaos will reign. The Patternmaster has hundreds of children, but only one of them—Coransee—has ambition to match his father’s. To seize the throne he will have to coopt or kill every one of his siblings, and he will not shy from the task. But when one brother takes refuge among the savages, a battle ensues that will change the destiny of every being on the planet.

Octavia E. Butler’s first published novel, Patternmaster launched the legendary career of a visionary, award-winning writer. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Octavia E. Butler including rare images from the author’s estate.
Wild Seed
Book 1
As the acclaimed Patternist science fiction series begins, two immortals meet in the long-ago past—and mankind’s destiny is changed forever.
For a thousand years, Doro has cultivated a small African village, carefully breeding its people in search of seemingly unattainable perfection. He survives through the centuries by stealing the bodies of others, a technique he has so thoroughly mastered that nothing on Earth can kill him. But when a gang of New World slavers destroys his village, ruining his grand experiment, Doro is forced to go west and begin anew. He meets Anyanwu, a centuries-old woman whose means of immortality are as kind as his are cruel. She is a shapeshifter, capable of healing with a kiss, and she recognizes Doro as a tyrant. Though many humans have tried to kill them, these two demi-gods have never before met a rival. Now they begin a struggle that will last centuries and permanently alter the nature of humanity.

Hugo and Nebula award–winning author Octavia E. Butler’s sweeping cross-century epic places her “among the best of contemporary SF writers” (Houston Chronicle). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Octavia E. Butler including rare images from the author’s estate.
Mind of My Mind
Book 2
From “one of science fiction’s finest writers”: A young woman with tremendous psychic power battles to set a new course for mankind (The New York Times).
 The baby’s name is Mary, and her father is immortal. For thousands of years he has orchestrated a selective breeding project, attempting to create a master race capable of controlling others through thought. Most of his attempts have resulted in volatile mutations, but Mary—whom he has raised in the rough part of a Southern California town—is the closest he has come to perfection. If he doesn’t handle her carefully, this greatest experiment will be his last. As Mary comes of age, she begins to grow aware of her psychic powers. And when she learns of her father’s plans for her, she refuses to acquiesce. She challenges him to a psychic war, battling to free her people and set a new course for mankind.

Multiple Nebula and Hugo award–winning author Octavia Butler’s epic and thought-provoking Patternist series has fascinated generations of readers, exploring the effects of power and what it means to be human. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Octavia E. Butler including rare images from the author’s estate.

More in alternate history

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Mermaid Days
K. Harder
The year is 2116 and Denmark stands in agony - or rather in the wet. Everything that can melt has already melted and all low-lying areas in the United States of Europe are under water. In addition, wars and environmental disasters have put an unmistakable stamp on the population.

In this short story, we follow the brave inhabitants of New Copenhagen, which by all means try to maintain the illusion of a normal life - while they pay the price to come after us.


Keywords: Global Warming, Overpopulation, Top, Genetic Modification, Regimentation, Brainwashing, Centralism, Escapism, Technology


2999
Michael Young
In the year 2999 written history is forbidden. A capital offence. Yet Loeth dreams of writing down the huge inventory of oral histories filling his memory.

The short, stocky Loeth travels the world as a reporter for local news outlets. At the same time, he spies for Ceth, a Sentinel. His journeys bring to light hundreds of oral histories begging to be told to a wider audience.

Supported by a small circle of loyal friends and sexy lovers, using a quill and ink, the 50-year-old Loeth writes a personal memoir that folds into the suppressed history of the world as revealed by the stories he has heard.

He rebels against the Authorities to follow his dream. He rejects the Sentinels' commandment, called a Prock, "there are no yesterdays, no tomorrows, only today". Officially, history did not and shall not exist.

Surveillance by the all-powerful Sentinels is everywhere. Ceth says he will not monitor Loeth's home. Can he be trusted? Anything Loeth writes could be exposed. Loeth's driving compulsion to finish his illicit memoir overpowers his fear of discovery and probable death.

Follow Loeth's and his gifted friends' difficult journey through its many twists and turns to its surprise conclusion.

The seeds of tomorrow's history can be found all around us. In this debut novel, discover Loeth's history of the world as seen from 2999 and the story of Loeth's personal voyage to achieve his goal.

This the first of a possible series. It is 80K words long.

Relatives
George Alec Effinger
Three slightly different versions of the same man inhabit three radically different versions of our world in this novel by a Nebula Award winner.

Ernest Weinraub, Ernst Weinraub, Ernst Weintraub—three slightly different versions of the same name, the same man. Each incarnation of Weintraub/Weinraub inhabits a different version of our world: Ernest Weinraub lives in a maddeningly overcrowded New York, a hellish near-future world where sanity and life are imperiled by a nightmare of pollution, overpopulation and manic power games played by the six despotic men who rule Earth; Ernst Weinraub is a poet and an intellectual who lives in a decadent world in which America has never been colonized, Europe and Asia are crumbling, and Africa has only one populated city, a world where drink, drugs and sex reduce human being to little more than animals and a man feels himself being sucked under with all the others; Ernst Weintraub, an idealistic revolutionary, lives in a world in which the Allies lost the First World War to “Jermany” and people are forced into a terror-ridden underground existence as tyranny rides roughshod over man and civilization.

The single factor uniting these startlingly different worlds is Weinraub/Weintraub. But even he is molded and distorted, it would appear, by the various environments and societies, and his problems seem entirely different in each of the three worlds. Yet, as the book progresses, both he and the reader learn that neither time nor place matters—every person must sooner or later make certain basic decisions.

Relatives is a novel about personality and about duty, chiefly one’s duty to the state. The Weinraub/Weintraub variations are carefully orchestrated so that each tells the same story while presenting vastly varying reasons for a single outcome. Once having experienced these three powerful visions of an individual’s interaction with society, one is compelled to consider, and reconsider, the foundations of moral and social responsibility. 
The Change
S. M. Stirling
ALL-NEW STORIES OF THE EMBERVERSE
by S.M. Stirling, Harry Turtledove, Walter Jon Williams, John Birmingham, John Barnes, Jane Lindskold, and more...

“[A] vivid portrait of a world gone insane,”* S. M. Stirling’s New York Times bestselling Novels of the Change have depicted a vivid, utterly persuasive, and absorbingly unpredictable postapocalyptic wasteland in which all modern technology has been left in ashes, forcing humankind to rebuild an unknowable new world in the wake of unimaginable—and deliberate—chaos.

Now, in this startling new anthology, S. M. Stirling invites the most fertile minds in science fiction to join him in expanding his rich Emberverse canvas. Here are inventive new perspectives on the cultures, the survivors, and the battles arising across the years and across the globe following the Change.

In his all-new story “Hot Night at the Hopping Toad,” Stirling returns to his own continuing saga of the High Kingdom of Montival. In the accompanying stories are fortune seekers, voyagers, and dangers—from the ruins of Sydney to the Republic of Fargo and Northern Alberta to Venetian and Greek galleys clashing in the Mediterranean.

These new adventures revisit beloved people and places from Stirling’s fantastic universe, introduce us to new ones, and deliver endlessly fascinating challenges to conquer, all while unfolding in a “postapocalyptic landscape that illuminates both the best and the worst of which our species is capable,”** “a world you can see, feel, and touch.” ***

Contributors to The Change: Tales of Downfall and Rebirth Include
Introduction: The Change as Setting and Secondary World by S. M. Stirling
Hot Night at the Hopping Toad by S. M. Stirling
Rate of Exchange by A. M. Dellamonica
Tight Spot by Kier Salmon
Against the Wind by Lauren C. Teffeau
The Demons of Witmer Hall by M. T. Reiten
Bernie, Lord of the Apes by John Jos. Miller
The Seeker: A Poison in the Blood by Victor Milán
Grandpa’s Gift by Terry D. England
Fortune and Glory by John Birmingham
The Venetian Dialectic by Walter Jon Williams
The Soul Remembers Uncouth Noises by John Barnes
Topanga and the Chatsworth Lancers by Harry Turtledove
The Hermit and the Jackalopes by Jane Lindskold
The New Normal by Jody Lynn Nye
A Missed Connection by Emily Mah Tippetts
Deor by Diana Paxson

*Statesman Journal (Salem, OR)
**Science Fiction Weekly
***Otherwhere Gazette
The Iron Shirts: A Tor.Com Original
Michael Flynn
In a world in which horses survived to flourish in 13th-century America, the wars and rivalries of thirteenth-century Ireland have new players: the mysterious warriors from across the Western Sea, called by some the "ó Gonklins." They and their Irish hosts have much in common—enough to misunderstand one another far more than utter aliens ever could.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Similar ebooks

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Wild Seed
Book 1
As the acclaimed Patternist science fiction series begins, two immortals meet in the long-ago past—and mankind’s destiny is changed forever.
For a thousand years, Doro has cultivated a small African village, carefully breeding its people in search of seemingly unattainable perfection. He survives through the centuries by stealing the bodies of others, a technique he has so thoroughly mastered that nothing on Earth can kill him. But when a gang of New World slavers destroys his village, ruining his grand experiment, Doro is forced to go west and begin anew. He meets Anyanwu, a centuries-old woman whose means of immortality are as kind as his are cruel. She is a shapeshifter, capable of healing with a kiss, and she recognizes Doro as a tyrant. Though many humans have tried to kill them, these two demi-gods have never before met a rival. Now they begin a struggle that will last centuries and permanently alter the nature of humanity.

Hugo and Nebula award–winning author Octavia E. Butler’s sweeping cross-century epic places her “among the best of contemporary SF writers” (Houston Chronicle). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Octavia E. Butler including rare images from the author’s estate.
Patternmaster
Octavia E. Butler
A tyrant’s heirs battle to control the minds of every human on Earth in this thrilling finale of the Nebula Award–winning author’s epic Patternist saga.
A psychic net hangs across the world, and only the Patternists can control it. They use their telepathic powers to enslave lesser life forms, to do battle with the diseased, half-human creatures who rage outside their walls, and, sometimes, to fight amongst themselves. Ruling them all is the Patternmaster, a man of such psychic strength that he can influence the thoughts of all those around him. But he cannot stop death, and when he is gone, chaos will reign. The Patternmaster has hundreds of children, but only one of them—Coransee—has ambition to match his father’s. To seize the throne he will have to coopt or kill every one of his siblings, and he will not shy from the task. But when one brother takes refuge among the savages, a battle ensues that will change the destiny of every being on the planet.

Octavia E. Butler’s first published novel, Patternmaster launched the legendary career of a visionary, award-winning writer. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Octavia E. Butler including rare images from the author’s estate.
Blood Music
Greg Bear
Nebula Award Finalist: A genetic engineering breakthrough may portend the destruction of humanity in this cyberpunk novel by the author of The Forge of God.

This Hugo and Nebula Award finalist follows present-day events in which the fears concerning the nuclear annihilation of the world subsided after the Cold War and the fear of chemical warfare spilled over into the empty void it left behind. An amazing breakthrough in genetic engineering made by Vergil Ulam is considered too dangerous for further research, but rather than destroy his work, he injects himself with his creation and walks out of his lab, unaware of just how his actions will change the world. Author Greg Bear’s treatment of the traditional tale of scientific hubris is both suspenseful and a compelling portrait of a new intelligence emerging amongst us, irrevocably changing our world. 
Mind of My Mind
Book 2
From “one of science fiction’s finest writers”: A young woman with tremendous psychic power battles to set a new course for mankind (The New York Times).
 The baby’s name is Mary, and her father is immortal. For thousands of years he has orchestrated a selective breeding project, attempting to create a master race capable of controlling others through thought. Most of his attempts have resulted in volatile mutations, but Mary—whom he has raised in the rough part of a Southern California town—is the closest he has come to perfection. If he doesn’t handle her carefully, this greatest experiment will be his last. As Mary comes of age, she begins to grow aware of her psychic powers. And when she learns of her father’s plans for her, she refuses to acquiesce. She challenges him to a psychic war, battling to free her people and set a new course for mankind.

Multiple Nebula and Hugo award–winning author Octavia Butler’s epic and thought-provoking Patternist series has fascinated generations of readers, exploring the effects of power and what it means to be human. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Octavia E. Butler including rare images from the author’s estate.
Darwin's Radio: A Novel
Book 1
HUGO AWARD FINALIST • “WOW! What a splendid (scary) notion: a human upgrade! What a superb plot! Darwin's Radio is bloody damned good.”—Anne McCaffrey

“Virus hunter” Christopher Dicken is a man on a mission, following a trail of rumors, government cover-ups, and dead bodies around the globe in search of a mysterious disease that strikes only pregnant women and invariably results in miscarriage. But when Dicken finds what he’s looking for, the answer proves to be stranger—and far deadlier—than he ever could have imagined. Something that has slept in human DNA for millions of years is waking up.

Molecular biologist Kaye Lang has spent her career tracing ancient retroviruses in the human genome. She believes these microscopic fossils can come to life again. But when Dicken’s discovery becomes public, Lang’s theory suddenly turns to chilling fact. As the outbreak of this terrifying disease threatens to become a deadly epidemic, Dicken and Lang must race against time to assemble the pieces of a puzzle only they are equipped to solve—an evolutionary puzzle that will determine the future of the human race . . . if a future exists at all.

Praise for Darwin’s Radio

“Bear is one of our very best, and most innovative, speculative writers.”—New York Daily News

“Superb . . . Bear's novel is frighteningly believable with a lot of clearly explained hard science, but the personal struggles of the well-realized characters keep everything on a human level.”—Focus

“Bear is a writer of passionate vision.”—Locus

“Darwin’s Radio scores a high rating on the thrill monitor.”—Birmingham Post (England)

“Absorbing and ingenious.”—Kirkus Reviews
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