Seven billion people inhabit this planet in blissful ignorance of imminent annihilation. Destruction comes, not from meteors or nuclear holocaust, but from a source no one even knows exists.

The architects of doom have long moved among us, hidden in plain sight, waiting for the signal to trigger our extinction.

A handful of survivors, traumatised and bewildered, must come to terms with the new reality. And quickly. For the Cleansing is only the beginning…

Face your demons. Save humankind.

A future hangs in the balance. Many futures.

Only one person has the power to prevent it all unravelling and he can’t do it alone. Aided by companions old and new, Jack returns to the near shore. Foes must be faced, fears conquered.

But for humanity to prevail, the choreographer of chaos must also be vanquished. Insanity and depravity overcome. The Lord of the Dance lies in wait…

What would happen if the world were ending?

A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.

But the complexities and unpredictability of human nature coupled with unforeseen challenges and dangers threaten the intrepid pioneers, until only a handful of survivors remain . . .

Five thousand years later, their progeny—seven distinct races now three billion strong—embark on yet another audacious journey into the unknown . . . to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth.

A writer of dazzling genius and imaginative vision, Neal Stephenson combines science, philosophy, technology, psychology, and literature in a magnificent work of speculative fiction that offers a portrait of a future that is both extraordinary and eerily recognizable. As he did in Anathem, Cryptonomicon, the Baroque Cycle, and Reamde, Stephenson explores some of our biggest ideas and perplexing challenges in a breathtaking saga that is daring, engrossing, and altogether brilliant.

A post-viral planet. Annihilation approaches.

Tom Evans and Ceri Lewis occupy a silent new world. Little more than a million people survived the Cleansing. They are spread out, weak, compelled by a force beyond their comprehension to remain where they are. Humankind teeters on the brink, its fate in the hands of the few who can resist the power that seeks to control them. But resistance may be futile.

In the midst of deathly calm, a new threat arises, one that will finish the job started by the Cleansing. Tom and Ceri face a stark choice: gamble their lives to try to stop activation of the Beacon, or lie low and wait for the human race to be exterminated. Either way, the end seems certain…

An eerie calm. Chaos lurks.

A land inhabited by people from distant places and times. A land of meadow and forest, where to leave the trail is to court death. A land where the Scourgers roam.

In an apparently selfless act to save their lives and perform the task set by the Lord of the Dance, Jack has abandoned Matt, Kim and Tara on the near shore. But his motives are not noble.

Guilt. The heaviest burden.

An old man has for many years borne a weight that runs deeper than survivor’s guilt. He is a survivor, of humanity’s darkest hour, but wouldn’t have lived through it if not for the actions of another.

Now he has the opportunity for which he has long yearned: to meet his saviour’s daughter and tell her about her father’s supreme act of selflessness. And maybe, in the telling, one of them will find release.

Four festive tales of the supernatural, apocalyptic and blood-sucking variety—an antidote for anyone who occasionally finds Christmas overly sentimental or commercialised and likes to escape to somewhere darker.

In Ghosts of Christmas Past, a newly-wed couple spend every Christmas in the same remote country cottage. It’s their ‘thing’ and they’re not about to let tragedy get in the way.

In I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, a small boy creeps downstairs to see his mother in the embrace of a crimson-robed stranger. But Jake’s not convinced: since when did Santa have long teeth and red, glinting eyes?

In Rottin’ Around the Christmas Tree, Nia decorates the tree while her parents look on. But this is not just another Christmas—it is the time of The Cleansing, the time when family life and the world as we know it are ending.

Three short stories that share a common theme: the search for lost loved ones.

In Strange Shores, a schoolteacher hits upon a drastic method of attempting to escape the sadness of his existence in this world.

Joy or despair may be found in Alfonso’s Looking Glass. A bereaved husband is willing to risk one to find the other.

In A Matter of Perspective, an unlikely pair traverse a post-apocalyptic landscape where violence and death are constant companions.

Three genres. Three tales. One theme.

Paradise isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Unlucky in love, unlucky in life, Quirke yearns for something more. That indefinable, elusive something.

In his role as a prison counsellor, he meets Seff, an enigmatic convict who hints at an earthly Paradise, a place where Quirke may find his heart’s desire. When fate and an embittered co-worker conspire to lose Quirke his job, he sets off with his best friend to follow Seff’s vague directions.

Concealed by mountains and remote forests in deepest Wales, they stumble across a self-sufficient settlement inhabited by escapees of the pressures of the late twentieth century. When Quirke discovers that they brew their own beer, he feels he has found a way of life that might bring him contentment.

But beer’s not the only thing brewing in Paradise…