[PDF] A Quest For Simbilis eBook

Author : Jack Vance
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
Page : 289 pages
File Size : 13,3 MB
Release : 2000-12-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1466821965

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Jack Vance is one of the most remarkable talents to ever grace the world of science fiction. His unique, stylish voice has been beloved by generations of readers. One of his enduring classics is his Mazirian the Magician (previously titled The Dying Earth), and its sequels--a fascinating, baroque tale set on a far-future Earth, under a giant red sun that is soon to go out forever. In Cugel: the Skybreak Spatterlight , Cugel the Clever is still seeking revenge on the magician Iucounu, whom he blames for his exile and all his troubles. But revenge is hard to come by, and the adventures on the way are so very diverting.... At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Author : Michael Shea
Publisher :
Page : 186 pages
File Size : 21,46 MB
Release : 2020-01-28
Category :
ISBN : 9781619473874

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By dint of a mispronounced spell, Cugel the Clever finds himself once again unceremoniously dumped by a winged demon onto the bleak far northern shores of the Sea of Cutz - the location of a fierce battle aeons past between the archmagician Simbilis and the hordes of the subworlds league. Vowing to exact comprehensive revenge from Iucounu, the Laughing Magician, Cugel sets forth on the long journey back to Almery. Expecting potent magical gifts in recompense, Cugel swears fealty to Mumber Sull, the exiled Thane of Icthyll. Under the guttering blood-red sun, the two set off across the lands of the Dying Earth to obtain the aid of the legendary Simbilis. They must face cannibals, sorcery, demons, and all the other deadly and sinister creatures that populate the Earth in its final days... In this - his first published novel - World Fantasy Award winner Michael Shea recounts the further adventures of Cugel the Clever with the permission of Jack Vance, author of The Eyes of the Overworld. Shea subsequently wrote his seminal Nifft the Lean stories, which are foreshadowed, in many ways, in the present work. Dan Temianka, author of The Jack Vance Lexicon, provides an introduction for this new edition, which sheds light upon Shea, Vance, and Temianka's lifelong friendship with Michael Shea. On the Paladins of Vance label, Spatterlight publishes original works by authors who have given their own imagination free rein in the many wonderful worlds of the Grandmaster of fantasy & sci-fi.

Author : Michael Shea
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 13,21 MB
Release : 2013-08-13
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1429988274

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Less than a hundred years in the future, pollution, economic disaster, and the rapacious greed of the corporate oligarchy has brought America to its knees and created dystopian urban nightmares, of which L.A. may be the worst. Curtis, Japh, and Jool are film extras, who—with the help of a couple of very gutsy women—survived being anonymous players in a "live-action" film in which getting killed on-screen meant getting killed for real. Surviving the shoot made them rich enough to escape the post-apocalyptic Hell that L.A. has become. But their survival was not what Panoply Studios' CEO Val Margolian had in mind, especially since it cost his company millions. Now he's taking his revenge. After several plainclothes police are found dead in the former extras' new home, the bucolic, peaceful town of Sunrise, California, the entire town is subjected to Margolian's invidious plan to punish the entire town...and make a fortune doing it. Margolian has created toxic, murderous wasp-like mechanical creatures to set upon the people of Sunrise, while his film crew captures the carnage in what promises to be the bloodiest "live-action" film yet. With their haven from L.A. besieged by the deadly assault, the former extras—and their fellow townspeople—are faced with a grim task: to defeat the creatures and take back their town and their freedom. Michael Shea's Assault on Sunrise is a saga of courage and sacrifice in a world gone mad. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Author : Matthew Hughes
Publisher : Spatterlight Press
Page : 188 pages
File Size : 16,8 MB
Release : 2021-06-26
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781619474055

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Twenty years ago, five master criminals known as the Demon Princes raided Mount Pleasant to enslave thousands of inhabitants in the lawless Beyond. Now Morwen Sabine, a daughter of captives, has escaped her cruel master and returns to Mount Pleasant to recover the hidden treasure she hopes will buy her parents' freedom. But Mount Pleasant has changed. Morwen must cope with mystic cultists, murderous drug-smugglers, undercover "weasels" of the Interplanetary Police Coordinating Company, and the henchmen of the vicious pirate lord who owns her parents and wants Morwen returned. So he can kill her slowly... Barbarians of the Beyond is a return to "Jack Vance Space" and space-opera derring-do that follows in the science fiction Grandmaster's footsteps. "I really enjoyed Barbarians of the Beyond. Matthew Hughes does Jack Vance better than anyone except Jack himself." - George R. R. Martin "Lock the door, turn off the phone, get into a comfy chair, and deep-dive into a marvelous continuation of Jack Vance's Demon Princes series. Matthew Hughes is a treasure and Barbarians of the Beyond is a terrific adventure." - David Gerrold "Matthew Hughes follows nimbly in Jack Vance's footprints, then breaks some fresh trail. First-class space opera." - Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Hominids "Engaging and enchanting...a fine companion adventure to Jack Vance's The Demon Princes series, told with Matthew Hughes's excellent sense of charm, ethical complexity and exotic worldbuilding. Let's hope this is just the beginning!" - Kurt Busiek "Barbarians of the Beyond is just plain old-fashioned space opera fun with a relatable heroine who is sometimes fallible, rather than some Shaolin Temple kung fu megamaster. I enjoyed it a lot." - Glen Cook "...a tale that captures that special 'golden age' feel in which mankind has travelled far into the stars yet still behaves as though it's the Wild West." - David White, RNR Magazine "Deeply enjoyable and entirely delivers on its promise." - Andrew Wheeler, Editor, Science Fiction Book Club On the Paladins of Vance label, Spatterlight publishes original works by authors who have given their own imagination free rein in the many wonderful worlds of the Grandmaster of fantasy & sci-fi.

Author : Michael Shea
Publisher : Tor Books
Page : 286 pages
File Size : 15,49 MB
Release : 2010-02-02
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1429955422

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Books and films have skewered Hollywood's excesses, but none has ever portrayed one man's crazy vision of the future of big action/adventure films as Michael Shea's The Extra does. As over-the-top as Mel Brooks's Blazing Saddles, as savagely dark as Robert Altman's The Player, and more violent than Rollerball, this is the story of the ultimate, so-insane-it-could-only-happen-in-Hollywood formula for success, a brave new way to bring the ultimate in excitement to the silver screen. Producer Val Margolian has found the motherlode of box-office gold with his new "live-death" films whose villains are extremely sophisticated, electronically controlled mechanical monsters. To give these live-action disaster films greater realism, he employs huge casts of extras, in addition to the stars. The large number of extras is important, because very few of them will survive the shoot. It's all perfectly legal, with training for the extras and long, detailed contracts indemnifying the film company against liability for the extras' injury or death. But why would anyone be crazy enough to risk his or her life to be an extra in such a potentially deadly situation? The extras do it because if they survive they'll be paid handsomely, and they can make even more if they destroy any of the animatronic monsters trying to stomp, chew, fry, or otherwise kill them. If they earn enough, they can move out of the Zoo--the vast slum that most of L.A. has become. They're fighting for a chance at a reasonable life. But first, they have to survive . . . At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.