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Ben must uncover the secrets of his home, the strange demons that lurk in dark corners, and his destiny as the Master of Old Isle in this adventure from the author of the Tripods series.

Ben lives a carefree life on Old Isle, far away from horrible demons that terrorize the people on the mainland. He shares his home with Mother Ryan, Antonia, Paddy, and the Master. They're not his real family, but they're the only family he's ever known.

Then, in a single day, Ben's quiet existence is turned upside down. After the Master dies and reveals a startling connection, Ben becomes the new Master of Old Isle. And when demons burn his house to the ground and his family leaves their home, Ben is forced to stay behind.

Soon Ben manages to escape and begin a journey across the sea and the countryside to learn the secrets of his heritage. But he is being pursued by people who wish to use his power for their own selfish purposes, and time is running short for him to make things rights.

Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1965. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: 16th Series (1967), edited by Edward L. Ferman and Dogtales! (1988), edited by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann.

A massive series of powerful earthquakes on a worldwide scale reduce towns and cities to rubble and plunge the survivors into barbarism. Most of western Europe is dramatically uplifted, transforming the English Channel into a muddy desert, while elsewhere lands are plunged below sealevel and flooded.

Matthew Cotter, a Guernsey horticulturalist, finds himself one of only a handful of survivors on the former island. Cotter decides to trek across the empty seabed to England, in the faint hope that his daughter has somehow survived.

When Neil survives a deadly plague and plunges into solitude, he must question everything in this gripping adventure from critically acclaimed Tripods author John Christopher.

Neil's world is shattered when he and his family are involved in a horrible car accident that leaves him an orphan. He is sent to live in a small village with his grandparents, whom he loves but doesn't really know.

Soon, a devastating illness, the Calcutta Plague, begins making the headlines. After killing thousands of people in India in just a few months, the disease begins to spread much farther, quickly sweeping across the world and eventually settling in the same village where Neil resides. The sickness is a strange one, affecting only the adults and none of the children, and soon Neil finds himself an orphan once more.

Alone, Neil travels to London in search of other survivors of the plague. There he finds a strange world of fear and suspicion, where friends can be enemies and people will do anything to survive. In this time of strife, amid the excitement and loneliness of his solitude, can Neil find a way to focus on what matters most?

The sixties ... a foreign country: they did things differently then. Or did they?

An Englishman's home, supposedly, is his castle, and property developer Rod Gawfrey was incensed when a gang of hooligans gate-crashed his son's party, infiltrating the luxury residence that was also home to his wife's parents and her sister Jane.

He had no inkling then of the mayhem that was on its way, as the nation's youth rose up in revolt, social order gave way to anarchy, and he and his family were reduced to penury.

Jane hadn't seen it coming either, despite her professional and more personal connection to Professor Walter Staunton, the opportunist and lascivious academic bent on fomenting the revolution.

A pendulum, though, once set in motion, must inevitably swing back. And who would have guessed that Martin, Jane's timid, God-fearing brother, would have a key role to play in the vicious wave of righteous retribution that would next sweep the land?

Released in 1964 as "Sweeney's Island" and elsewhere as "Cloud on Silver ", this novel by British Science Fiction writer Christopher Samuel Youd under the pseudonym John Christopher, takes what seems at first to be a stock situation - a group of people marooned on a desert island - and turns it into a gripping and increasingly tense drama. Millionaire Sweeney has invited a selected assortment of his acquaintances for a luxury cruise in the South Seas. Soon after they land for a picnic on an island hundreds of miles from anywhere, the yacht goes up in smoke. Now, surprisingly, Sweeney abdicates from both power and responsibility. Tensions rapidly develop among the rest under the stresses of this strange island existence. Strange indeed, with the cloud perpetually brooding over Mount Proteus, the weird shapes of fauna and flora. To what end will these fears and tensions bring them? Is there any one of the company with a clear sense of moral values and strength to uphold them? Will Sweeney himself be content to remain aloof and impassive spectator of the drama he has created?

In the divided England of the distant future, a recently-orphaned boy flees the sprawling area known as the Conurb for the serene world of the County where the people seem to live a simpler existence.

A story of Terror and Suspense about an engaged British couple that turn an Irish castle into a hotel and have their lives turned upside down. This book will keep you spell-bound until the "bitter" End....

Rebelling against the monotonous life of the moon colony, two boys go beyond its boundaries and discover a series of caves ruled by a super-intelligent plant-like being.

It all started when a group of British vacations was cut off by an avalanche. The skiing chalet up in the mountains seemed a good place to hold out for a hwile, but then the little boy mysteriously died... or appeared to. And in the impenetrable Swiss Alps something alien stirred.

The story involves a new ice age hitting Europe, British refugees fleeing to Nigeria, and what a later group find when they return.

As the story opens, Andrew Leedon, a London-based television documentary producer, is given a new story to research: an Italian scientist, Fratellini, has proposed an imminent fall in solar radiation for the forthcoming few years which may lead to harsher winters. Leedon meets with David Cartwell, a Home Office civil servant and useful source, to see if he can find out more. Cartwell quickly becomes a close friend of Leedon, but also begins an affair with Leedon's wife, Carol.

The winter of that year is, as predicted, long and harsh, but by January is it becoming clear to insiders that the solar downturn is worse than Fratellini had calculated and no upturn is in sight. By March, food stocks are becoming dangerously low, rationing has been imposed and the Government imposes martial law. Those in the know, including Andrew's estranged wife, sell up and move south to the tropics and countries such as Nigeria. Leedon stays behind, as inner London is finally cordoned off from the rest of the UK to protect the seat of power - an area called the London Pale - as the rest of the country is abandoned to starvation and barbarism.

Finally Leedon is persuaded both by Carol and by David Cartwell to exit the country while safe passage is still possible. Taking with him Cartwell's wife Madeleine, he moves to Lagos in Nigeria, finding that the tables have now turned - white refugees fleeing from the ice-bound northern countries are living in slums, unemployed or with only menial jobs, and penniless, as African governments have withdrawn recognition of currencies such as Sterling and no longer recognize the British Government, with reason, as it no longer exercises sovereignty over its own land.

A ray of hope arrives for Leedon as Abonitu, a young Nigerian whom Leedon had treated with kindness and generosity one evening in London, finds him and in turn helps him and Madeleine out of the slum. Abonitu plans a reconnaissance expedition back to Britain.

The Year of the Comet forsees a world split up, not into States and Kingdoms, but into a business Group. The hero is a scientist with a secret which will give supreme authority to any group in control of it. Inevitably he finds himself the centre of murderous intrigues.

High adventure and intrigue await in this classic work of science fiction from critically acclaimed Tripods author John Christopher.

After the disastrous Breakdown of the twenty-first century, the world has made a change. Now, in the twenty-third century, all cities are ordered and sterile, carefully balanced, protected, and isolated from the uncivilized Outlands.

Clive Anderson, the son of a politician, lives a privileged life in one of the cities until he is falsely accused of committing a crime. As punishment he is sent to a training island, where he is supposed to be re-taught how to be an unquestioning member of society, like everyone else in the cities.

But Clive and his friends manage to escape the island, making their way into the forbidden and unknown Outlands, where they are captured by the legendary Wild Jack and his troop of savages. At first, Clive is happy to be part of this wild group, but soon he realizes that things are not at all what they seem...

Two cousins are thrust into a parallel reality when they travel through time and fire in the first book of the alternative history Fireball Trilogy, from critically acclaimed Tripods author John Christopher.

Simon and his cousin Brad hadn't wanted to spend the summer together. And the quiet London suburb where Simon lived was the last place they expected anything unusual to happen.

Then the fireball came.

The huge whirling ball of light was like nothing the boys had ever seen before--and they felt compelled to investigate.

They awoke in a world where everything had changed. It's still England...but an England terrifyingly different from the one they had left behind. They passed through the fireball, and now they will have to learn to survive in the fascinatingly strange world on the other side...

Traveling through time was just the beginning--now Simon and Brad have to survive a reimagined early America in the second book of the alternative history Fireball trilogy, from critically acclaimed Tripods author John Christopher.

When Simon and Brad were caught in the mysterious fireball and transported to the strange alternate world on the other side, they knew their lives would never be the same again.

They definitely couldn't have imagined the dangers ahead, especially when they set sail for Brad's homeland: the still undiscovered America.

The Algonquian territory is hardly the paradise Brad had been promised--or remembered from history class. Winter is brutal, the locals are hostile, and Simon and Brad know they have to escape.

But can they? The adventures in store--from Vikings to a completely unexpected civilization--put their will to survive to the ultimate test.

Simon and Brad face their greatest danger yet--and discover the secret of the fireball--in the third book of the alternative history Fireball Trilogy, from critically acclaimed Tripods author John Christopher.

When Simon and Brad were caught in the mysterious fireball--a whirling ball of light that sucked them into a bizarre alternate world--they knew a terrifyingly different future was ahead. The world on the other side was geographically identical to their own, but the societies and history were completely new...and full of danger.

Discovering a pagoda in California was strange enough, but when Simon and Brad are captured by slavers headed to China, the future seems even more hazardous. Especially when they are banished to a remote mountain retreat with the mysteriously powerful Bei-Kun... and come face-to-face with the secret of the fireball.

At first the virus wiping out grass and crops is of little concern to John Custance. It has decimated Asia, causing mass starvation and riots, but Europe is safe and a counter-virus is expected any day. Except, it turns out, the governments have been lying to their people. When the deadly disease hits Britain they are left alone, and society starts to descend into barbarism. As John and his family try to make it across country to the safety of his brother’s farm in a hidden valley, their humanity is tested to its very limits.

Published in the USA as: No Blade of Grass.

A thirteen-year-old's expectations of royalty give way to adventure in the first book in the post-apocalyptic Sword of the Spirits trilogy from the author of The Tripods series.

In Winchester, roles are clearly defined. Warriors fight battles every spring. Dwarfs make the swords and the shields. Grotesque mutants are the servant class. Seers interpret the wishes and predictions of the spirits. And the Prince is the ruler of the city.

Thirteen-year-old Luke has no reason to suspect that any of this will change. It's been this way for centuries... at least since the year 2000.

But things are not what they seem, and soon Luke is thrown into a story of ambition and adventure in the primitive world of the future, expertly crafted by critically acclaimed Tripods author John Christopher.

Luke encounters rage, treachery, and revenge in the second book in the post-apocalyptic Sword of the Spirits trilogy from the author of The Tripods series.

As the Prince in Waiting, Luke has been protected by the High Seers since his father's murder and his half-brother's ascension to the throne of Winchester. But after hiding for months in the underground Sanctuary, Luke discovers a shocking secret: in a world where mechanical devices have been forbidden, the Seers themselves are secret technologists.

Now restless, Luke seizes the chance to explore the world around him. His quest leads him to unimaginable dangers and unexpected delights... but the most dangerous part of his journey awaits him at home.

The fate of Luke--and the civilized world--is at stake in the tumultuous and explosive conclusion to the post-apocalyptic Sword of the Spirits trilogy from the author of The Tripods series.

Following the death of his brother, Luke has now ascended to the throne of Winchester. And with the success of his first campaigns he is crowned "Prince of Three Cities," finally fulfilling the prophecy made by the Spirits years before.

Luke knows that the power of the Spirits is nothing more than a hoax to advance the Seers' plans for a scientific revival. Their deception is the reason Luke has his crown. But as old rivalries and new alliances emerge and chaos sweeps through Winchester, can Luke stop death and disaster from plunging the civilized world into darkness?

Long ago, the Tripods--huge, three-legged machines--descended upon Earth and took control. Now people unquestioningly accept the Tripods' power. They have no control over their thoughts or their lives. But for a brief time in each person's life--in childhood--he is not a slave. For Will, his time of freedom is about to end--unless he can escape to the White Mountains, where the possibility of freedom still exists. The Tripods trilogy follows the adventures of Will and his cohorts, as they try to evade the Tripods and maintian their freedom and ultimately do battle against them. The prequel, When the Tripods Came, explains how the Tripods first invaded and gained control of the planet.

Long ago, the Tripods--huge, three-legged machines--descended upon Earth and took control. Now people unquestioningly accept the Tripods' power. They have no control over their thoughts or their lives. But for a brief time in each person's life--in childhood--he is not a slave. For Will, his time of freedom is about to end--unless he can escape to the White Mountains, where the possibility of freedom still exists. The Tripods trilogy follows the adventures of Will and his cohorts, as they try to evade the Tripods and maintian their freedom and ultimately do battle against them. The prequel, When the Tripods Came, explains how the Tripods first invaded and gained control of the planet.

Long ago, the Tripods--huge, three-legged machines--descended upon Earth and took control. Now people unquestioningly accept the Tripods' power. They have no control over their thoughts or their lives. But for a brief time in each person's life--in childhood--he is not a slave. For Will, his time of freedom is about to end--unless he can escape to the White Mountains, where the possibility of freedom still exists. The Tripods trilogy follows the adventures of Will and his cohorts, as they try to evade the Tripods and maintian their freedom and ultimately do battle against them. The prequel, When the Tripods Came, explains how the Tripods first invaded and gained control of the planet.

Long ago, the Tripods--huge, three-legged machines--descended upon Earth and took control. Now people unquestioningly accept the Tripods' power. They have no control over their thoughts or their lives. But for a brief time in each person's life--in childhood--he is not a slave. For Will, his time of freedom is about to end--unless he can escape to the White Mountains, where the possibility of freedom still exists. The Tripods trilogy follows the adventures of Will and his cohorts, as they try to evade the Tripods and maintian their freedom and ultimately do battle against them. The prequel, When the Tripods Came, explains how the Tripods first invaded and gained control of the planet.