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When a mountain mysteriously appears in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a group of scientists are sent to investigate -- and discover what is at the summit.

Eminent scientist, explorer and chronic loner Harry Tunmore is among those asked to join the secret mission -- and he has his own reasons for joining the team beyond scientific curiosity...

But the higher the team ascend, the stranger things become. Time and space behave differently on the mountain, turning minutes into hours, and hours into days. Amid the whipping cold and steep dangers of higher elevation, the climbers' limbs numb and memories of their lives before the mountain begin to fade.

What will they discover about themselves and their world as they rise? What, or who, will they discover at the top?

Leigh grew up in Rotterdam, drawn to the waterfront as an escape from her unhappy home life and volatile father. Enchanted by the undersea world of her childhood, she excels in marine biology, travelling the globe to study ancient organisms. When a trench is discovered in the Atlantic ocean, Leigh joins the exploration team, hoping to find evidence of the earth's first life forms - what she instead finds calls into question everything we know about our own beginnings.

Her discovery leads Leigh to the Mojave desert and an ambitious new space agency. Drawn deeper into the agency's work, she learns that the Atlantic trench is only one of several related phenomena from across the world, each piece linking up to suggest a pattern beyond human understanding. Leigh knows that to continue working with the agency will mean leaving behind her declining mother and her younger sister, and faces an impossible choice: to remain with her family, or to embark on a journey across the breadth of the cosmos.

Exploring the natural world with the wonder and reverence we usually reserve for the stars, In Ascension is a compassionate, deeply inquisitive epic that reaches outward to confront the greatest questions of existence, looks inward to illuminate the smallest details of the human heart, and shows how - no matter how far away we might be and how much we have lost hope - we will always attempt to return to the people and places we call home.

This short story appeared in the anthology Voices from the Past (2011). It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Ninth Annual Collection (2012).

Imagine

A mountain so great it takes a year to travel from base to summit
A sun so powerful it drives you into madness if you look at it
An ascent so vital it determines the fate of the world
A summit so precious it holds the key to the divine

The world of the great Mountain is unstable. Giant pillars erupt from the surface and yawning chasms form unpredictably underfoot. Since the Maelir first stood on its slopes in the distant past, they have sought to still its anger and control its power. Each year, twin brothers are chosen to make a perilous journey to the summit. If they survive they will be witness to Zenith, and the secrets and power will be revealed to them. Atreu and his brother Teyth have been chosen to ascend, but this time unknown forces who have long craved the power of Zenith will stop at nothing to make it their own... even if it means destroying the very thing that sustains all life - the Mountain itself.

Can you see the story breathing?

The Keep

The most beautiful city on the great Mountain
The pinnacle of Maelir culture
The place where secrets hide

The fate of the Mountain hangs in balance at the time of Equinox, and even the Keep can no longer remain untouched.The Maelir are desperate to defend it, the Faemir to demolish it, the windriders to claim it. But unknown to them all, a dark force has already emerged from the chaos to seize power.

Can you see the story breathing?

Eclipse

What happens if after the days keep getting shorter?
And shorter?
Until there is an eternal night?

What happens as the darkness grows?
And the creatures of dusk take control of the Mountain?
And Atreu and Verlinden's quest for the third Book is the only hope?

The Mountain is in its death throes as the Nazir send their wraiths to finish what the dusk-rats and grale had begun. Soon there will be no daylight to protect the Maelir and Faemir, and with each twilight there are fewer places to hide. Will the Mountain finally collapse under its own instability or will Atreu and Verlinden's descent find the words of salvation in the Lost Book of Ascension?

Can you see the story breathing?

Evil has been defeated. The war has just begun.

They did the impossible, deposing the godlike being whose brutal rule had lasted a thousand years. Now Vin, the street urchin who has grown into the most powerful Mistborn in the land, and Elend Venture, the idealistic young nobleman who loves her, must build a healthy new society in the ashes of an empire.

They have barely begun when three separate armies attack. As the siege tightens, an ancient legend seems to offer a glimmer of hope. But even if it really exists, no one knows where to find the Well of Ascension or what manner of power it bestows.

It may just be that killing the Lord Ruler was the easy part. Surviving the aftermath of his fall is going to be the real challenge.

Fresh from Dawn of War (the Black Library's novelisation of the best-selling THQ computer game) the Blood Ravens race to defend their homeworld against marauding aliens. It looks as if the eldar are to blame, but appearances can be deceiving, and Alaric has to race to get to the bottom of the mystery before the galaxy is plunged into war.

After a lifetime of avoiding his family, Fort has discovered that working for them isn't half bad -- even if his mother, Madeline, is a terrifying, murderous vampire. His newfound career has given him a purpose and a paycheck and has even helped him get his partner, foxy kitsune Suzume, to agree to be his girlfriend. All in all, things are looking up.

Only, just as Fort is getting comfortable managing a supernatural empire that stretches from New Jersey to Ontario, Madeline's health starts failing, throwing Fort into the middle of an uncomfortable and dangerous battle for succession. His older sister, Prudence, is determined to take over the territory. But Fort isn't the only one wary of her sociopathic tendencies, and allies, old and new, are turning to him to keep Prudence from gaining power.

Now, as Fort fights against his impending transition into vampire adulthood, he must also battle to keep Prudence from destroying their mother's kingdom--before she takes him down with it...

When they vanished fifty thousand years ago, the Protheans left their advanced technology scattered throughout the galaxy. The chance discovery of a Prothean cache on Mars allows humanity to join those already reaping the rewards of the ancients' high-tech wizardry. But for one rogue militia, the goal is not participation but domination.

Scientist Kahlee Sanders has left the Systems Alliance for the Ascension Project, a program that helps gifted "biotic" children harness their extraordinary powers. The program's most promising student is twelve-year-old Gillian Grayson, who is borderline autistic. What Kahlee doesn't know is that Gillian is an unwitting pawn of the outlawed black ops group Cerberus, which is sabotaging the program by conducting illegal experiments on the students.

When the Cerberus plot is exposed, Gillian's father takes her away from the Ascension Project and flees into the lawless Terminus Systems. Determined to protect Gillian, Kahlee goes with them... unaware that the elder Grayson is, in fact, a Cerberus operative. To rescue the young girl Kahlee must travel to the farthest ends of the galaxy, battling fierce enemies and impossible odds. But how will she be able to save a daughter from her own father?

The Godkiller will rise.

Despite his recent victories, Nate Temple's problems are only just beginning. Although it had been necessary, killing the most infamous of the Norse gods has consequences, and no one knows petty vengeance like the Aesir. Especially with Odin's legendary spear mysteriously missing.

But Nate has more important things to worry about than a pantheon of angry gods.

Because the God of Mischief has been freed from his imprisonment, and so has his monstrosity of a son--a creature prophesied to play a major role in Ragnarok. With Loki's masterful abilities at illusion and deception, any of Nate's acquaintances could be Loki in disguise, so he's forced to play things close to the chest, retreating away from those he trusts the most.

But with gangs of expert assassins relentlessly hunting Nate for the largest contract fee ever known, the police and FBI starting to take a closer look at Nate Temple and his alleged crimes, his best friend's kids born with bizarre abilities, and his new Horsemen desperately needing their leader to begin training them for the Omega War...

Now is a terrible time to be alone.

And an even worse time for his people to be without their leader.

Especially when Nate knows his old enemies were actually just the henchmen and that the real masters are still lurking in the shadows--likely even posing as his allies.

The blades of betrayal strike swifter than the first kiss of new love, and the fate of the world is riding on one man's shoulders...

The Catalyst walks the world.

And no one seems to know exactly what that really means. Except that it's going to change the future of existence for everyone.

For better or for worse.

Because Nate Temple has changed the rules--the most hated, feared, and respected beings in human history are no longer safe in St. Louis.

Even gods can die...

A ROAD TO HELL

Dorrin Parric is dead, and his son Orion has sworn to avenge him. But first he must run a gauntlet of human assassins, blood-crazed androids and aging, paranoid dictators.

Petty tyrants rule the few straggling settlements where mankind holds out against the darkness. Time and again Parric eludes the strange traps set for him by the forces of decay. But his luck is running out. At the end of the road is Philayork, a bewildering metropolis wracked by fear and evil. Whatever had killed Orion Parric's father was also waiting for him in the ruins of earth's last great city.

How long can the Jedi remain in power?
How far will the Sith go to rule supreme?
What chance do both stand against Abeloth?

As Luke and Ben Skywalker pursue the formidable dark-side being Abeloth, the Lost Tribe of the Sith is about to be sundered by an even greater power--which will thrust one Dark Lord into mortal conflict with his own flesh-and-blood.

On Coruscant, a political vacuum has left tensions at the boiling point, with factions racing to claim control of the Galactic Alliance. Suddenly surrounded by hidden agendas, treacherous conspiracies, and covert Sith agents, the Jedi Order must struggle to keep the GA government from collapsing into anarchy.

The Jedi are committed to maintaining peace and ensuring just rule, but even they are not prepared to take on the combined threats of Sith power, a deposed dictator bent on galaxywide vengeance, and an entity of pure cunning and profound evil hungry to become a god.

Alana Quick is the best damned sky surgeon in Heliodor City, but repairing starship engines barely pays the bills. When the desperate crew of a cargo vessel stops by her shipyard looking for her spiritually-advanced sister Nova, Alana stows away. Maybe her boldness will land her a long-term gig on the crew. But the Tangled Axon proves to be more than star-watching and plasma coils. The chief engineer thinks he's a wolf. The pilot fades in and out of existence. The captain is all blond hair, boots, and ego... and Alana can't keep her eyes off her. But there's little time for romance: Nova's in danger and someone will do anything — even destroying planets — to get their hands on her!

Inspired by the American Revolution, this enormous, intricate debut fantasy series tells the story of three heroes fighting for their country with magic and gunfire.

The Great Barrier has kept the colonies of the new world safe for hundreds of years. But the colony is a powder keg. Food shortages stir the citizens to riots against the crown. Dissidents whisper of revolution. And worse, the strength of the Great Barrier seems to be slipping.

Sarine is a street artist, selling her sketches for coin to feed her family. With the help of her magic powers, she's so far been able to escape the notice of the city police. But a strange man with powers more terrifying than her own threatens to expose her secrets.

And she's not the only one whose life threatens the strange figure threatens to upend.

The battle is over, but war lies ahead in the second book of the epic fantasy trilogy that pits humans against gods in a contest for the fate of the world.

The battle for the city is over, but the aftermath of a revolution is never simple...

Sarine begins to experience visions, ones which make her dragon familiar sicker every day. Erris pushes toward conquest and the need to expand her territory and restore her power. And, exiled from his tribe, Arak'Jur apprentices himself to a deadly master.

Faced with the threat of a return to the days of darkness, the heroes begin to understand the depth of the sacrifices required from them. To protect their world, they'll have to stand and fight once more.

The Divide separating the east from the west, the realms of death from the realms of life, has fallen.

Sarine and her champions find themselves overwhelmed, assaulted on every side by swordsmen, assassins, and skinchangers infiltrating, killing, and twisting even their most loyal allies against them. Every victory hides a defeat, and yet there is still hope.

If Sarine can learn the true nature of her powers, she can make a final stand against the Regnant, to challenge him and remove his death grip on the world's heart. To find the truth, she must journey to a new continent and find new allies, rallying their strength, and wielding every strain of magic in the world in a final battle between life and death.

The Face of God is what every young saurian learns to call the immense, glowing object which fills the night sky on the far side of the world. Young Afsan is privileged, called to the distant Capital City to apprentice with Saleed the court astrologer. Buth when the time comes for Afsan to make his coming-of-age pilgrimage, to gaze upon the Face of God, his world is changed forever- for what he sees will test his faith... and may save his world from disaster!

Fossil Hunter is hard SF in the tradition of Larry Niven about a world inhabited by the Quintaglios, a dinosaurian species that has evolved a human level of intelligence and culture.

Toroca, a Quintaglio geologist, is under attack for his controversial new theory of evolution. But the origins of his people turn out to be more complex than even he imagined, for he soon discovers the wreckage of an ancient starship -- a relic of the aliens who transplanted Earth's dinosaurs to this solar system. Now, Toroca must convince Emperor Dybo that evolution is true; otherwise, the territorial violence the Quintaglios inherited from their tyrannosaur ancestors will destroy the last survivors of Earth's prehistoric past.

In Far-Seer and Fossil Hunter, we met the Quintaglios, a race of intelligent dinosaurs from Earth and learned of the threat to their very existence. Now they must quickly advance from a culture equivalent to our Renaissance to the point where they can leave their planet.

While the Quintaglios rush to develop space travel, the discovery of a second species of intelligent dinosaur rocks their most fundamental beliefs. Meanwhile, blind Afsan -- the dinosaurian Galileo -- undergoes the newfangled treatment of psychoanalysis, throwing everything he thought he knew about his violent people into a startling new light.

When Taharqa "Harq" Douglass injures his eye in a freak accident, he discovers that his bizarre immigrant doctor friend Thago is more than a mere muckle-mouthed fish-out-of-water, but an interplanetary "Warmunk" investigating a cosmic mystery and fighting a war across this solar system.

Learning that he possesses of the visionary capacity of chronosis, Harq finds himself drafted into Thago's mission to rescue a princess, free an enslaved boy, and transform an age-old conflict that could claim millions of lives. Fighting against fanatics and sheltering inside the doomed Soviet space station Mir, Harq faces the starkest stakes of his life: evolve or die.

The sea is the birthplace of legends.

Nia, a young mermyd of the Bluefin clan, has had one wish all her life -- to be an Avatar in her beloved home of Atlantis. The ten Avatars rule the beautiful and peaceful undersea city alongside the ancient Farworlders, whose magic keeps their world alive. To be an Avatar is an honor and a great responsibility, and Nia dreams of taking her place among the noble ten.

Now, at sixteen, Nia has a chance to see her dream come true. Atlantis is choosing its next Avatar, and Nia knows she is supremely qualified.

But there is something Nia doesn't know -- if she gets her heart's desire, it could mean the end of her treasured world of Atlantis forever.

David B. Coe, winner of the William L. Crawford Award for Best First Fantasy Series for the LonTobyn Chronicle, continues his rise to the top rank of fantasy writers with Rules of Ascension, the first novel of an exciting new epic fantasy quartet, Winds of the Forelands.

For centuries the Forelands were disputed by several tribes. Then came the magically gifted Qirsi--physically no match for their foes, but capable of mindsight, creating and controlling mists and fire, and bending solid matter to their purpose. After a Qirsi traitor betrayed his race to save himself, the Qirsi were defeated and dispersed among the seven realms of the Forelands. Those specially endowed Qirsi capable of multiple powers, the Weavers, were all put to death.

For centuries the Forelands enjoyed relative peace. But when Tavis, the heir to the Kingdom of Curgh, is wrongfully blamed for the murder of a noble, the accusation sets in motion a series of events culminating in civil war. The ensuing chaos topples the throne in Eibithar and threatens to rain chaos on all the realms of the Forelands. Tavis, thrust into the center of deadly controversy and stripped of the protection of his family's nobility, turns to the Qirsi, his last remaining hope for redemption. But another Qirsi traitor, secretly fomenting fear and mistrust among the Dukedoms, seeks to destroy Tavis. Tavis must survive long enough to clear his name and save an entire kingdom. A powerful, compelling tale set in an unforgettable land, rules of Ascension will capture your heart and fire your imagination.

The Ascension Factor (1988) is the fourth and final science fiction novel set in the Destination: Void universe by the American author Frank Herbert and poet Bill Ransom. It takes place about twenty five years after The Lazarus Effect. It completes the story of the humans descended from those left by the Voidship Earthling on the planet Pandora approximately 480 years earlier.