National Network for Equitable Library Service

On June 14, 2007, the king and prime minister of Sweden went missing. Later it was said that both had fallen ill. The truth is different. The real story begins much earlier, with the birth of Nombeko Mayeki in a shack in South Africa, a woman who will hold the fate of the world in the palm of her hands.

War has come to Long Earth. Joshua, now married and a father, is summoned by Lobsang. It seems that he alone can confront the perfect storm of crises that threatens to plunge all of the Long Earth into a war unlike any that has been waged before.

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. After eleven unsuccessful expeditions to survey the area--most of which ended in death--the twelfth expedition is set to go. Area X delivers the unexpected, but it's the surprises that come with the team that change everything.

Emily Shepherd's dad, a former soldier suffering from PTSD, emerges from the woods carrying the broken body of Ashlee Parker and finds himself accused of murder. Emily must uncover truth before he is convicted. Does Ashlee's boyfriend have the answers, or is he only playing games with her?

In a futuristic urban wasteland, evil Overlords have decreed that no human shall live a day past their fourteenth birthday. On that Sad Birthday, the children of the Dorms are taken to the Meat Factory, where they will be made into creatures whose sole purpose is to kill. The mysterious Shade, once a man but now more like the machines he fights, recruits the few teenagers who escape into a secret resistance force.

Darling Cruel walks a dangerous line of deception, and is part of the ruling family his alter ego, Kere, is trying to bring down. He's also working to destroy the man who murdered his father, his uncle. One wrong move will cost him not only his own life, but that of his mother and siblings. Zarya leads the Resistance and is the only one Darling has ever fully trusted, but when she uses a weapon he designed specifically for her, against the family he protects, all bets are off.

Joe Spork repairs clocks, a far cry from his late father, a flashy London gangster. But when Joe fixes one particularly unusual device, his life is suddenly upended. Joe's client, Edie Banister, is more than just a kindly old lady, she's a former superspy. And the device? It's a 1950s doomsday machine. And having triggered it, Joe now faces the wrath of both the government and a diabolical South Asian dictator, Edie's old archnemesis.

A Wild Ride through the Night describes the comic adventures of twelve-year-old Gustave, an aspiring artist. When a disaster at sea puts him in the hands of Death, he has the choice to give up the ghost or take on a series of six impossible tasks.

Alexia Tarabotti, Lady Maccon, has settled into domestic bliss. Of course, being Alexia, such bliss involves integrating werewolves into London high society, living in a vampire's second best closet, and coping with a precocious toddler who is prone to turning supernatural willy-nilly. Until, that is, she receives a summons that cannot be ignored. With husband, child, and Tunstells in tow, Alexia boards a steamer to cross the Mediterranean. But Egypt may hold more mysteries than even the indomitable Lady Maccon can handle.

Hugo's last novel about 1793, the year of the guillotine in France, captures the moment that shaped the destiny not only of France but of all European monarchy.