Disclaimer

Something has gone wrong on the planet of Paradise.

The human settlers - farmers and scientists - are finding that their crops won't grow and their lives are becoming more and more dangerous. The indigenous plant life - never entirely safe - is changing in unpredictable ways, and the imported plantings wither and die. And so the order is given - Paradise will be abandoned. All personnel will be removed and reassigned. And all human presence on the planet will be disestablished.

Not all agree with the decision. There are some who believe that Paradise has more to offer the human race. That the planet is not finished with the intruders, and that the risks of staying are outweighed by the possible rewards. And so the leader of the research team and one of the demolition workers set off on a journey across the planet. Along the way they will encounter the last of the near-mythical Dendron, the vicious Reapers and the deadly Tattersall Weeds as they embark on an adventure which will bring them closer to nature, to each other and, eventually, to Paradise.

About the Author

Phillip Mann was born in 1942 and studied English and Drama at Manchester University and later in California. He worked in the New China News Agency in Beijing for two years but has lived in New Zealand since 1969, working as a theatre critic, drama teacher and university Reader in Drama. As well as writing novels, he has written a number of plays and stories for Radio New Zealand.

Norman Mailer's Pulitzer Prize-winning and unforgettable classic about convicted killer Gary Gilmore now in a brand-new edition.

Arguably the greatest book from America's most heroically ambitious writer, THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG follows the short, blighted life of Gary Gilmore who became famous after he robbed two men in 1976 and killed them in cold blood. After being tried and convicted, he immediately insisted on being executed for his crime. To do so, he fought a system that seemed intent on keeping him alive long after it had sentenced him to death. And that fight for the right to die is what made him famous.

Mailer tells not only Gilmore's story, but those of the men and women caught in the web of his life and drawn into his procession toward the firing squad. All with implacable authority, steely compassion, and a restraint that evokes the parched landscape and stern theology of Gilmore's Utah. THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG is a trip down the wrong side of the tracks to the deepest source of American loneliness and violence. It is a towering achievement-impossible to put down, impossible to forget.

(280,000 words)

Review

"Andrew P. Mayer's The Falling Machine enjoys the promise of a glorious conceit that the book delivers on—steampunk superheroes in Gilded Age New York City. The first of Mayer's Society of Steam trilogy, this book offers cocked-eyed adventure and the high camp of steampunk wrapped around a story of moral choice, family loyalty and the ultimate question of who gets to be counted as a person. A ripping yarn that strikes all the right notes, The Falling Machine will delight and entertain you." --Jay Lake, Campbell Award winning author of Mainspring and Green

"If Stan Lee had lived in the 1880s, this is the book he would have written—steampunk superheroes. Filled with larger than life characters, cliffhanger action, and ingenious gadgets so richly realized you'll feel the steam hissing from them, at its heart, it's a two-fisted meditation on the mythic glories of heroism and the tragic frailties of the heroes themselves." --Clay & Susan Griffith, authors of The Greyfriar (Vampire Empire Book 1)

About the Author

Andrew P. Mayer is the author of a short comic story titled "Om Nom Nom" published by Dark Horse Comics. The story was anthologized in Myspace Dark Horse Presents Anthology #3 and in New Creepy Anthology. He currently works as a game designer, workin with a number of different companies developing games for Facebook.

Previously he worked as a game designer and creative director for Sony Psygnosis, the Cartoon Network, and PlayFirst Games. Visit Andrew at andrewpmayer.com.