At the end of The Day of the Triffids, the hero, Bill Masen, his wife, and four-year-old son leave the British mainland to join a new colony on the Isle of Wight. The Night of the Triffids takes up the story 25 years later. David Masen, the now grown-up son of Bill, is a pilot, still searching for a method of destroying the implacable triffid plant as it continues its worldwide march, seemingly intent on wiping out humankind. David eventually manages to reach New York, where a very different sort of colony has been set up, a colony whose members seem to be immune to the triffid string and where David comes face to face with an old enemy from his father's past.      ***          From Publishers Weekly     In John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids (1951), mankind is overtaken-and much of it blinded-by the demonic walking plant of the title, a monster created in a lab in an act of Cold War profiteering. Clark (Vampyrrhic, etc.) picks up the story more than 25 years later, puts a new narrator at the helm and spins a brisk and engaging adventure-cum-horror yarn. Clark's narrator is David Masen, son of scientist Bill Masen (the protagonist from Wyndham's book). The Masen family, along with a handful of other survivors, has set up an outpost on the Isle of Wight, and have gone about rebuilding society. A major part of this renewal involves a particularly bizarre idea called the Mother House, a convent-like home where women spend their lives giving birth over and over again. All seems well, until one morning when the sun doesn't rise and the triffids, long thought condemned to the mainland, attack. Clearly marketed as a genre horror title, this crafty continuation is elegant in its construction. Clark's prose is clean, thoughtful and perfectly suited to his faux doomsday-memoir approach. Less cautionary than the original, but more literary than many books of its ilk, this is a truly enjoyable voyage.      ***          From Library Journal     A quarter of a century after an invasion by the deadly alien plants known as triffids blinded most of the world's human population and caused the collapse of civilization, only a small colony of survivors on the Isle of Wight continues to preserve what they can of society and culture. When a new phenomenon arises, resulting in the darkening of the atmosphere, pilot David Masen, the son of the colony's founder, sets out to discover the source of the problem-and encounters a new group of technologically advanced survivors from across the Atlantic. Continuing the classic tale of alien invasion begun 25 years ago in John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids, Clark envisions a world poised to fight back against their invaders. Winner of the 2002 British Fantasy Award for Best Novel, he retains a feel for SF pulp horror in an action-filled tale that captures the spirit of the original story. Recommended for most SF collections.      ***          'The hottest new purveyor of horrific thrills currently working on these shores.'     -Big Issue          'A master of eerie thrills.'     -Richard Laymon          'NIGHT OF THE TRIFFIDS, essentially a story of good versus evil, is an intriguing and enjoyable sequel that should delight appreciators of Wyndham's work.'     -The Third Alternative          'A definite confirmation of this author's growing reputation as one of the top genre novelists around today.'     -Starburst          'Readers will relish Clark's uncomplicated cocktail of chlorophyl and human blood.'     -Financial Times

For Anna, the narrator of Bo Caldwell's richly lyrical and vivid first novel, growing up in the magical world of Shanghai in the 1930s and 1940s creates a special bond between her and her father. He is the son of missionaries, a smuggler, and a millionaire who leads a charmed but secretive life. When the family flees to Los Angeles in the face of the Japanese occupation, he chooses to remain, believing his connections and luck will keep him safe.He's wrong. He survives, only to again choose Shanghai over his family during the Second World War. Anna and her father reconnect late in his life, when she finally has a family of her own, but it is only when she discovers his extensive journals that she is able to fully understand him and the reasons for his absences. With the intensity and appeal of When We Were Orphans, also set in Shanghai at the same time, The Distant Land of My Father tells a moving and unforgettable story about a most unusual father-daughter relationship.

Split Second (Maggie O'Dell Novels)

In the first century AD, Publius Ovidius Naso, the most urbane and irreverant poet of imperial Rome, was banished to a remote village on the edge of the Black Sea. From these sparse facts, one of our most distinguished novelists has fashioned an audacious and supremely moving work of fiction. Marooned on the edge of the known world, exiled from his native tongue, Ovid depends on the kindness of barbarians who impate their dead and converse with the spirit world. But then he becomes the guardian of a still more savage creature, a feral child who has grown up among deer. What ensues is a luminous encounter between civilization and nature, as enacted by a poet who once catalogued the treacheries of love and a boy who slowly learns how to give it.

It is a desperate time in Witch World. The Magestone, the key to the pandimensional gates, has been lost and now all the gates are open. In the classic series' grand finale, an infinite flood of evil is about to wash across the world as Simon Tregarth returns to lead the planet's heroes in the final war against the forces of darkness.

From Publishers WeeklyIn February of this year, Laymon, then president of the Horror Writers Association, died of a heart attack at age 53. A few weeks ago, the last of his novels to be published before his death, The Traveling Vampire Show, won the HWA's Stoker Award for best novel of the year. Soon after Laymon died, Cemetery Dance, which issued that award winner, brought out Night in the Lonesome October. But it turns out that wasn't the last we'll see of Laymon, nor is this new, enjoyable short novel. The Beast House Chronicles, launched in 1979, made Laymon's reputation. This novella is the slightest of the series four entries, emotionally as well as in page length, but it features all the trademark Laymon touches. There's a horny teen protagonist, Mark, and a spooky adventure, as Mark accepts the dare of the girl of his wet dreams, Alison, that he help her sneak into Beast House, scene of several horrific murders during past decades and now a major tourist attraction in the small West Coast town where it stands. There are plenty of suspenseful and scary moments as Mark breaks into the Beast House and hides in the Beast Hole, and a particularly shocking twist at book's end. Above all, there's that inimitable Laymon style, the use of simple, strong sentences to construct, via extraordinarily vivid sensual detail, a narrative that envelops the reader in a moment by moment revelation of events in the service of a story that's terrific, nasty fun. All Laymon fans and anyone who likes horror served with a cackle are going to like this one. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.Review“Terrific, nasty fun. All Laymon fans and anyone who likes horror served with a cackle are going to like this one.” —Publishers Weekly“One of horror’s rarest talents.”—Publishers Weekly“If you’ve missed Laymon, you’ve missed a treat!” —Stephen King“All Laymon fans and anyone who likes horror served with a cackle are going to like this one.” – Publishers Weekly

Sonny Baca, the New Mexican shaman and PI, is up against a shape-shifting adversary who haunts Sonny's worst nightmares After a savage confrontation with his archenemy, Sonny Baca is confined to a wheelchair. The doctors don't know if he'll ever walk again—and now the Chicano PI is plagued by disturbing dreams of his female ancestors being abducted. The reality is even more chilling. In present-day Santa Fe, the mayor's sixteen-year-old daughter has disappeared. The four black feathers found on Consuelo Romero's bed confirm Sonny's fears: Three more girls will go missing before Raven's master plan becomes a terrifyingly reality. A charismatic, chameleonlike power broker who also possesses a shaman's gifts, Raven lures radical environmentalists into committing terrorist acts under the guise of antinuclear protests. But his true agenda is to bring down Sonny once and for all. By obliterating Sonny's dreams—the portal into the spirit...

Barbara Park’s New York Times bestselling chapter book series, Junie B. Jones, is a classroom favorite and has been keeping kids laughing—and reading—for more than twenty years. Over 60 million copies in print and now with a bright new look for a new generation! Meet the World’s Funniest First Grader—Junie B. Jones! Junie B. has all the answers when it comes to cheating. It’s just plain wrong! But what about copying someone else’s homework? That’s not cheating, right? ’Cause homework isn’t even a test! And speaking of tests . . . what if a friend shares an answer that you didn’t even ask for? Sharing definitely isn’t cheating . . . is it? Uh-oh. Maybe this cheating business is more complicated than Junie B. thought. Could she be a cheater pants and not even know it?   USA Today : “Junie B. is the darling of the young-reader set.”   Publishers Weekly : “Park convinces beginning readers that Junie B.—and reading—are lots of fun.”   Kirkus Reviews : “Junie’s swarms of young fans will continue to delight in her unique take on the world. . . . A hilarious, first-rate read-aloud.”   Time : “Junie B. Jones is a feisty six-year-old with an endearing penchant for honesty.”

In this flawless novella, Mona Simpson turns her powers of observation toward characters who, unlike Ann and Adele August in her bestselling Anywhere but Here, choose to stay rather than go. As a high school student in Green Bay, Bea Maxwell raised money for good causes; later, she became a successful real estate agent and an accomplished knitter. The one thing missing from her life is a romantic relationship. She soon settles comfortably into the role of stylish spinster and do-gooder. Woven into Bea's story are stories of other lifelong residents of Green Bay and the changes time brings to a town and its residents. This pure and simple work once again proves Mona Simpson one of the defining writers of her generation.From the Trade Paperback edition.