Recommendations based on "The Great Secret"

Regeneration [Paperback] Barker, Pat

A National Book Award Finalist A New York Times Bestseller A Guardian Best Fiction Pick Of 2021 One Of Barack Obama's Favourite Books Of 2021

Hundreds of years in the future, the world is an alarmingly different place. Life is lived according to The Rulebook and social hierarchy is determined by your perception of colour.Eddie Russett is an above-average Red who dreams of moving up the ladder. Until he is sent to the Outer Fringes where he meets Jane - a lowly Grey with an uncontrollable temper and a desire to see him killed.For Eddie, it's love at first sight. But his infatuation will lead him to discover that all is not as it seems in a world where everything that looks black and white is really shades of grey...

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels“One of the greats. . . . Not just a science fiction writer; a literary icon.” —Stephen King"Engrossing. . . . [Le Guin] is a philosopher; an explorer in the landscape of the mind." —Cincinnati EnquirerIn celebration of its fiftieth anniversary, a commemorative edition of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Hugo, Locus, and Nebula Award–winning classic, a profound and thoughtful tale of anarchism and capitalism, individualism and collectivism, and one ambitious man’s quest to bridge the ideological chasm separating two worlds. This special edition includes a new foreword by Karen Joy Fowler.The Dispossessed is the spellbinding story of anarchist Shevek, the “galactically famous scientist,” who single-handedly attempts to reunite two planets cut off from each other by centuries of distrust.Anarres, Shevek’s homeland, is a bleak moon settled by an anarchic utopian civilization, where there is no government, and everyone, at least nominally, is a revolutionary. It has long been isolated from other worlds, including its mother planet, Urras—defined by warring nations, great poverty, and immense wealth. Now Shevek, a brilliant physicist, is determined to unify the two civilizations. In the face of great hostility, outright threats, and the pain of separation from his family, he makes an unprecedented trip to Urras. Greater than any concern for his own wellbeing is the belief that the walls of hatred, distrust, and philosophic division between his planet and the rest of the civilized universe must be torn down. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and explore differences in customs and cultures, determined to tear down the walls of hatred that have kept them apart.To visit Urras—to learn, to teach, to share—will require great sacrifice and risks, which Shevek willingly accepts. Almost immediately upon his arrival, he finds not the egotistical philistines he expected, but an intelligent, complex people who warmly welcome him. But soon the ambitious scientist and his gift is seen as a threat, and in the profound conflict that ensues, he must reexamine his beliefs even as he ignites the fires of change.

As a young double agent infiltrating the Soviet spy network in Nazi-occupied Paris, Andrew Hale finds himself caught up in a secret, even more ruthless war. Two decades later, in 1963, he will be forced to confront again the nightmarethat has haunted his adult life: a lethal unfinished operation code-named Declare. From the corridors of Whitehall to the Arabian desert, from post-war Berlin to the streets of Cold War Moscow, Hale's desperate quest draws him into international politics and gritty espionage tradecraft -- and inexorably drives Hale, the fiery and beautiful Communist agent Elena Teresa Ceniza-Bendiga, and Kim Philby, mysterious traitor to the British cause, to a deadly confrontation on the high glaciers of Mount Ararat, in the very shadow of the fabulous and perilous Ark.

The Final Instalment In The Breathtaking Orphans Of The Tide Trilogy, Which The Times Calls 'unputdownable'. The Seas Have Parted To Reveal The Remains Of Humanity's Lost Empire And Opened A Path From Shipwreck Island To The Enemy's City. Now Only Ellie Lancaster And Her Orphan Friends Can Prevent A Terrible War. As Kate Marches North At The Head Of Her Army, Panic Infests The City As The Enemy's Strength Grows. For The Parting Of The Seas Has Also Uncovered The Eternity Engine, A Dreadful Machine From Before The Drowning, With The Power To Remake The World - Or Destroy It Forever . . . The Critically-acclaimed Orphans Of The Tide Trilogy Reaches Its Spine-tingling Climax And Dramatic Conclusion. Perfect Reading For Fans Of His Dark Materials Or Vashti Hardy. Praise For Orphans Of The Tide: 'unputdownable' - The Times 'enthralling' - The Daily Express 'sumptuously Atmospheric . . . Tirelessly Inventive' - The Daily Telegraph 'gripping' - The Guardian 'energetic And Inventive' - Sunday Times 'gripping And Original' - The Observer 'singularly Brilliant' - Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Author Of The Girl Of Ink And Stars And The Mercies 'compellingly Inventive And Unpredictable' - Piers Torday, Author Of The Last Wild 'a Terrific Debut Of Strange Myths And Dark Secrets' - The Bookseller (editor's Choice)

The champion of an ancient, all-embracing Culture in which there is no disease or disaster, Gurgeh beats everyone at a series of endless games, until he accepts the challenge from the Empire of Azad and discovers what the Game is really all about. Reprint.

“A TOUR DE FORCE . . . London tracks the history of the English capital from the days of the Celts until the present time. . . . Breathtaking.”—The Orlando SentinelA master of epic historical fiction, Edward Rutherford gives us a sweeping novel of London, a glorious pageant spanning two thousand years. He brings this vibrant city's long and noble history alive through his saga of ever-shifting fortunes, fates, and intrigues of a half-dozen families, from the age of Julius Caesar to the twentieth century. Generation after generation, these families embody the passion, struggle, wealth, and verve of the greatest city in the Old World.Praise for London“Remarkable . . . The invasion by Julius Caesar’s legions in 54 B.C. . . . The rise of chivalry and the Crusades . . . The building of the Globe theatre . . . and the coming of the Industrial Revolution. . . . What a delightful way to get the feel of London and of English history. . . . We witness first-hand the lust of Henry VIII. We overhear Geoffrey Chaucer deciding to write The Canterbury Tales. . . . Each episode is a punchy tale made up of bite-size chunks ending in tiny cliffhangers.”—The New York Times“Hold-your-breath suspense, buccaneering adventure, and passionate tales of love and war.”—The Times (London)“Fascinating . . . A sprawling epic.”—San Francisco Chronicle

A #1 New York Times Bestseller, Anathem is perhaps the most brilliant literary invention to date from the incomparable Neal Stephenson, who rocked the world with Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, and The Baroque Cycle. Now he imagines an alternate universe where scientists, philosophers, and mathematicians live in seclusion behind ancient monastery walls until they are called back into the world to deal with a crisis of astronomical proportions.Anathem won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and the reviews for have been dazzling: “Brilliant” (South Florida Sun-Sentinel), “Daring” (Boston Globe), “Immensely entertaining” (New York Times Book Review), “A tour de force” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch), while Time magazine proclaims, “The great novel of ideas…has morphed into science fiction, and Neal Stephenson is its foremost practitioner.”

‘The way Robert Peal describes Georgian England, you’d be mad not to want to live there yourself’ GUARDIANAnne Bonny and Mary Read, pirate queens of the CaribbeanTipu Sultan, the Indian ruler who kept the British at bayOlaudah Equiano, the former slave whose story shocked the worldMary Wollstonecraft, the feminist who fought for women’s rightsLadies of Llangollen, the lovers who built paradise in a Welsh valley‘Mad, bad and dangerous to know’ is how Lord Byron, the poet who drank wine from a monk’s skull and slept with his half-sister, was described by one of his many lovers. But ‘mad, bad and dangerous’ serves as a good description for the entire Georgian period: often neglected, the hundred or so years between the coronation of George I in 1714 and the death of George IV in 1830 were years when the modern world was formed, and changes came thick and fast.Across this century, new foods – pineapples, coffee and pepper – suddenly became available in the shops. Fashion exploded into a riot of colour, frilly shirts and wigs. Gin was drunk like it was water. Demands for women’s rights were heard, and it became possible to question the existence of God without fear of prompt execution.These exciting new developments came, of course, from the expanding British Empire. Britain’s wealth and its sudden access to chocolate, chillies and spices, was entirely bound up with the conquest of overseas territories and the miserable suffering of enslaved workers.This is the backdrop to Robert Peal’s new book, which introduces the Georgian era through the diverse lives of twelve ‘magnificent – if not moral’ people who defined it.