All-Time Favourite Fiction Vol 1
Discover the greatest fiction books of all time in All-Time Favourite Fiction Vol 1. Explore timeless classics and beloved novels that have captivated readers for generations.
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The Gods Themselves
by Isaac Asimov
In the twenty-second century Earth obtains limitless, free energy from a source science little understands: an exchange between Earth and a parallel universe, using a process devised by the aliens. But even free energy has a price. The transference process itself will eventually lead to the destruction of the Earth's Sun—and of Earth itself. Only a few know the terrifying truth—an outcast Earth scientist, a rebellious alien inhabitant of a dying planet, a lunar-born human intuitionist who senses the imminent annihilation of the Sun. They know the truth—but who will listen? They have foreseen the cost of abundant energy—but who will believe? These few beings, human and alien, hold the key to Earth's survival.
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The Clan of the Cave Bear
by Jean M. Auel
This novel of awesome beauty and power is a moving saga about people, relationships, and the boundaries of love. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Through Jean M. Auel’s magnificent storytelling we are taken back to the dawn of modern humans, and with a girl named Ayla we are swept up in the harsh and beautiful Ice Age world they shared with the ones who called themselves the Clan of the Cave Bear. A natural disaster leaves the young girl wandering alone in an unfamiliar and dangerous land until she is found by a woman of the Clan, people very different from her own kind. To them, blond, blue-eyed Ayla looks peculiar and ugly—she is one of the Others, those who have moved into their ancient homeland; but Iza cannot leave the girl to die and takes her with them. Iza and Creb, the old Mog-ur, grow to love her, and as Ayla learns the ways of the Clan and Iza’s way of healing, most come to accept her. But the brutal and proud youth who is destined to become their next leader sees her differences as a threat to his authority. He develops a deep and abiding hatred for the strange girl of the Others who lives in their midst, and is determined to get his revenge.
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Kane & Abel
by Jeffrey Archer
On April 15, 1906, two baby boys entered the world. One was born to a life of prosperity and ease, the other to a world of hardship and struggle. On different sides of the globe, they grew up -- one shaped by a luxurious upbringing, fine schools, and a history he read; the other well tempered by war, slavery, and the history he was part of. William Lowell Kane, scion of a Boston banking family, and Abel Rosnovski, penniless Polish immigrant -- one is gold, the other steel. Rosnovski is Kane's ultimate adversary, while Kane Kane embodies everything that Rosnovski stands against. In their relentless battle, both men know that there can be only one victor -- and one vanquished. Across three generations and around a rapidly changing world, their war rages unchecked, for the love of a dream, the loss of an empire, and the lure of a fortune.
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The Sword of Shannara
by Terry Brooks
The Sword of Shannara is the first volume of the classic series that has becomeone of the most popular fantasy tales of all time. Long ago, the wars of the ancient Evil ruined the world. In peaceful Shady Vale, half-elfin Shea Ohmsford knows little of such troubles. But the supposedly dead Warlock Lord is plotting to destroy everything in his wake.The sole weapon against this Power of Darkness is the Sword of Shannara, which can be used only by a trueheir of Shannara. On Shea, last of the bloodline,rests the hope of all the races. Thus begins the enthralling Shannara epic,a spellbinding tale of adventure, magic, and myth . .
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The Law and the Lady
by Wilkie Collins
Valeria Woodville's first act as a married woman is to sign her name in the marriage register incorrectly, and this slip is followed by the gradual disclosure of a series of secrets about her husband's earlier life, each of which leads on to another set of questions and enigmas. Her discoveries prompt her to defy her husband's authority, to take the law into into a labyrinthine maze of false clues and deceptive identities, in which the exploration of the tangled workings of the mind becomes linked to an investigation into the masquerades of femininity. Probably the first full-length novel with a woman detective as its heroine, The Law and the Lady is a fascinating example of Collins's later fiction. First published in 1875, it employs many of the techniques used in The Moonstone, developing them in bizarre and unexpected ways, and in its Gothic and fantastic elements The Law and the Lady adds a significant dimension to the history of detective fiction. - ;Valeria Woodville's first act as a married woman is to sign her name in the marriage register incorrectly, and this slip is followed by the gradual disclosure of a series of secrets about her husband's earlier life, each of which leads on to another set of questions and enigmas. Her discoveries prompt her to defy her husband's authority, to take the law into into a labyrinthine maze of false clues and deceptive identities, in which the exploration of the tangled workings of the mind becomes linked to an investigation into the masquerades of femininity. Probably the first full-length novel with a woman detective as its heroine, The Law and the Lady is a fascinating example of Collins's later fiction. First published in 1875, it employs many of the techniques used in The Moonstone, developing them in bizarre and unexpected ways, and in its Gothic and fantastic elements The Law and the Lady adds a significant dimension to the history of detective fiction. - ;Introduction; Note on the text; Select bibliography; A chronology of Wilkie Collins; The Law and the Lady; Explanatory notes -
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The Three Musketeers
by Alexandre Dumas
In seventeenth-century France, young d'Artagnan initially quarrels with, then befriends, three musketeers and joins them in trying to outwit the enemies of the king and queen.
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Needles
by William Deverell
A prosecutor fights a drug trafficker — and his own heroin addiction — in this thriller from a Dashiell Hammett Prize– and Arthur Ellis Award–winning author “Deverell has a narrative style so lean that scenes and characters seem to explode on the page. He makes the evil of his plot breathtaking and his surprises like shattering glass.” — Philadelphia Bulletin “Spell-binding, first-rate.” — Buffalo News Lawyer Foster Cobb’s objective is to bring down the mysterious Dr. Au, responsible for the drugs that flow through Vancouver. But under the pressure of a disintegrating career and marriage, Cobb himself has taken up a long-abandoned heroin habit. With a racing plot and dramatic twists, Needles plunges into a seedy 1970s underworld of crooked cops, Asian drug lords, and tense courtroom scenes. A winner of the Seal First Novel Award, it’s a riveting tale of crime and justice with “surprises like shattering glass,” from an author who has sold over a million copies (Philadelphia Bulletin).
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The Robe
by Lloyd Cassel Douglas
Christ's robe has a strange effect on the pagan soldier who wins it in a dice game after the Crucifixion.
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David Copperfield
by Charles Dickens
David Copperfield is the story of a young man’s adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among the gloriously vivid cast of characters he encounters are his tyrannical stepfather, Mr Murdstone; his brilliant, but ultimately unworthy school-friend Steerforth; his formidable aunt, Betsey Trotwood; his nemesis, the eternally humble Uriah Heep; frivolous, enchanting Dora; and the magnificently impecunious Micawber, one of literature’s great comic creations. In David Copperfield – the novel he described as his ‘favourite child’ – Dickens drew revealingly on his own experiences to create one of his most exuberant and enduringly popular works, filled with tragedy and comedy in equal measure.
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Primal Fear
by William Diehl
A Chicago archbishop is savagely murdered, a knife-wielding young man swears that he is innocent, and a brilliant renegade defense lawyer battles to uncover the truth behind the murder.
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Pawn of Prophecy
by David Eddings
The farm boy, Garion, begins a dangerous quest to recover the magic Orb and prevent the evil Torak from seizing power over the world.
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The Day of the Jackal
by Frederick Forsyth
The Jackal. A tall, blond Englishman with opaque, gray eyes. A killer at the top of his profession. A man unknown to any secret service in the world. An assassin with a contract to kill the world's most heavily guarded man. One man with a rifle who can change the course of history. One man whose mission is so secretive not even his employers know his name. And as the minutes count down to the final act of execution, it seems that there is no power on earth that can stop the Jackal.
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Eye of the Needle
by Ken Follett
An enemy spy code named "The Needle" knows the vital secret of the Allies deception and holds the key to Nazi victory.
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The Eagle Has Landed
by Jack Higgins
As the Allied forces slowly begin turning the tide of war, Hitler vehemently orders the impossible—kidnap Winston Churchill, or kill him. A crack team of commandos led by a disgraced war hero must venture into the heart of England to carry out their mission, or die trying. Meanwhile, in a quiet seaside village, a beautiful widow and an IRA assassin have already laid the groundwork for what will be the most treacherous plot of the war. It begins on November 6, 1943, when Berlin receivs the fateful message... "First rate...a fascinating adventure story." —San Francisco Chronicle "The master's master of World War II spycraft storytelling...A superb and mysterious tale." —United Press International
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Hellstrom's Hive
by Frank Herbert
A team of government operatives is sent to invade the site of Dr. Hellstrom's secret Project 40. There they find specially bred scientists, neutered workers, deadly weapons, and other horrors dedicated to the destruction of the human race.
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Duncton Wood
by William Horwood
A community of moles in a forest near Oxford faces a bleak and evil-laden future unless two of their number, young Bracken and his mate Rebecca, can revive the ancient beliefs and traditions linked to the great stone
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The Summer Tree
by Guy Gavriel Kay
Taken to a realm of magic and war, five men and women from our world embark on an epic journey in the first novel in Guy Gavriel Kay’s classic, critically acclaimed fantasy trilogy, The Fionavar Tapestry. It begins with a chance meeting that introduces the five to a man who will change their lives: a mage who brings them to the first of all worlds, Fionavar. In this land of gods and myth, each of them is forced to discover what they are and what they are willing to do, as Fionavar stands on the brink of a terrifying war against a dark, vengeful god...
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Dance of the Tiger
by Björn Kurtén
Björn Kurtén's compelling novel gives the reader a detailed picture of life 35,000 years ago in Western Europe. One of the world's leading scholars of Ice Age fauna, Kurtén fuses extraordinary knowledge and imagination in this vivid evocation of our deepest past. This novel illuminates the lives of the humans who left us magnificent paintings in the caves of France and Spain.
