Another 'Discworld' novel. In this episode, the Discword is moving inexorably towards a collision with a malevolent redstar. There is only one man who can save the planet, the strange and hapless wizard Rincewind, last seen falling off the edge of the world.

A glorious classic fantasy combining the magic of Ursula Le Guin's The Wizard of Earthsea with the epic Mastery of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Now reissued in gorgeous new livery.

A glorious classic fantasy combining the magic of Ursula Le Guin's The Wizard of Earthsea with the epic Mastery of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Now reissued in gorgeous new livery.

Nanny Ogg, one of Disworld's most famous witches, here passes on some of her huge collection of tasty and interesting recipes, since everyone else is doing it. In addition to such dishes as Nobby's Mum's Distressed Pudding, Mrs Ogg imparts her thoughts on such matters as life, death and courtship.

Although The Silmarillion takes place in the same imaginary world as J.J.R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings , and was originally published four years after the author's death and over two decades after the former book, it is set much earlier, in the First Age of the World. The tales and the book which reads as a fusion between a story collection and historical chronicle, are a matter of legend even to the characters of The Lord of the Rings : <blockquote>In the beginning Eru, the One, who in the Elvish tongue is named Ilúvatar, made the Ainur of his thought; and they made a great Music before him</blockquote>Tolkien wrote the heart of this material very early in his career, and continued to work on it throughout his life. It fell to his son, Christopher Tolkien, to edit it into book form, and such proved the unquenchable public appetite that he subsequently oversaw 12 volumes of The History of Middle-Earth . This edition features 20 highly evocative colour plates by Ted Nasmith, themselves worth the price of admission, while reinforcing the sense of a historical work are genealogical tables, an extensive index, appendix and colour map. Far removed from the genial style of The Hobbit , this is Tolkien at his most formal, his prose austere, poetically beautiful, his storytelling capturing the epic scale, high drama and melancholy wonder of myth. These stories of elves and heroes and old gods are quite literally the foundation of the entire modern fantasy-publishing revival, and are therefore essential reading. -- Gary S. Dalkin

A breathtaking and magical novel from a master storyteller

The compelling first volume in the sequel to the bestselling Black Magician Trilogy.

The compelling first volume in the sequel to the bestselling Black Magician Trilogy.

The last thing the wizard Drum Billet did, before Death laid a bony hand on his shoulder, was to pass on his staff of power to the eighth son of an eighth son. Unfortunately for his colleagues in the chauvinistic (not to say misogynistic) world of magic, he failed to check on the new-born baby's sex.

Imagine the world if the Allies had lost the Second World War. This book trips the switches of our minds with a vision of the world as it might have been: the African continent virtually wiped out, the Mediterranean drained to make farmland, and, the United States divided between the Japanese and the Nazis.

The sixth 'Discworld' novel. The witches of Discworld, not the most joyful bunch, decide that they must get involved in the politics of the planet. Granny Weatherwax, their obvious choice as spokesperson, finds that life in royal politics is not as simple as it seems.

Death comes to us all. When he came to Mort, he offered him a job. After being assured that being dead was not compulsory, Mort accepted. However, he soon found that romantic longings did not mix easily with the responsibilities of being Death's apprentice.

The Gunslinger is a haunting figure, on a spellbinding journey into good and evil, in a desolate world which frighteningly echoes our own. In his first step towards the powerful and mysterious Dark Tower, Roland encounters an alluring woman named Alice, and faces an agonising choice between damnation and salvation as he pursues the Man in Black.

Certain writers absolutely defy categorisation – and China Miéville is most definitely of that rarefied company. His prose is exhilarating, poetic, coruscating with ideas and atmosphere – and it has enhanced a body of work that has almost no parallels in modern writing. Heretofore, if Miéville has brushed shoulders with any identifiable genres, they are those of fantasy and science fiction – which makes his remarkable new book, The City and The City , such a surprise. The author’s publishers compare this novel to Philip K Dick, Raymond Chandler and 1984 – which at least gives a series of corollaries for this book, however tentative. There are elements here of the crime thriller, but very much refracted through Miéville’s highly individual imagination.

The body of a murdered woman is discovered in the remarkable, crumbling European city of BesÃ…ºel. Such a crime is par for the course for Inspector Tyador Borlú, who is the premier talent of the Extreme Crime Squad – until his investigations uncover evidence that bizarre and terrifying forces are at work – and soon both he and those around him will be in considerable peril. He must undertake an odyssey, a journey across borders both physical and psychical, to the city which is both a complement and rival to his own, that of Ul Qoma.

Like all of China Miéville’s work, The City and The City will not be to everyone’s taste – the very individuality of the prose and the surrealistic inventiveness will not attract those preferring more prosaic fare. But for readers who hanker after untrammelled imagination – and look for literary fare unlike anything they have read before (even, it has to be said, by Miéville himself), then this is a journey to be undertaken. But with caution, perhaps… -- Barry Forshaw

Four decades after the Oblivion Crisis, Tamriel is threatened anew by an ancient and all-consuming evil: Umbriel, a floating city, casts a terrifying shadow - for wherever it falls, people die and rise again. And inside Umbriel's shadow, a great adventure begins - and a group of unlikely heroes meet. A legendary prince with a deep secret.

Four decades after the Oblivion Crisis, Tamriel is threatened anew by an ancient and all-consuming evil: Umbriel, a floating city, casts a terrifying shadow - for wherever it falls, people die and rise again. And inside Umbriel's shadow, a great adventure begins - and a group of unlikely heroes meet. A legendary prince with a deep secret.