BASH: I dislike people.I despise humans.A cruel mandate from one of my region's rulers has saddled me with a slew of little alien humans: I'm to put them to work.One problem?I run a rock quarry, where humans' thin skin is a detriment to productivity. Overseeing these humans is like trying to herd yanaks. If I don't burn, beat, or strangle them to death by the day's end, it will be a miracle.ISLA: I can tell the boss likes me, because I'm not dead. Bash is abrasive and acerbic, like some sort of alien love child between Michael Caine and Miss Hannigan. And maybe Ebenezer Scrooge. Bash is a little... anti-human race. But he's not all bad. Sure, he's a little growly and he sets things on fire when he gets mad, but even villains need a friend. And here? Bash is everybody's villain.Everybody's but mine.Warning: This book is the slowest of slow burns. It's a 127K story with the personal puzzle parts not snapping together until the last stretch of the book. If you want to sink your teeth into a romance that hits the fireworks level fast, skip on this one. But if you want a sweet slow burn, then this one might be the book for you. (Especially if you love super grouchy heroes with big horns and bigger attitudes.)

Eighteen-year-old Kit is weird: big, strange, odd, socially disabled, on a spectrum that stretches from "highly gifted" at one end, to "nutter" at the other. At least Kit knows who his father is; he and Guy live together in a decaying country house on the unstable brink of a vast quarry. His mother's identity is another matter. Now, though, his father's dying, and old friends are gathering for one last time. "Uncle" Paul's a media lawyer now; Rob and Ali are upwardly mobile corporate bunnies; pretty, hopeful Pris is a single mother; Haze is still living up to his drug-inspired name twenty years on; and fierce, protective Hol is a gifted if acerbic critic. As young film students they lived at Willoughtree House with Guy, and they've all come back because they want something. Kit, too, has his own ulterior motives. Before his father dies he wants to know who his mother is, and what's on the mysterious tape they're all looking for. But most of all he wants to stop time and keep his father alive. Fast-paced, gripping and savagely funny, The Quarry is a virtuoso performance whose soaring riffs on the inexhaustible marvel of human perception and rage against the dying of the light will stand among Iain Banks' greatest work.

AROKH I broke the rules and stole an auction item from her buyers. Because somehow, they'd managed to abduct a Gryfala princess. Though... she doesn't look, or act, or sound quite like I thought one of her kind would. But I'm merely a Rakhii gladiator; this is the closest I've actually ever been to a princess. I'd be considered lucky indeed if she chose me to guard her. Instead, I want more. I need her to claim me. Because she doesn't know it, but now I can't let her go. ANGIE Woke up in a freaking auction pen. With no coffee. But there were aliens. And they didn't bid on me out of the goodness of their hearts. FML. Then this nice alien showed up in the nick of time, but he keeps referring to me as "Princess" and I'm starting to worry what he'll do when he finds out that there's been a little case of mistaken identity, that I'm not royalty - see, I'm not even whatever alien he mistook me for... I'm just a human. ****Content warning: For readers 18 years and older Contains explicit sexual situations, dark themes, sensitive subjects, and violence. Despite happenings inside this story not being entirely sunshine and roses, this couple gets their sweet Happily Ever After ♥

A new edition of the bestselling classic – published with a special introduction to mark its 10th anniversary This pioneering account sets out to understand the structure of the human brain – the place where mind meets matter. Until recently, the left hemisphere of our brain has been seen as the ‘rational’ side, the superior partner to the right. But is this distinction true? Drawing on a vast body of experimental research, Iain McGilchrist argues while our left brain makes for a wonderful servant, it is a very poor master. As he shows, it is the right side which is the more reliable and insightful. Without it, our world would be mechanistic – stripped of depth, colour and value.

QUARRY'S BACK – FOR HIS TOUGHEST JOB EVER. The ruthless professional killer known as Quarry long ago disappeared into a well-earned retirement. But now a media magnate has lured the restless hitman into tackling one last lucrative assignment. The target is an unlikely one: Why, Quarry wonders, would anyone want a beautiful young librarian dead? And why in hell does he care? On the 30th anniversary of the enigmatic assassin's first appearance, bestselling author Max Allan Collins brings him back for a dark and deadly mission where the last quarry may turn out to be Quarry himself.

The hitman hero of the acclaimed series Quarry on Cinemax returns for his final act. By Quarry’s creator, the award-winning author of Road to Perdition! QUARRY'S VIOLENT PAST COMES LOOKING FOR HIM The professional hitman known as Quarry -- star of the Cinemax TV miniseries of the same name -- has put killing behind him. But after a beautiful writer of true-crime bestsellers drops by to announce he's the subject of her next book, killers descend to give him some of his own deadly medicine, forcing Quarry to journey into his bloody past to find the answers -- and settle old scores. QUARRY’S BLOOD brings the hitman’s decades-long saga right up to the present day as MWA Grand Master Max Allan Collins explores the startling final act of Quarry’s professional career.