In the beginning, there was nothing but endless flatness. Then came the Carpet...
That's the old story everyone knows and loves (even if they don't really believe it). For now the Carpet is home for many different tribes and peoples - from the empire-building Dumii, to the nomadic Munrungs, the proud Deftmenes, and the terrible creatures from the Unswept Regions. And there's a new story in the making.
The story of the time when Fray begins to move, sweeping a trail of destruction across the Carpet.
The story of the power-hungry mouls, saddling up their snargs and riding to the attack.
The story of Glurk and Snibril, Munrung brothers, who set out on an adventure to end all adventures when their village is flattened.
The story that will come to a terrible end - if someone doesn't do something about it. If everyone doesn't do something about it...
Colin Smythe (1971/Hardcover) 0-900675-49-7 [out of print]
Doubleday (1992/Hardcover/Revised Edition) 0-385-40304-6
Corgi (1993/Paperback/Revised Edition) 0-552-52752-1
Sauerlander (1972/Paperback/Original Edition) 3-7941-0142-1, as "Alarm im Teppichreich", trans. Käthe Recheis [out of print]
Heyne (1994/Paperback/Revised Edition) 3-45307-369-X
Probability Math: the science of foretelling the future. For Dom Sabalos, heir to an immensely rich family, its forecasts were curiously contradictory: he would be assassinated, and after that, find the fabulous, almost mythical, world of the Jokers, who were only known by a few incredible artifacts scattered throughout the Galaxy.
Any good P-Mathematician could find out this information. Some- body certainly wanted to prove P-Math wrong as far as Dom was concerned, and make sure that once he was dead, he stayed dead. A robot assassin, with built-in `luck', had been put on his tail, but what was it that protected Dom every time the assassin struck?
To be sure, he had an excellent robot servant, Isaac; (class 5 with Man-Friday subcircuitry). a planet (the First Syrian Bank) as a god-father, a determined and protective grandmother (who looked as if she had been born aged eighty), a security chief who even ran checks on himself, and a home world, where a missing hand was only a minor mishap and even death was not always fatal - but what protected Dom on his search for the world which he knew lay on the dark side of the sun:?
Colin Smythe (1976/Hardcover) 0-901072-20-6 [out of print]
Doubleday (1994/Hardcover) 0-385-40476-X
Corgi (1988/Paperback) 0-552-13326-4
Goldmann (1977/Paperback) 3-442-23254-6, as "Der Sonne dunkle Seite", trans. Tony Westermayr [out of print]
Heyne (1989/Paperback) 3-45303-902-5
A flat earth? Impossible. Kin Arad is the 210-year-old supervisor in charge of resurfacing the newly named planet, Kingdom. When she finds Jago Jalo, a man who has a cloak of invisibility and should have died a thousand years ago, in her office, she decides he must have an unusual tale. He has. He knows where such a world is. It is like the medieval earth ... almost. Leiv Eriksson is setting off for the New World, but he will never find it. Instead he sails to the edge of the world and its eternal waterfall. It is obvious that this `earth' has been built by the Great Spindle Kings, makers of universes, inventors of the strata mach- ine and the ultimate in claustrophobes, anmd Jalo lures the human Kin, the kung Marco Farfarer and the fifty-six-syllable-named shand better known as Silver, to undertake a voyage of discovery with him: the rewards must be beyond their dreams ... or nightmares.
Colin Smythe (1981/Hardcover) 0-901072-91-5
Doubleday (1994/Hardcover) 0-385-40475-1
Corgi (1988/Paperback) 0-552-13325-6
Goldmann (1983/Paperback) 3-442-23434-4, trans. Heinz Zwack
Heyne (1992/Paperback) 3-45305-834-8
`Outside! What's it like?' Masklin looked blank. `Well,' he said, `it's sort of big -' `Yes?' `And, er, there's a lot of it -' `Yes? Yes?' `With, you know, things in it -'
...yes, lots of things, and all of them a mystery to the thou- sands of tiny nomes living under the floorboards of a large dep- artment store, most of whom have never even set eyes upon the outside world. Things like Day and Night and Sun and Rain don't really exist, say all intelligent nomes. They're just daft old legends.
But soon a devestating piece of news is to shatter the nomes' existence: the Store - their world - is to be demolished...
So it's up to Masklin, the last nome to come into the Store, to mastermind the unbelievable escape plan that will take all the nomes into the dangers of the great Outside.
It means they have to think. And they have to think BIG.
And they start to learn who they are and how they came to be there, and where their fantastic journey must one day take them.
Doubleday (1989/Hardcover) 0-385-26961-7
Corgi (1990/Paperback) 0-552-52595-2
Heyne (1993/Paperback) 3-45306-263-9
In the beginning...Arnold Bros (est. 1905) created the Store.
When their home, a large department store, was demolished, thousands of tiny nomes made a daring and dramatic escape on a stolen lorry - and only just in the nick of time. The abandoned quarry they found was perfect for their needs.
At last they are safe. Or are they?
Soon strange things start to happen. Like the tops of puddles growing hard and cold, and the water coming down from the sky in frozen bits. Worse is to come though. The quarry is to be re-opened - their new home is under threat.
A newspaper cutting sends three brave nomes off on a desperate mission which, if it succeeds, could lead them all to their ult- imate home...
Meanwhile, back at the quarry, the remaining nomes prepare to defend their home against the intruders. But how long will they be able to keep the humans at bay - even with the help of the monster Jekub?
Doubleday (1990/Hardcover) 0-385-26980-3
Corgi (1991/Paperback) 0-552-52586-3
Heyne (1994/Paperback) 3-45306-264-7
`It loomed over them, so big that you had to keep on stepping back and back to see how big it was. It wasn't a thing, it was a bit of shaped sky...'
Somewhere in a place so far up there is no down, a ship is waiting to take the nomes home - back to wherever they came from. With their home in a quarry under threat, one nome - Masklin - knows that they've got to find a way of contacting this ship.
It means going to Florida (wherever that is), then getting to the launch of a communications satellite (whatever that is).
A ridiculous plan. Impossible. But Masklin doesn't know this so he tries to do it anyway. And the first step is to try and hitch a ride on a new kind of truck, a truck with wings - Concorde ...
He doesn't want to cause any trouble. He only wants to steal one of those space shuttle things. But when you're only four inches high in a world full of humans, things have a nasty habit of getting rather complicated...
Doubleday (1990/Hardcover) 0-385-40018-7
Corgi (1991/Paperback) 0-552-52649-5
Heyne (1994/Paperback) 3-453-062-655
The mighty alien fleet from the very latest computer game thunders across the computer screen...
Hands poised on the joystick, Johnny prepares to blow them into the usual million pieces...
And they send him a message: WE SURRENDER.
They're not supposed to do that! Where does it say in the manual that they're supposed to do that?
But they've done it. This time they don't want to die. They just want to go home.
Johnny is the only human who knows. So he has to learn how to wage all-out Peace, and they don't make joysticks with a `Don't Fire' button...
It's hard, trying to Save Mankind from the Galactic Hordes. It's even harder trying to save the Galactic Hordes from Mankind. But it's only a game, isn't it. ISN'T IT?
Doubleday (1992/Hardcover) 0-385-40308-9
Corgi (1993/Paperback) 0-552-13926-2
Bertelsmann (1994/Paperback) 3-570-12075-9
Goldmann (1996/Paperback) 3-44242-633-2
`Call any time you like,' said the Alderman. `I'm always in. That's something you learn to be good at, when you're dead...'
Not many people can see the dead (not many would want to). But twelve-year-old Johnny Maxwell can. And the dead are nothing like he expected. They don't lurch about. They don't push through walls. They can't even dance like they do in videos. They're just people -- post-senior citizens -- and they're always in.
At least, up until now. Now the council want to move them out so the cemetery can be sold as a building site. But the dead have learned a thing or two from Johnny. They're not going to take it lying down... especially since it's Halloween tomorrow.
Besides, they're beginning to find that life is a lot more fun than it was when they were... well... alive. Especially if they break a few rules...
Doubleday (1993/Hardcover) 0-385-40301-1
Corgi (1995/Paperback) 0-552-52842-0
Bertelsmann (1995/Paperback) 3-570-12113-5
Goldmann (1996/Paperback) 3-44242-634-0
There was a flash of light, the air flickered... and the world changed. It's May 21, 1941, thought Johnny. It's war.
Johnny Maxwell and his friends have to do something when they find Mrs Tachyon, the local bag lady, semi-conscious in an alley... as long if it's not the kiss of life.
But there's more to Mrs Tachyon than a squeaky trolley and a bunch of dubious black bags. Somehow she holds the key to different times, different eras - including the Blackbury Blitz in 1941. Suddenly now isn't the safe place Johnny once though it was, as he finds himself bound up more and more with then...
Doubleday (1996/Hardcover) 0-385-40670-3
Corgi (1997/Paperback) 0-552-52968-0
Goldmann (1997/Paperback) 3-44243-817-9
According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter - the world's only totally reliable guide to the future - the world will end on a Saturday.
Next Saturday, in fact. Just after tea.
Which means that Armageddon will happen on a Saturday night. There will be seas of fire, rains of fish, the moon turning to blood and the massed armies of Heaven and Hell will sort it out once and for all.
Which is a major problem for Crowley, Hell's most approachable demon and former serpent, and his opposite number and old friend Aziraphale, genuine angel and Soho bookshop owner. They like it down here (or, in Crowley's case, up here).
So they've got no alternative but to stop the Four Motorcyclists of the Apocalypse, defeat the marching ranks of the Witchfinder's army* and - somehow - stop it all happening.
Above all (or, in Aziraphale's case, below all) they need to find and kill the Antichrist, currently the most powerful creature on Earth. This is a shame.
Because he's eleven years old, loves his dog even though it's real- ly a Satanic hellhound under all that hair, really cares about the environment and is the sort of boy anyone would be proud to have as a son. He's also totally invulnerable, and a nice kid. And if that isn't enough, they've still got Sunday to deal with... *All two of them.
Victor Gollancz (1990/Hardcover) 0-575-04800-X
Corgi (1991/Paperback) 0-552-13703-0
Heyne (1997/Paperback) 3-45312-677-7
Can you recognise a real, unadulterated cat when you see one? Or have you too grown used to the boring, mass-produced cats the advertising industry adores?
Real cats never eat from bowls (at least not the ones marked CAT).
Real cats never wear flea collars . . . or appear on birthday cards . . . or chase anything with a bell in it.
Real cats do eat quiche. And giblets. And butter. And anything else left on the table. They can hear a fridge door opening two rooms away.
Real cats don't need names. But they often get called them.
"Yaargeroffoutofityarbastard" does nicely.
Vista (1997/Paperback) 0-575-60155-8
Droemer/Knaur (1998/Paperback) 3-42602-792-5