On holiday in Victoria, British Columbia, Bond becomes intrigued Lee Fu-Chu, a half-Blackfoot, half-Chinese philanthropist who is known as "Brokenclaw" because of a deformed hand. On his return to the UK Bond is tasked to investigate the kidnapping of several scientists who have been working on a new submarine detection system. It becomes clear that Brokenclaw is behind the kidnapping and worse, he has a devastating plan to cause economic meltdown through the collapse of the dollar. Bond has no choice but to enter his lair ... From Publishers Weekly Called upon to keep submarine-detection secrets away from the Chinese, James Bond combats Brokenclaw, the fiendish, sexually insatiable man whose nickname is a reference to a deformed left hand. "Bond is both obnoxious and racist," said PW , warning that threatened and actual brutality toward women and disparaging remarks about Asians are but a few of this novel's faults

The bestselling story of a king’s crusade to vanquish the Devil and to defeat the monster in each of us. A visiting lecturer is lured to the remote, gothic mansion of an estranged professor and his only son, who is described as a monster. But soon, the visitor enters an enchanting new world when he begins reading the son’s hidden manuscript. Part history, part myth, the story conjures a sixteenth-century Sweden in which good and evil clash for the ultimate prize. To attain the throne, the protagonist, Gustav Vasa, accepts the Devil’s counsel, but to remain in power and rule justly, he must drive the Devil underground. This sweeping, masterful tale transports us from the wasted mining hills of Dalarna to the frozen northern country of the Lapps — and into the very heart of the struggle over what it means to be human. This ebook features a new illustrated biography of John Gardner, including original letters, rare photos, and never-before-seen documents from the Gardner family and the University of Rochester Archives

Bond reluctantly finds himself recruited into a dangerous mission involving an equally dangerous and treacherous alliance of agents from the CIA, the KGB and Israel's Mossad. The team dubbed 'Icebreaker' waste no time double crossing each other, as they try to root out the leader of the murderous National Socialist Action Army, Count Konrad von Gloda, a one time SS officer, who now perceives himself as the New Adolf Hitler

An intricately woven fable filled with magical creatures — and astonishing surprises. In this wonderful fantasy, John Gardner weaves tales within tales to bring a magical world to vivid life. When three travelers on their way to the Suicide Mountains meet an enigmatic man, the Abbot of the Ancient Monastery, they begin a series of wild adventures in which they must confront mystical creatures — and come to terms with the roles fate has determined for each of them. Superbly imagined and brimming with philosophical insight, In the Suicide Mountains is a tribute to Gardner’s passion for medieval storytelling, and an unforgettable novel in its own right

A mythological masterpiece about dedication and the disintegration of romantic affection. In this magnificent epic poem, John Gardner renders his interpretation of the ancient story of Jason and Medeia. Confined in the palace of King Creon, and longing to return to his rightful kingdom Iolcus, Jason asks his wife, the sorceress Medeia, to use her powers of enchantment to destroy the tryrant King Pelias. Out of love she acquiesces, only to find that upon her return Jason has replaced her with King Creon’s beautiful daughter, Glauce. An ancient myth fraught with devotion and betrayal, deception and ambition, Jason and Medeia is one of the greatest classical legends, and Gardner’s masterful retelling is yet another achievement for this highly acclaimed author

El Profesor James Moriarty, el Napoleón del crimen, el ilustre archienemigo de Sherlock Holmes, regresa de los Estados Unidos con una fortuna conseguida a fuerza de estafas, fraudes y todo tipo de pillajes. También trae un minucioso y diabólico plan de venganza para quitarse de en medio a sus enemigos, los líderes de los bajos fondos de Europa: Wilhelm Schleifstein, de Berlín; Jean Grisombre, de París; Luigi Sanzionare, de Roma, y Esteban Segorbe, de Madrid. La venganza ha de alcanzar también al inspector Crow, de Scotland Yard, y, sobre todo, al más odioso de sus enemigos: el señor Sherlock Holmes, de Baker Street

LAS NUEVAS AVENTURAS DE SHERLOCK HOLMES Es un homenaje de eminentes autores de misterio -Stephen King, John Gardner, Michael Harrison y otros- realizado en el año 1987 con motivo del centenario de la primera aparición pública de Sherlock Holmes en el Beeton’s Christmas Annual de noviembre de 1887, donde se dieron a conocer los hechos y la resolución del misterio conocido como Un Estudio en Escarlata

Bond is back and he's better than ever… but the 1980's have reached the department as well. Political restraints are squeezing in on the Service. The elite Double-O status, for example, conveying its authority to kill, is being abolished…

Russian terrorists kidnap a man suspected of Nazi war crimes--and get the wrong man. The rebels threaten to kill their captive unless ten million dollars and the real war criminal are delivered to them within 72 hours. Only the KGB's newest secret weapon could possibly stop their plan--Comrade James Bond.  From Kirkus Reviews Gardner rouses himself for more elaborate plotting than usual in his tenth stint as Ian Fleming's stand-in, but Gardner's James Bond, on loan to the KGB for some antiterrorist housecleaning, has aged a lot less gracefully than Sean Connery. A dissident Russian cabal calling itself The Scales of Justice (SoJ) has kidnapped somebody it claims is Josif Vorontsov, notorious second-in-command at Babi Yar, from his home in New Jersey and threatened to assassinate high-level brass hats until the government takes Vorontsov off their hands and places him on trial for war crimes. When the Kremlin denies that SoJ has the real Vorontsov and refuses to recognize his extradition, SoJ begins taking out high-level brass hats, and the KGB asks British Intelligence to let them have somebody--guess who--able to infiltrate SoJ by substituting for two English-speaking recruits. Gardner lays some promising trails--Bond working for the KGB, Bond partnered by Mossad agent Pete Natkowitz, two interloping French agents (one a natural bedmate), the news that SoJ intends to videotape its own free-lance war-crimes trial, and all the usual seductions, killings, double-crosses, flashbacks, and intimations of The End (this time by hard-liners bombing Washington while the US is busy bombing Baghdad)--but the going keeps getting muddier, as if somebody else had finished the book over a third martini (shaken, not stirred). Bond saves the world, gets the woman and the Order of Lenin, and turns in a less muffled performance than in last year's Brokenclaw, though still below average for Gardner's series. Let's not talk about how far below Fleming's average

En su última película, James Bond renuncia a la categoría de 007, abandona el servicio y parte hacia Montecarlo, al volante de su Bentley Mulsanne Turbo, para cumplir una misión distinta a todo lo que había hecho hasta aquel momento. ¿Cómo explicar el súbito cambio de vida del hombre que venía siendo la más elogiada arma defensiva de cuantas ha tenido el Estado británico? ¿Y qué imprevisibles consecuencias tendrá esta decisión para el juego internacional de fuerzas cuyo equilibrio nos permite a los ciudadanos corrientes dormir tranquilos? Bond ha sido nombrado heredero de su tío Bruce, de Australia, con una condición de obligado cumplimiento: tiene que gastar las primeras cien mil libras del legado frívolamente, en actividades censurables cuya elección deja a su albedrío, dentro de un plazo determinado. Y Bond decide conciliar parte de ese mandato con su renovada pasión por ese príncipe de los coches que es el Bentley. Pero su abandono del Servicio exige explicaciones más consistentes. En el Parlamento, la oposición interpela al Ministerio a propósito de fallos en el sistema de seguridad británico encubiertos por el Gobierno. El que se sospeche de él no preocupa tanto a Bond como la posibilidad de que en el esclarecimiento de los hechos su honorabilidad se ponga en tela de juicio. Esta nueva y diabólica trama de John Gardner conduce a James Bond hasta un genio de los ordenadores que traiciona al Pentágono. También le enfrenta a un siniestro ejército mercenario que está fraguando una audaz operación terrorista, y le lleva a un alocado vuelo en zeppelín sobre Ginebra coincidiendo con la celebración de una conferencia en la cumbre de defensa de la paz. Y para salvar su honor, James Bond tendrá que vencer todos esos obstáculos…

James Bond

Durante años, May, el ama de llaves escocesa de James Bond, ha sido la única constante de su agitada existencia. Pero May tiene gravemente dañado el pulmón izquierdo, lo cual provoca en el superagente un paroxismo de preocupación casi filial. Primero un gran especialista londinense y luego la convalecencia en una carísima clínica alemana tranquilizan la conciencia de Bond, pero no consiguen acallar la cáustica lengua del ama de llaves. Bond ha sido advertido de que, en caso de negarse a “colaborar”, la mujer corre el peligro de no celebrar su próximo cumpleaños. Un incidente en el transbordador del Canal de la Mancha -cuando el buque permanece detenido mientras se busca a un par de jóvenes que, al parecer, han caído por la borda- pone inexplicablemente nervioso al famoso superagente. Y pocas horas después de su desembarco en un puerto belga, se produce el primer movimiento de un desconcertante y mortífero juego del gato y el ratón, en el que la presa es precisamente James Bond. ¿Cuál podrá ser el objetivo de la venganza personal tramada por un atacante que Bond no logra identificar? Nunca los mecanismos de defensa del superagente 007 han sido sometidos a más dura prueba que en el momento en que comprende que se ha puesto precio a su cabeza…

When an officer of the British Security Service is murdered in Switzerland, James Bond becomes involved in a deadly game of hide and seek. He follows a sinister shadow across the world, from Athens to Milan, Singapore, the USA and ultimately to EuroDisney. By the author of "Death is Forever". From Publishers Weekly This sketchy detective story requires a knowledge of James Bond movies rather than Ian Fleming novels, which may explain why it reads like a rough draft for a screenplay. In Gardner's 12th 007 book (after Death Is Forever ), the ageless agent from Her Majesty's Secret Service is sent to Switzerland to investigate the murder of MI5 operative Laura March. Teaming up with Swiss agent Flica von Gruss, he discovers that March's brother was a serial killer and that her ex-lover was legendary English actor David Dragonpol, now retired and living in a fairy-tale castle on the Rhine. Dragonpol's sister, Maeve Horton, proves to be the link between March's death and four recent assassinations; a Bleeding Heart rose bred by Horton appeared at the funeral of each of the victims, March included. Bond and von Gruss pursue the case to Dragonpol's castle in Germany, where the usual fiendish plot is uncovered and ultimately resolved in the traditional Bond manner. This light, entertaining read doesn't pretend to be anything more than another episode in what has turned into a never-ending adventure.  From Kirkus Reviews Like Pentagon dinosaurs laboring to adapt to a new world order by finding telltale traces of the old in every dark shadow, Gardner's reincarnation of James Bond examines a string of serial killings and finds a freelance terrorist just as dangerous as his old adversaries from SMERSH and SPECTRE. Bond's called in when MI5 agent Laura March is killed at Interlaken. Going through the things in her hotel room, he and Flicka Von Grsse, his leggy opposite number from Swiss Intelligence, find a disturbing letter from Laura to her late brother, a serial beheader of blonds, and fax a copy back to M. While they're coupling in Bond's room, the letter itself is stolen, and M, citing the ``grave moral scandal'' (so much for updating Bond's morality), ostensibly removes Bond from duty. Back in England for Laura's funeral, Bond notices a bizarre floral tribute--a red-tipped white rose--linking Laura's death to four other recent assassinations, and to the flower's only breeder: Maeve Horton, sister of Laura's onetime fianc‚, distinguished actor David Dragonpol. There follow the requisite scenes of tourist-trap mayhem--at Schloss Drache, Dragonpol's Alpine aerie, atop the roof of the Duomo in Milan, and at EuroDisney, where the murderer has planned one last, ultra-high-profile strike--but Gardner's lack of conviction reduces everything to retro-fluff. Bond really isn't cut out for the work of tracking down serial killers, even the ones whose targets include Yasir Arafat and Kiri Te Kanawa. As Gardner struggles to update the perils his superstar hero faces, Bond himself remains the biggest anachronism of all.  

John Gardner's most poignant novel of improbable love. At the heart of John Gardner's Nickel Mountain is an uncommon love story: when at 42, the obese, anxious and gentle Henry Soames marries seventeen-year-old Callie Wells — who is pregnant with the child of a local boy — it is much more than years which define the gulf between them. But the beauty of this novel is the gradual revelation of the bond that develops as this unlikely couple experiences courtship and marriage, the birth of a son, isolation, forgiveness, work, and death in a small Catskill community in the 1950s. The plot turns on tragic events — they might be accidents or they might be acts of will — involving a cast of rural eccentrics that includes a lonely amputee veteran, a religious hysteric (thought by some to be the devil himself) and an itinerant "Goat Lady." Questions of guilt, innocence, and even murder are eclipsed by deeds of compassion, humility, and redemption, and ultimately by Henry Soames' quiet discovery of grace. Novelist William H. Gass, a friend and colleague of the author, has written an introduction that shines new light on the work and career of the much praised but often misunderstood John Gardner

The world's most famous spy is being hunted by the KGB, and he will need all his wits to negotiate the labyrinth of double-crosses that will lead him to a showdown in a remote corner of Hong Kong. Between the Danish island of Bornholm and the Baltic coast of East Germany a nuclear submarine of the Royal Navy surfaces under the cloak of darkness. James Bond and two marines slip quietly from the forward hatch into their powered inflatable raft and set off for a lonely beach where they are to collect two young women. Planted to seduce communist agents to run for cover in the West, they have been rumbled by the other side. Bond little knows that this routine exercise is but the prelude to a nerve-racking game of bluff and double bluff, played with consummate skill by his own chief M against the East German HVA and the elite branch of the KGB, formed from Bond's old adversary SMERSH. The KGB is soon on the scene, but nothing is what it seems, and Bond finds he needs all his wits to negotiate the labyrinth of double-crosses that will lead him to a bewildering showdown in a remote corner of the Kowloon province of Hong Kong. There, with only the trusted belt of secret weapons specially devised by Q branch, he has to fight a terrifying duel in the dark, with all the cards in the hands of his opponents

En Route to retrieve his faithful housekeeper, May, from a European health clinic where she is recovering from an illness, Bond is warned by the British Secret Service that Tamil Rahani, the current leader of SPECTRE, now dying from wounds suffered during his last encounter with Bond, has put a price on Bond's head

The setting is a farm on Prospect Mountain in Vermont. The central characters are an old man and an old woman, brother and sister, living together in profound conflict

James Bond, como sucediera antes con Sherlock Holmes, se ha convertido en un mito del siglo veinte. Cuando en la década de los ochenta John Gardner resucitó -con la debida autorización legal-, el personaje de James Bond, dotado para la ocasión de una sensibilidad inédita hacia la salud pública y la ecología, amén de un coche nuevo y de un gesto de comprensión hacia el feminismo, su libro License Renewed pasó a ocupar directamente el número uno entre los títulos más vendidos a uno y otro lado del Atlántico. Según el Daily Telegraph, el mismo Fleming “no hubiese quedado decepcionado”. Un segundo libro que narraba las aventuras actualizadas de Bond, For Special Services, disfrutó incluso de mejor acogida por parte del público, y durante muchos meses se mantuvo en las listas de bestsellers de Estados Unidos. En la obra que ahora nos ocupa, vemos a Bond embarcado en una tercera misión de la mano de John Gardner. Se trata de una arriesgadísima operación que el superespía lleva a cabo junto con sus respectivos pares de Israel, Estados Unidos y la Unión Soviética -es decir, con el Mossad, la CIA y la KGB- en las vastas y desoladas tierras árticas de Laponia. Pero surgen los interrogantes: aunque en teoría el enemigo común es el fascismo, que brota con renovada fuerza de la mano del conde Von Gloda, ¿a quién hay que temer en realidad? ¿Se puede confiar en que el Smersh soviético resista su afán de desquite contra Bond? ¿Quién hace el doble juego: Brad Tirpitz, el escurridizo agente norteamericano, o Rivke Ingber, la voluptuosa espía israelí? ¿Pretenden los servicios secretos finlandeses utilizar a Bond con el único objeto de aliviar el sofocante abrazo que la KGB -con Kolya Mosolov a la cabeza- mantiene sobre su frágil autonomía nacional? Nunca hasta hoy se había topado Bond con un grupo de colaboradores tan fríamente desleales ni soportado una sucesión tan asombrosa de mortales enfrentamientos

James Bond

To the public, Sir Maxwell Tarn is known as a powerful self-made billionaire. To British intelligence, he is known as an international arms-dealer. Spreading blood and terror, the Americans call him Apocalypse. To James Bond and his partner Flicka, he's a maniac who must be stopped-because within reunited Germany, an army of thousands knows him as "der Fuhrer."

Gardner’s relentlessly honest and moving portrayal of a broken marriage, and his ambitious unfinished masterpiece — a metafictional mystery centering around one man’s struggle to recover his lost identity — together in one accomplished volume Stillness: Martin and Joan Orrick — distant cousins who have known each other since early childhood — are in the final throes of a failing marriage. Martin is a compulsive drinker who obsesses about his writing, and Joan is struggling with a debilitating physical condition. Together they search for some type of collective identity, and identify where the dissolution of their love began. Inspired by therapy sessions Gardner experienced with his first wife, Stillness is an insightful portrait of one couple’s struggle for fulfillment in a tumultuous world. Private detective Gerald Craine is pursuing an unknown murderer. At the same time, he himself is the target of an unknown person’s pursuit. Stumbling through an alcohol-soaked haze, Craine desperately seeks meaning and understanding in a world fraught with fragmented narratives. Shadows: John Gardner’s friend Nicholas Delbanco has supplemented this unfinished novel with seven sections from Gardner’s original manuscript that provide critical insight into Gardner’s approach to developing the novel and its characters, giving a rare glimpse inside the creative process of one of the twentieth century’s most inventive writers. This ebook features a new illustrated biography of John Gardner, including original letters, rare photos, and never-before-seen documents from the Gardner family and the University of Rochester Archives

The first collection in seven years from one of America's most celebrated and admired writers-ten wonderful short (and long) stories that allow us to explore and enjoy once again the many facets of John Gardner's unique fictional world. Here are enchanting tales about queens and kings and princesses in magical, timeless lands; marvelously warm and funny stories that move, amuse, and enlighten us as they probe the mysterious and profound relation between art and life

An iconic collection that showcases Gardner as a master craftsman navigating an uncertain world. In this exceptional book, author John Gardner explores the literary form as a vehicle of vision, and creates heroes that personify his tremendous artistic ideals: A Boston schoolmaster abandons his dreams of owning a farmhouse in rural Illinois only to be taken on a voyage across the seas and into self-discovery, faith, and love; an artist’s rapturous enthusiasm inspires an aging university professor to approach life’s chaotic moments as opportunities for creation. Each of these stories is wonderful in its own right, and provides valuable insight into the author’s literary beliefs. Written just prior to his critical masterwork, On Moral Fiction, The King’s Indian is a must-read for those interested in learning more about Gardner’s highly controversial artistic philosophies. This ebook features a new illustrated biography of John Gardner, including original letters, rare photos, and never-before-seen documents from the Gardner family and the University of Rochester Archives

John Gardner’s sweeping portrait of the collision of opposing philosophical perspectives in 1960s America, centering on the appearance of a mysterious stranger in a small upstate New York town. One summer day, a countercultural drifter known only as the Sunlight Man appears in Batavia, New York. Jailed for painting the word “LOVE” across two lanes of traffic, the Sunlight Man encounters Fred Clumly, a sixty-four-year-old town sheriff. Throughout the course of this impressive narrative, the dialogue between these two men becomes a microcosm of the social unrest that epitomized America during this significant historical period — and culminates in an unforgettable ending. Beautifully expansive and imbued with exceptional social insight, The Sunlight Dialogues is John Gardner’s most ambitious work andestablished him as one of the most important fiction writers in post — World War II America

Laid to waste by drink, Agathon, a seer, is a shell of a man. He sits imprisoned with his apprentice, Peeker, for his presumed involvement in a rebellion against the Spartan tyrant Lykourgos. Confined to a cell, the men produce extraordinary writings that illustrate the stories of their lives and give witness to Agathon’s deterioration and the growth of Peeker from a bashful young apprentice to a self-assured and passionate seer. Captivating and imaginative, The Wreckage of Agathon is a tribute to author John Gardner’s passion for ancient storytelling and those universal themes that span the course of all human civilization

James Bond 007 reluctantly returns to active service, his mission to protect an observer of a NATO exercise, Admiral Sergei Yevgennevich Pauker, Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy. From Publishers Weekly Fortunately for Gardner, dyed-in-the wool James Bond fans may be disposed to overlook the lack of credibility and characterization in this latest thriller featuring the superspy. The leaders of Britain, Russia and the U.S. are planning a top-secret summit aboard HMS Invincible . We never learn what they want to talk about, but we do know that BAST (Brotherhood of Anarchy and Secret Terror) is up to some high-level nastiness. Alerted to the threat, British Intelligence sends James Bond to protect the "heads of state." Promoted to captain, Bond is trained on Harrier jump-jets, and narrowly escapes death when a Sidewinder missile intercepts his flight path. Human menaces include "the Cat," a mysterious female terrorist, and "the Viper," head of BAST. A lot of huffing, puffing, padding ("Bond has not shown all his cards") and sloppy writing ("the first kind of ship of her type") occur before a limp confrontation that takes place inside the Rock of Gibraltar, with chief villain Bassam Baradj, inanely "born plain Robert Besavitsky, in the old Hell's Kitchen area of New York."