Showing results by author "Lauren Beukes" in All Categories

Written for audio format, this collection of six science fiction stories draw on themes of arrival, discovery and destination. Commissioned especially for Audible, and narrated by outstanding performers, these stories evoke the traditional storytelling of West African Jali as the unknown and distant are brought to life for audiences.

The girl who wouldn’t die, hunting a killer who shouldn’t exist… A terrifying and original serial-killer thriller from award-winning author, Lauren Beukes.“It’s not my fault. It’s yours. You shouldn’t shine. You shouldn’t make me do this.”Chicago 1931. Harper Curtis, a violent drifter, stumbles on a house with a secret as shocking as his own twisted nature – it opens onto other times. He uses it to stalk his carefully chosen 'shining girls' through the decades – and cut the spark out of them.

What's really going on? Who's really in charge? You have NO. F***KING. IDEA. In the near future, an art-school dropout, an AIDS baby, a tech-activist, and an RPG-obsessed blogger live in a world where your online identity is at least as important as your physical one. Getting disconnected is a punishment worse than imprisonment, but someone's got to stand up to Government Inc. - whatever the cost.

In infinite parallel universes, there's a version of you who already has everything you've ever wanted. But 24-year-old drop-out Bridge is paralysed, by all the other lives she could have lived, the choices she could have made and now, whoever she's supposed to be in the wake of her mother's premature death. They've always had a complicated relationship. Jo was the teenage runaway turned maverick neuroscientist who threw everything away chasing after an impossibility—a mysterious artefact—the dreamworm—that allows you to switch between realities.

Actor and sex worker Nats is experienced at putting on a show. However, her new gig supplying intimate whispers for growgirls takes her to a place darker and lonelier than she could have ever imagined. The lab-grown dolls can respond to pleasure or pain; their synthetic heads contain only the simplest AI to prevent any pesky robo sex doll uprisings. But just because growgirls don’t have a brain, doesn’t mean they don’t have a voice...

Three years after a virus wiped out 99 percent of the men on earth, a mother and son are on the run. All Cole has left in the world is her boy, Miles. With men now a prised commodity, keeping him safe means breaking hastily written new rules - and leaving her own sister for dead. All Miles has left in the world is his mother.

Depuis qu'elle travaille à Detroit, département des Homicides, l'inspectrice Gabriella Versado ne s'était jamais trouvée face à une telle monstruosité : un jeune garçon mutilé, le haut de son corps mêlé aux membres inférieurs d'un cerf. Profondément remuée, Gabi se lance à la recherche du macabre sculpteur. Pendant ce temps, sa fille, Layla, qu'elle délaisse trop souvent, se met en tête de débusquer des pervers sur Internet avec sa meilleure amie. Sa mère ne se doute pas un instant que l'adolescente est à deux doigts de tomber entre les mains du psychopathe, un fou qui se rêve artiste.

Chicago, 1930. Lee Harper ist kaltblütig, hochgefährlich, von Wahnvorstellungen getrieben. Er findet den Schlüssel zu einem alten Haus, dessen Türen sich zur Zukunft öffnen. Im Schlafzimmer sind die Bilder von neun jungen Mädchen aufgereiht, die seltsam zu leuchten scheinen. Harper spürt, dass er dazu bestimmt ist, die Mädchen zu töten. Von nun an reist er durch die Zeit, um seine Shining Girls aufzuspüren. Niemand kann ihn auf seinem mörderischen Feldzug stoppen.

Zinzi December has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam habit, and a talent for finding lost things. But when a little old lady turns up dead and the cops confiscate her last paycheck, she’s forced to take on her least favourite kind of job: missing persons.

La detective Gabriella Versado ha visto molti cadaveri. Ma questo è unico anche per gli standard di Detroit: per metà ragazzo e metà cervo, fusi insieme. Con la scoperta di cadaveri sempre più strani e inquietanti, come farà la città a resistere a una realtà che si sta già lacerando? Se siete Layla, la figlia adolescente secchiona della detective Versado, inizierete un pericoloso flirt con un potenziale predatore online. Se siete il disperato giornalista freelance Jonno, farete di tutto per ottenere l’esclusiva su una storia sconvolgente.

 La maggior parte degli uomini è morta. Tre anni dopo la pandemia nota come Manfall, i governi resistono ancora e la vita continua, ma un mondo gestito da donne non è sempre un posto migliore. Il dodicenne Miles è uno degli ultimi ragazzi in vita e sua madre, Cole, lo proteggerà a tutti i costi. In fuga dopo un orribile atto di violenza – e perseguitata dalla sua stessa sorella spietata, Billie – tutto ciò che Cole vuole è crescere suo figlio da qualche parte in cui non sarà una semplice risorsa riproduttiva o un oggetto sessuale. Un posto chiamato casa...

Chicago, 1931. Prima di trovare la Casa Harper Curtis era uno dei tanti vagabondi in una città schiacciata dalla Depressione. Poi una voce lo attira in quella che sembra solo una villa in rovina, e la sua vita cambia per sempre. Le porte della Casa permettono di viaggiare nel tempo e lui incomincia ad assaporare le meraviglie del futuro. Ma Harper Curtis è anche un uomo violento e crudele, un sadico, e a farne le spese sono giovani donne, forti, indipendenti e ricche di talento.

Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam habit and a talent for finding lost things. But when a little old lady turns up dead and the cops confiscate her last paycheque, she's forced to take on her least favourite kind of job - missing persons. Being hired by reclusive music producer Odi Huron to find a pop star should be her ticket out of Zoo City, the festering slum where the criminal underclass and their animal companions reside.

In a troubling, near-future Cape Town four broken people try to carve out a place for themselves before a brutal storm of change hits them. Kendra, an art-school dropout, brands herself for a nanotech marketing program. Lerato, an ambitious AIDS baby, plots to defect from her corporate employers. Tendeka, a hot-headed activist, is becoming increasingly rabid. Toby, a roguish blogger, discovers that the video games he plays for cash are much more than they seem.