Eighteen-year-old Alexandra Gold is a Seduman: her humanity and compassion come from her deceased human mother, and her powers over spirit fire and super-human strength from her demon-like Sedu father. Collecting the first three novels in The Sedumen Chronicles, this volume includes: Firebird Alex: When Alex unearths her father's Sedu blade, it sets in motion a journey that challenges everything she thought she was. Rescuing her friends from another Seduman gives her a taste of the heroine she might become. Lady Firebird: Her old nemesis, down but not out, executes a horrific plan to conquer both Earth and Sediin. It's up to Alex to assume the mantle of Lady Firebird and hunt her adversary across universes. Firebird Vengeance: Just when Alex thought she'd won, she discovers her victory has unleashed a horrible vengeance that threatens to destroy human and Sedu alike. In order to save everyone, she must convince skeptics in both universes that she truly is the heroine that she claims to be. Also in this collection Firebird Manor: In this bonus novelette, Alex and her friends unwittingly awaken a murderous eldritch horror in a beachside manor. They must defeat the monster before it kills again.

The opposite of life isn't death; it is lifelessness. Firebird Alex died. When she was brought back to life, Alex discovered that she could communicate with all living things—the very life force itself. But with resurrection, comes responsibility—Life compels Alex to fight it's enemies. And Life's biggest enemy is the Cult of the Watchers. They destroy everything, leaving only lifelessness. The Cult of the Watchers has beaten Alex at every turn, leaving her bloody and broken, but everyone depends on Firebird Alex to be their champion. There's no amount of torment she won't endure to succeed. She won't fail her friends and those she's sworn to protect. She won’t waste her second chance.

Half-human, half-Seduman Firebird Alex has fought hard to build a family and a team of heroes in two universes: the material universe, and the spirit universe of Sediin. Now the Cult of the Watchers and their inhuman Nephilim threaten everything she has worked so hard to create, and everyone she loves and champions. Collecting books 4-6 in The Sedumen Chronicles, this boxed set includes: Stinger and Bow: Thirteen-year-old Rachel, known as the Seduman Stinger, needs a new crossbow. After the shock and trauma she's suffered, she also needs a vacation from being a heroine, so she can just be a teenager. Can she manage both? Watcher and Firebird: Alex had never heard of the Nephilim until they started stalking her soul sister, Rachel. Now they're trying to murder everyone she loves. Firebird Alex has to find out who they are and stop them before they destroy everyone and everything she cares about. Firebird Champion: The opposite of life isn't death; it's lifelessness. Given a second chance to live, Firebird Alex is tasked with being life's champion and eliminating the Nephilim before they eliminate the very life force of the world. Also featured in this collection: a glossary of terms and characters.

Stinger needs a new crossbow. Thirteen year-old Rachel Silver—or as she's known to the world, Stinger—needs a new crossbow. Her last bow failed her when she needed it most. Besides, Firebird Alex, her aunt and fellow Seduman—half-human, half-spirit being—wields a Sedu blade, made with spirit magic. So Stinger designs herself a magic crossbow, then convinces her best friends to accompany her around the world and into the universe of Sediin to find the right craftsmen to have it made. Trouble is, warriors attract people who want to challenge them, whether they're ready or not. Stinger is still tormented by her last battle—she's suffering night-terrors, shakes, and cold sweats. When the situation turns deadly, will she be able to come to grips with her trauma and become the warrior she needs to be to save her friends?

Alex knows she's different; other girls don't burst into flames when they get angry. After she nearly burned the house down when she was twelve, her mother confessed that her father was a demon. Now eighteen and mourning the death of her mother, Alex sinks inside herself until she discovers a dagger that can open a portal into her father's realm. Although she yearns to meet her father, nothing terrifies her more. When an unknown threat from across the portal menaces her friends and her loved ones, Alex knows she must act. Alex will do anything to save her friends—even risk appealing to her father in his strange universe of bizarre creatures, unfamiliar alliances, and unimagined power. She knows that to face a tormentor from across the portal, she'll need to learn to fight fire with fire.

'You should definitely read Jack McDevitt' Gregory Benford Forty-one years ago, renowned physicist Dr. Christopher Robin vanished. Before his disappearance, his fringe science theories about the existence of endless alternate universes had earned him both admirers and enemies. Now his widow has died and Alex Benedict has been asked to handle the auction of the physicist's artifacts - leading the public to once again speculate on the mystery surrounding Robin's disappearance. Did he finally find the door between parallel universes that he had long sought? Intrigued, Alex Benedict and Chase Kolpath embark on their own investigation as they follow the missing man's trail into the unknown to uncover the truth - a truth people are willing to kill to protect...

A new Alex Benedict novel from "a master of describing otherworldly grandeur." (Denver Post) Forty-one years ago the renowned physicist Chris Robin vanished. Before his disappearance, his fringe science theories about the existence of endless alternate universes had earned him both admirers and enemies. Alex Benedict and Chase Kolpath discover that Robin had several interstellar yachts flown far outside the planetary system where they too vanished. And following Robin's trail into the unknown puts Benedict and Kolpath in danger...

THE FIREBIRD AFFAIR centers on the suspicious death of Emily, the beautiful wife of WASHINGTON TRIBUNE correspondent Todd Martin. In 1991, she collapsed over lunch with a friend in a Moscow restaurant. A massive heart attack, Moscow authorities said and the US Embassy concurred. They shipped her body home to the US, without Todd even being aware she had died. He was out of contact covering one of the conflicts flaring up as the Soviet Union disintegrated. But Todd has managed to rebuild his life; he's now the TRIBUNE's chess columnist, from time to time drifting in and out of depression. He has always been doubtful Emily's death was an accident. His estranged son Rick is certain his mother was murdered, and blames his father for failing to protect her. By 2002, Todd gets an opportunity to establish the truth after a Russian spy approaches the CIA wanting to defect. The spy reveals the existence of a KGB mole inside the US government. He also alleges that the KGB played a role in Emily's death by sneaking a psychotropic drug into her drink. Holz, the former Moscow CIA station chief, now a senior CIA official, offers Todd the chance to go to Moscow on a rogue mission to uncover the traitor's identity. Todd undertakes the mission that leads him as well as Holz to confront wholly unexpected results. THE FIREBIRD AFFAIR explores the consequences of duplicity and betrayal, in both Moscow and Washington. It revolves around the actual KGB-led plot to remove Gorbachev from power, capturing the drama of the last months of Cold War and the subsequent changes in our public life.

Firebird Alex didn’t know much about the Nephilim until they assassinated her friend in the United States government, kidnapped the man she considers her uncle, and tried to murder her—twice. Now she's learned that they, and their leader "the Watcher,” will stop at nothing to kill her, everyone she loves, and every Seduman on Earth. Alex must stop their murderous plans even if it means compromising the heroine she’s become.

When eighteen-year old half-demon Alexandra Gold uses her firebird spirit to save the soul of a murdered girl, it brings her to the attention of the most powerful beings in her parallel universe. At first, she believes this is a blessing. When she discovers that she has been the unwitting pawn of an ancient vengeance that intends to destroy every living human and demon in both universes, she realizes that she's been cursed. This ancient vengeance has the power to re-animate the dead and use them to murder the living—and for each of the thirty-six most righteous human beings it murders, the more powerful it becomes. Alex is determined to protect the thirty-six and save both worlds, but she cannot defeat Vengeance alone. All she has is her demon blade, her spirit fire, and her wits—to prevail, she must convince those humans and demons who are terrified and blame her for this catastrophe to help her.