Tracing the career of a writer of uncertain parentage and omnivorous erotic tastes, Answered Prayers careens from a louche bar in Tangiers to a banquette at La Côte Basque, from literary salons to high-priced whorehouses. It takes in calculating beauties and sadistic husbands along with such real-life supporting characters as Colette, the Duchess of Windsor, Montgomery Clift, and Tallulah Bankhead. Above all, this malevolently funny book displays Capote at his most relentlessly observant and murderously witty.

Two centuries ago, the First Expansionary Fleet set off to the farthest reaches of the galaxy, hoping to explore, colonize, and conquer new worlds in the name of humanity. But when the fleet was violently and unexpectedly thrown off course, the colonists found themselves trapped in an unexplored region of the galaxy—and caught right in the middle of a bloody interstellar war. Now, after generations of relentless fighting, a tentative truce has finally ushered in an era of growth and prosperity.

Natasha is a student from a nomadic Siberia tribe trying to adjust to her new life in New York and fit in. But when a cataclysmic solar storm slams into the planet, everything changes.

Liza Day’s mother isn’t dead, but leave it to Darla Day to throw herself a funeral anyway. It’s the kind of attention grab Liza left behind to build a quiet life for herself and her rebellious teenage daughter, Avery. But between her students discovering her old daytime TV show—putting her teaching job at risk—and her mother’s unexpected funeral invitation, Liza’s life feels truly like a soap opera.

Whilst trying to extricate himself from a deadly situation involving a local businessman, Drew, a 33-years-old ex-soldier witnesses an alien takeover, a silent invasion, in Dumbarton, Scotland. The worldwide result of this, because it happened everywhere, is the depopulation of Earth by more than 98%. Alien towers and barriers, inaccessible to humans, now exist where once stood cities and towns.

Colonel Silas Ford has everything he could want: a beautiful wife, a successful career as a fighter pilot, and a contented life. But his world is about to come crashing down. When failing eyesight grounds him, Silas is reassigned to the Pentagon’s enigmatic All-Domain Anomalies Resolution Office, tasked with investigating Unidentified Aerial Phenomena or UAP. As a seasoned pilot, Silas has encountered aircraft that defy modern technology and the laws of physics, transforming his skepticism into a reluctant belief in extraterrestrial life.

Una Hartstone, Princess of Issos, learns the price the Wraith King demands to end the war once and for all—Her. In exchange for the safety of her people, she agrees to give her life—and her body—to her greatest enemy. Gollaya Verbane is determined to fulfill his destiny and his god's prophecy. When his seer points to the Princess of Issos as the key to the rise of the dark fae, he demands her submission. But when she finally yields, he realizes Una is much more to him than a priceless weapon.

Freydis is the leader of a band of Viking warriors who get as far as Panama. Nobody knows what became of them. Five hundred years later, Christopher Columbus is sailing for the Americas, dreaming of gold and conquest. Even after he is captured by the Tainos, his faith in his superiority and his mission is unshaken. Thirty-nine years after that, Atahualpa, the last Inca emperor, arrives in Europe.

At age 10, Jenni Farrow and her new best friend, Timmy Caruso, enjoy a glorious summer on Pearl Island filled with fireworks, beach days, and carnival rides (not to mention that strange sea creature they rescue from a tide pool). Then, one late summer day, Timmy disappears. Thirty years later, Jenni—now Jenn Lanaro, best-selling author of the Philipia Bay action-romance series—is desperate to escape the fatigue of her career and her soon-to-be-ex-husband.

The daughter of a Taiwanese father and white mother, Vi Liu has never quite fit into her Midwestern college town. Aimless after getting dumped by her boyfriend and dropping out of college, Vi works at the front desk of a hotel where she greets guests, refills cucumber water samovars, and tries to evade her bubbly blond coworker, Rachel. Little does Vi know her life is about to be permanently transformed when she agrees to a night out with Rachel. In the alley outside the bar, Vi discovers a strange blob—a small living creature with beady black eyes.