Lewis "Lew" Wallace was a lawyer, governor, Union general in the American Civil War, and American statesman. He is best remembered for Ben-Hur, an historical fiction set amongst the characters of the New Testament. It was America's best selling novel for nearly sixty years after it's publication.

Follow the wikipedia link to see a great photo of the author.

Burn won the 2007 Nebula for Best Novella.

"The warm humanity and rural sympathies of this affectionate winsome short novel will make many recall Ray Bradbury at his best" -- From Booklist

"James patrick Kelly's fine new short novel Burn combines maturity with the adventurous spirit of youth, as though the Mark Twain of Huckleberry Finn had come back with a yen to write science fiction." -- Faren Miller, Locus

Mayer Alan Brenner's "The Dance of Gods" series was published by DAW Books in the 1990s. A witty and intelligent science / fantasy crossover, Pratchett meets Zelazny meets Douglas Adams, it also prefigures Charles Stross in interesting ways. The series follows a cluster of raffish characters through overlapping and colliding story lines in a wonderfully realized world.

"The humour was never farcical, always intelligent, but there was a certain madcap, slyness to it which I haven't experienced in fantasy for quite a while. Some scenes had me laughing out loud -- not good when traveling with a bunch of strangers, but a perfect remedy to Life..." -- The Book Swede

Don Quixote's imagination has been captured by tales of chivalry, to the point where he becomes quite mad and believes that he is a knight errant. Together with his sidekick Sancho Panza, and filled with misguided chivalric impulses, he embarks on travel and adventure. Don Quixote is a humorous parody of chivalric romance literature. Its characters and language have become widely entrenched in western language and literature. Groundbreaking and influential, it is considered by many to be one of the greatest books of all time.

The lives of the poor and downtrodden during early 19th century France was, as this title suggests, miserable. This story by Victor Hugo centres on ex-convict Jean Valjean who is determined to escape his past and redeem himself. But a minor misdemeanour and a persistent policeman, Javert, puts Jean Valjean's efforts under constant threat. His freedom means that he is able to uphold his vow to look after, Cosette, the infant daughter of a prostitute. But what price freedom? Les Miserables brings us a story with history, love, moral arguments and much, much more. Powerful social commentary, moving and very touching.

Widely seen as Eliot's greatest work, it is almost unanimously acclaimed as one of the great Victorian era novels. George Eliot (aka Mary Anne Evans) interweaves the diverse lives and changing fortunes in a provincial community to create a richly nuanced and moving drama. Hailed by Virginia Woolf in The Times Literary Supplement, 1919 as 'one of the few English novels written for grown-up people'.