Introducing Gideon Crew: trickster, prodigy, master thief

GIDEON'S SWORD

At twelve, Gideon Crew witnessed his father, a world-class mathematician, accused of treason and gunned down.

At twenty-four, summoned to his dying mother's bedside, Gideon learned the truth: His father was framed and deliberately slaughtered. With her last breath, she begged her son to avenge him.

Now, with a new purpose in his life, Gideon crafts a one-time mission of vengeance, aimed at the perpetrator of his father's destruction. His plan is meticulous, spectacular, and successful.

But from the shadows, someone is watching. A very powerful someone, who is impressed by Gideon's special skills. Someone who has need of just such a renegade.

For Gideon, this operation may be only the beginning . . .

In Douglas Preston's Blasphemy, the world's biggest supercollider, locked in an Arizona mountain, was built to reveal the secrets of the very moment of creation: the Big Bang itself.

The Torus is the most expensive machine ever created by humankind, run by the world's most powerful supercomputer. It is the brainchild of Nobel Laureate William North Hazelius. Will the Torus divulge the mysteries of the creation of the universe? Or will it, as some predict, suck the earth into a mini black hole? Or is the Torus a Satanic attempt, as a powerful televangelist decries, to challenge God Almighty on the very throne of Heaven?

Twelve scientists under the leadership of Hazelius are sent to the remote mountain to turn it on, and what they discover must be hidden from the world at all costs. Wyman Ford, ex-monk and CIA operative, is tapped to wrest their secret, a secret that will either destroy the world…or save it.

The countdown begins…

This edition of the book is the deluxe, tall rack mass market paperback.

Harry Bosch has been given three years before he must retire from the LAPD, and he wants cases more fiercely than ever. In one morning, he gets two.

DNA from a 1989 rape and murder matches a 29-year-old convicted rapist. Was he an eight-year-old killer or has something gone terribly wrong in the new Regional Crime Lab? The latter possibility could compromise all of the lab's DNA cases currently in court.

Then Bosch and his partner are called to a death scene fraught with internal politics. Councilman Irvin Irving's son jumped or was pushed from a window at the Chateau Marmont. Irving, Bosch's longtime nemesis, has demanded that Harry handle the investigation.

Relentlessly pursuing both cases, Bosch makes two chilling discoveries: a killer operating unknown in the city for as many as three decades, and a political conspiracy that goes back into the dark history of the police department.

This #1 bestselling legal thriller from Michael Connelly is a stunning display of novelistic mastery - as human, as gripping, and as whiplash-surprising as any novel yet from the writer Publishers Weekly has called "today's Dostoevsky of crime literature."

Mickey Haller is a Lincoln Lawyer, a criminal defense attorney who operates out of the backseat of his Lincoln Town Car, traveling between the far-flung courthouses of Los Angeles to defend clients of every kind. Bikers, con artists, drunk drivers, drug dealers - they're all on Mickey Haller's client list. For him, the law is rarely about guilt or innocence, it's about negotiation and manipulation. Sometimes it's even about justice.

A Beverly Hills playboy arrested for attacking a woman he picked up in a bar chooses Haller to defend him, and Mickey has his first high-paying client in years. It is a defense attorney's dream, what they call a franchise case. And as the evidence stacks up, Haller comes to believe this may be the easiest case of his career. Then someone close to him is murdered and Haller discovers that his search for innocence has brought him face-to-face with evil as pure as a flame. To escape without being burned, he must deploy every tactic, feint, and instinct in his arsenal - this time to save his own life.

FROM THE #1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE BOSCH SERIES AND THE LINCOLN LAWYER SERIES

"Michael Connelly...has the nerve and timing of a whole SWAT team."--New York Times

"Michael Connelly...adds the intricate plotting and perfect-pitch dialogue that keeps The Scarecrow scary. Together, they hook the reader early and never let up."--Philadelphia Inquirer

"An addictive read that, once it grabs you in those first few pages, won't let go of you."--Boston Globe 

Forced out of the Los Angeles Times amid the latest budget cuts, newspaperman Jack McEvoy decides to go out with a bang, using his final days at the paper to write the definitive murder story of his career. 

He focuses on Alonzo Winslow, a sixteen-year-old drug dealer in jail after confessing to a brutal murder. But as he delves into the story, Jack realizes that Winslow's so-called confession is bogus. The kid might actually be innocent.

Jack is soon running with his biggest story since The Poet made his career years ago. He is tracking a killer who operates completely below police radar-and with perfect knowledge of any move against him. Including Jack's.

Join forces with legendary heroes to brave the many dangers of a cavernous dungeon. Wield potent weapons and magic. Conquer hordes of vile monsters. Discover fabulous treasures! Warhammer Quest: The Adventure Card Game is a cooperative game of heroic dungeon adventures for one to four players. Players assume the roles of some of the Old World's most iconic heroes, then venture into the shadows to battle ghouls, Goblins, Skaven, giant bats, swarms of rats and other monsters. Can you survive their relentless onslaught? Can you press deeper into their lair to find the evil villain that drives them forward? There are only two ways for your quest to end - in death or in glory.

• A cooperative adventure card game based upon the classic Warhammer Quest dungeon crawl
• One to four players confront the unknown perils of a subterranean dungeon and battle hordes of vile monsters
• Assume the role of a legendary hero, complete with distinctive powers
• Upgrade your hero with new talents and treasures
• Massive replayability with a five-part campaign and random dungeon generator

The Mage Knight Board Game throws you and up to three other Mage Knights into the sprawling and ever changing world of the Atlantean Empire, a land that is but a distant memory since your transformation into a mysterious Mage Knight. Build your armies, defeat bands of marauding enemies, and eventually conquer cities in the name of the mysterious Void Council. Designed by renowned designer Vlaada Chvatil, Mage Knight is a game of Epic Exploration and Conquest that mixes character development, intrigue, and the clashing of swords to create a truly unique gaming experience.

Created by the Renowned Game Designer, Vlaada Chvatil, Mage Knight is a game of Epic Exploration and Conquest that mixes character development, intrigue, and the clashing of swords to create a truly unique gaming experience. Enter the mysterious world of the Atlantean Empire as 1 of 4 Heroes (or villians) in this expansive world that allows players to conquer lands, steer the wheels of history and give birth to legends in this exciting all in one board game. Choose to play competitively or cooperatively with other players as you roam the countryside affecting your own reputation by beingeither the benevolent leader or brutal tyrant. Accumulate Fame and experience that translate into more powerful Spells and abilities, then use your power to influence units to join your ranks. Will you play the Hero and gain favor among the people or will you destroy monasteries to steal Legendary artifacts hidden within?

Suspense and passion collide in Los Angeles in this contemporary suspense novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Catherine Coulter. 

“This terrific thriller will drag you into its chilling web of terror and not let go until the last paragraph…A ripping good read.”—The San Francisco Examiner

Mary Lisa Beverly plays the woman everyone loves to hate. A soap-opera phenom, she's just won her third Daytime Emmy for her role as Sunday Cavendish on Born to Be Wild. But the drama grows all too real when someone tries to kill her—and she must turn to the last man she’d expect to help her…

FEAR NEVER DIES

Theodore Glenn loves to inflict pain . . . both on his victims and on those who later find the mutilated corpses. At his trial seven years ago, Glenn vowed vengeance on Detective Will Hooper, the cop who nabbed him, and beautiful Robin McKenna, the stripper whose testimony put him behind bars. 

When a catastrophic disaster sets Glenn free, he blazes a freshly bloodied path across San Diego County. But the death he craves most is Robin McKenna’s. 

Putting aside their past troubled relationship, Will rushes to protect Robin, now a savvy businesswoman operating an upscale club. As the killings mount and Glenn proves a master manipulator, Robin and Will become snared in a twisted web of horror. But the shocking truth is even worse: The evil they are to face is even deadlier than they fear.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp Series

It's bold. It's dangerous. It's the kind of maverick operation that has made Mark Beamon both the FBI's best agent and its least-likely-to-succeed screw-up.

A top-secret FBI file -- buried in an anonymous government warehouse since J. Edgar Hoover's death -- is missing. The unlucky grad student who uncovered it is dead, and now his ex-girlfriend is on the run, accused of the murder. The only man everyone agrees can find the young woman and turn up the explosive document is "off-duty," suspended and under the threat of prosecution by the bureau itself.

Beamon knows better than anyone that this is his last shot to save his career -- and his country. Tracking the young woman down, though, will be the hardest assignment he's ever tackled, for she's a gutsy world-class rock-climber who can drop out of sight anywhere in the world. And even if he finds her and the file, who can he trust when the FBI itself is under suspicion? Beamon has no room for wrong guesses -- or moves. If he blows this one, he'll free fall straight out of the bureau -- and straight into prison....

From the bestselling author of Jurassic Park and Rising Sun, this national bestseller combines breathtaking suspense with a penetrating examination of America's medical establishment. When a woman bleeds to death on the operating table, her physician is accused of murder--and another physician searches for the horrible truth.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Crichton was a writer and filmmaker, best known as the author of Jurassic Park and the creator of ER. One of the most popular entertainers in the world, Crichton sold more than 200 million copies of his books, which have been translated into 40 languages and adapted into 15 films. Long before the carefully researched techno-thrillers that ultimately brought him to fame, Crichton wrote high-octane suspense novels to support himself while studying at Harvard Medical School. A Case of Need, written under the pseudonym Jeffery Hudson, won the Edgar Award for Best Mystery in 1969.

“John Scalzi is the most entertaining, accessible writer working in SF today.” ―Joe Hill, author of The Fireman

The first novel of a new space-opera sequence set in an all-new universe by the Hugo Award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Redshirts and Old Man's War

Our universe is ruled by physics. Faster than light travel is impossible―until the discovery of The Flow, an extradimensional field available at certain points in space-time, which can take us to other planets around other stars.

Riding The Flow, humanity spreads to innumerable other worlds. Earth is forgotten. A new empire arises, the Interdependency, based on the doctrine that no one human outpost can survive without the others. It’s a hedge against interstellar war―and, for the empire’s rulers, a system of control.

The Flow is eternal―but it’s not static. Just as a river changes course, The Flow changes as well. In rare cases, entire worlds have been cut off from the rest of humanity. When it’s discovered that the entireFlow is moving, possibly separating all human worlds from one another forever, three individuals―a scientist, a starship captain, and the emperox of the Interdependency―must race against time to discover what, if anything, can be salvaged from an interstellar empire on the brink of collapse.

"Fans of Game of Thrones and Dune will enjoy this bawdy, brutal, and brilliant political adventure" ―Booklist on The Collapsing Empire

"Political plotting, plenty of snark, puzzle-solving, and a healthy dose of action...Scalzi continues to be almost insufferably good at his brand of fun but think-y sci-fi adventure." ―Kirkus Reviews on The Collapsing Empire

“Scalzi is one of the slickest writers that SF has ever produced.” ―The Wall Street Journal on The Human Division

The Ghost Brigades are the Special Forces of the Colonial Defense Forces, elite troops created from the DNA of the dead and turned into the perfect soldiers for the CDF's toughest operations. They're young, they're fast and strong, and they're totally without normal human qualms.

The universe is a dangerous place for humanity―and it's about to become far more dangerous. Three races that humans have clashed with before have allied to halt our expansion into space. Their linchpin: the turncoat military scientist Charles Boutin, who knows the CDF's biggest military secrets. To prevail, the CDF must find out why Boutin did what he did.

Jared Dirac is the only human who can provide answers -- a superhuman hybrid, created from Boutin's DNA, Jared's brain should be able to access Boutin's electronic memories. But when the memory transplant appears to fail, Jared is given to the Ghost Brigades.

At first, Jared is a perfect soldier, but as Boutin's memories slowly surface, Jared begins to intuit the reason's for Boutin's betrayal. As Jared desperately hunts for his "father," he must also come to grips with his own choices. Time is running out: The alliance is preparing its offensive, and some of them plan worse things than humanity's mere military defeat…

This is "the Word" -- one man's word, certainly -- about the art (and artifice) of the state of our computer-centric existence. And considering that the "one man" is Neal Stephenson, "the hacker Hemingway" (Newsweek) -- acclaimed novelist, pragmatist, seer, nerd-friendly philosopher, and nationally bestselling author of groundbreaking literary works (Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, etc., etc.) -- the word is well worth hearing. Mostly well-reasoned examination and partial rant, Stephenson's In the Beginning... was the Command Line is a thoughtful, irreverent, hilarious treatise on the cyber-culture past and present; on operating system tyrannies and downloaded popular revolutions; on the Internet, Disney World, Big Bangs, not to mention the meaning of life itself.

From Publishers Weekly

After reading this galvanizing essay, first intended as a feature for Wired magazine but never published there, readers are unlikely to look at their laptops in quite the same mutely complacent way. Stephenson, author of the novel Cryptonomicon, delivers a spirited commentary on the aesthetics and cultural import of computer operating systems. It's less an archeology of early machines than a critique of what Stephenson feels is the inherent fuzziness of graphical user interfacesAthe readily intuitable "windows," "desktops" and "browsers" that we use to talk to our computers. Like Disney's distortion of complicated historical events, our operating systems, he argues, lull us into a reductive sense of reality. Instead of the visual metaphors handed to us by Apple and Microsoft, Stephenson advocates the purity of the command line interface, somewhat akin to the DOS prompt from which most people flee in a technophobic panic. Stephenson is an advocate of Linux, the hacker-friendly operating system distributed for free on the Internet, and of BeOS, a less-hyped paradigm for the bits-and-bytes future. Unlike a string of source code, this essay is user-friendlyAoccasionally to a fault. Stephenson's own set of extended metaphors can get a little hokey: Windows is a station wagon, while Macs are sleek Euro-sedans. And Unix is the Gilgamesh epic of the hacker subculture. Nonetheless, by pointing out how computers define who we are, Stephenson makes a strong case for elegance and intellectual freedom in computing. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Acclaimed in five prior editions, this text covers all of the standard topics for any introductory logic course in neatly-packaged capsules of learning. Known for its concise, direct style emphasizing clarity, Hurley avoids the peculiar quirks, technicalities, and wordiness of other texts. The material is integrated in such a way that elements fit together as in a puzzle so students can assemble a broad picture of the subject. Visual aids and color are used to reinforce key points and concepts. Additionally, key terms are boldfaced, hundreds of examples serve to illustrate ideas, and more than 2000 carefully selected exercises sharpen student understanding and skill. The adept presentation of the subject matter leads to mastery, even by students with poorer academic preparation.

Patrick Hurley was born in Spokane, Washington in 1942. He received his bachelor's degree in mathematics (with a Physics minor) from Gonzaga University in 1964 and his Ph.D. in philosophy of science with an emphasis in history of philosophy from Saint Louis University in 1973. In 1972 he began teaching at the University of San Diego, where his courses have included logic, philosophy of science, metaphysics, process philosophy, and legal ethics. In 1987 he received his J.D. from the University of San Diego and he is currently a member of the California Bar Association. He retired from teaching in 2008, but continues his research and writing. His interests include music, art, opera, environmental issues, fishing, and skiing.

In this riveting, ultra-realistic novel from J.L. Bourne, a man struggles to survive after the US infrastructure collapses and martial law engulfs the streets of America.

In the not-too-distant future, during an unacknowledged mission inside the Syrian border, a government operative unwittingly triggers an incredible event that alters the course of society. A terrible weapon has been unleashed—a weapon that, left to run its course, will destroy the moral fabric of humanity.

In the midst of crisis, the population struggles to survive in a world short on vital resources. Inflation cripples the US economy and post-war armored military vehicles patrol the streets.

One man stands up to push back the overwhelming wave of tyranny triggered by the onset of nationwide martial law. How can he possibly succeed against a high tech and tyrannical enemy that is hell-bent on ripping liberty from the pages of future history?

From the author and military expert who brought readers the riveting horror series Day by Day Armageddon, Tomorrow War is a compelling account of an alternate dystopian America located just down the tracks of oblivion.

From the Author

This is not a novel about zombies, or at least undead zombies. For that tale, please point your e-readers or feet to my Day by Day Armageddon series. Although we are not overrun by real living dead (yet), some experts say the world economy may be on the brink of collapse. In a few moments, I hope you will embark on a journey down a similar dark road, one that wholly diverges from rosy predictions, gushing mainstream optimism, and suspicious government economic statistics.

What if this complex yet fragile socioeconomic system were to tumble uncontrollably like an animal on a frozen pond? Consider the Eurozone turmoil, the recent NYSE and United Airlines "glitches" and the frequent long periods of artificially frozen national debt. Complex systems cannot be controlled or even predicted; first world nations' leaders only perform in a political theater of public deception; someone is at the helm and everything will be fine, just be a good citizen or subject and go back to your favorite sitcom, football team, or reality TV program.

At the time of this novel, elected leaders are calling for abolition of our debt ceiling, draconian gun control, the use of armed drones in the skies above us, banning history, and are openly engaging in warrantless NSA pilfering of our private e-mails, text messages, persons, and effects. Where might this dangerous road lead? Has it ever been about your safety and security? The thought crime ahead goes beyond the paradigm of right, left, Democrat, or Republican, the outdated behavioral placement control mechanisms, forcing us to choose between two heads of the same serpent.

Slay the beast, get this book, and choose liberty.

J.L. Bourne
Pensacola, Florida 

J.L. Bourne is a commissioned military officer and acclaimed author of the horror/Sci-Fi series DAY BY DAY ARMAGEDDON (Simon & Schuster), and dystopian thriller, TOMORROW WAR (Simon & Schuster). With twenty years of active military and intelligence community service behind him, J.L. brands a realistic and unique style of fiction. He currently resides in Florida.

Meet Austin Clay, the CIA's best-kept secret.

There has always been a need in the spy game for operations outside the realm of legality-covert missions so black no one in the American government, and almost no one in intelligence itself, is aware of their existence. The left hand can't know what the right hand is doing. 

Austin Clay is that right hand, executing missions that would be disavowed by his own government were he ever to be compromised. His team consists of only his trusted handler and himself. His missions are among the most important and dangerous in U.S. history.

Clay is sent to track down a missing American operative, a man who was captured outside of Moscow, in the Russian countryside. Soon he discovers the missing officer is only the beginning of the mission, and finds himself protecting a desperate woman who believes a mole has penetrated the top levels of the U.S. government, throwing the international balance of power into jeopardy.

With blistering pace, international intrigue, and a high-stakes plot that spans continents, THE RIGHT HAND introduces a new hero, from the novelist whose work the New York Times Book Review has proclaimed "devastatingly cool."

The Only Certification Study System Based on 200,000+ Hours of IT Training Experience

100% Complete Coverage -- All official test objectives for both A+ exams-Core Hardware and Operating System Technologies-are covered in detail

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From the Classroom-Discussions of important issues direct from the classrooms of Global Knowledge's award-winning instructors

Full coverage of the topics you need to review, including how to:
*Add and Remove Field-Replaceable Modules
*Install and configure IDE/EIDE devices
*Upgrade, extend, and optimize system performance
*Install device drivers and applications
*Install, upgrade, and boot Windows
*Install and configure SCSI devices
*Install and configure peripheral devices
*Network PCs
*Configure Windows 98 computers for a direct cable connection
*Configure an Ethernet card for TCP/IP

CD-ROM features full CertTrainer CBT software and the new ExamSim test engine-more than 220 questions on CD

CertTrainer:
*e-Training-Self-paced review of key A+ topics, including exam tips
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ExamSim:
*Complete Practice Exams-Realistic A+ exams with questions found only on the CD-ROM
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About the Author

Syngress Media, Inc. (Rockland, MA) is an independent company committed to creating the leading book, software and Internet based exam preparation tools. They have published over 20 certification study guides and have developed some of the most effective self-study and testing software available. All of these products are created by leading content experts, many of whom are also full-time trainers.

Passing a test is one thing...mastering the field is another, and this book is the first step to mastering the world of PC hardware and operating systems. Mark Edward Soper not only shows you what you need to pass the tests, but also what you need to have an edge on the competition, on exam day and in the workplace. Each chapter takes a ground-up approach, starting with the essentials and gradually building to larger, more complex concepts. The book is loaded with informative illustrations, photos and screen captures that help you follow along, even if you don't have all the hardware at home.

Haunted by mysterious images of hooded figures, Magdalen Lorne, chief Terran operative on Darkover, pursues a quest not only to the frozen ends of the physical world but also to the perilous limits of the spiritual world. And there she is tested by the evil sorcery of the Dark Sisterhood.

Marion Zimmer was born in Albany, NY, on June 3, 1930, and married Robert Alden Bradley in 1949. Mrs. Bradley received her B.A. in 1964 from Hardin Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, then did graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1965-67.

She was a science fiction/fantasy fan from her middle teens, and made her first sale as an adjunct to an amateur fiction contest in Fantastic/Amazing Stories in 1949. She had written as long as she could remember, but wrote only for school magazines and fanzines until 1952, when she sold her first professional short story to Vortex Science Fiction. She wrote everything from science fiction to Gothics, but is probably best known for her Darkover novels.

In addition to her novels, Mrs. Bradley edited many magazines, amateur and professional, including Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine, which she started in 1988. She also edited an annual anthology called Sword and Sorceress for DAW Books.

Over the years she turned more to fantasy; The House Between the Worlds, although a selection of the Science Fiction Book Club, was "fantasy undiluted". She wrote a novel of the women in the Arthurian legends -- Morgan Le Fay, the Lady of the Lake, and others -- entitled Mists of Avalon, which made the NY Times best seller list both in hardcover and trade paperback, and she also wrote The Firebrand, a novel about the women of the Trojan War. Her historical fantasy novels, The Forest House,Lady of Avalon, Mists of Avalon are prequels to Priestess of Avalon

She died in Berkeley, California on September 25, 1999, four days after suffering a major heart attack. She was survived by her brother, Leslie Zimmer; her sons, David Bradley and Patrick Breen; her daughter, Moira Stern; and her grandchildren.

As young Jake Horner’s mind became an increasingly paralyzing cobweb of dark thoughts, he turned for help to an extraordinary doctor―part saint, part evil-genius, a weird combination of faith healer, magician, and devil. And in so doing Jake found himself following a drastic prescription that was to draw him into a strange, compulsive relationship.

It is around the startling results of Jake Horner’s “cure” and its amazing mastermind―a doctor almost surely designed to become one of the most remarkable characters in modern fiction―that this brilliant, imaginative novel hinges. John Barth is a young writer of unusual talent whose uncanny insight into the dark mazes of the human mind has given The End of the Road a haunting and troubling reality.

John Barth is our most celebrated postmodernist. From the appearance in 1956 of The Floating Opera, his first published book, through the essay collection Final Fridays, released in 2012, he has published at least two books in each of the seven decades spanning his writerly life thus far. Thrice nominated for the National Book Award―The Floating Opera, Lost in the Funhouse, and Chimera, which won in 1973―Barth has received the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Fiction, the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story, and the Lannan Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. A native of Maryland’s Eastern Shore, he taught for twenty-two years in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. He now lives in Florida with his wife Shelly.

The story is all too-familiar: On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing eleven workers and creating the largest oil spill in the history of U.S. offshore drilling. But, this wasn’t the first time British Petroleum and its cost-cutting practices destroyed parts of the natural world.  It also was not the first time that BP’s negligence resulted in the loss of human life, ruined family businesses or shattered dreams.  

Journalist Mike Magner has been tracking BP’s reckless path for years and, for the first time, focuses on the human price of BP’s rise to power. From Alaska to Kansas to the Gulf, Magner has talked to people whose lives have been destroyed by BP’s almost unparalleled corporate greed.  

When BP acquired an abandoned Kansas refinery in 1998, it discovered one of the most contaminated groundwater plumes in the U.S. Rather than begin a full cleanup, BP declared there was no cause for concern. A former schoolteacher alarmed by cancer cases in the town pushed her community to take BP to court. 

In 2005, an explosion at BP’s Texas City refinery, operating with a raft of safety problems because of neglected maintenance, killed fifteen people including the mother and father of a young woman who was driving there to spend the Easter holidays with her parents.  A year later, thousands of gallons of oil spilled onto Alaska’s North Slope from a corroded BP pipeline. Following a hurricane, BP’s Thunder Horse rig almost sank because of a flaw in its construction, and repair work exposed even more serious problems.  

Poisoned Legacy is the searing true story of the rise and fall of BP, a company that went from being a green maverick promising a world “Beyond Petroleum” to one of the most notorious corporate villains in history.

The CIA is on edge. All signs indicate that something is coming at the United States. Perhaps another 9/11, maybe bigger. The body of CIA agent Louis Updegraf ends up on the steps of the US Embassy in Mexico. His last operation was to tap into the communications of the Chinese Embassy, but there is no record of why. He appeared to be freelancing and the Agency must scramble to get a clue as to what he was after.

Kirk McGarvey, serving as a visiting professor at the University of Florida, is once again longing for the action of the field. So when his old friend Otto Rencke asks him to help figure out the connection between China and the murdered agent, it takes almost no effort to get McGarvey up and running.

The only informant they can find is an enigmatic Iranian belly dancer--the dark and lovely Shahrzad Shadmand. But her story changes with the wind, and her knowledge of McGarvey's past is uncanny. Kirk McGarvey must unravel her shattered mind to get to something that might resemble the truth.  

On the 10th of November, 2007, a patient (and friend) of mine died in the late-postoperative period. A media circus ensued and the importance of that person to me, her family, and friends got lost in the parade of opportunists who crawled from under every conceivable rock to tell their story. The problem is that they were wrong. Even worse was that the press, in an effort to get the story first and get it exclusively, also got it wrong. The time has come to simply tell the truth—not my truth, but the facts—so that you can arrive at your own truth.

An exceptional debut novel about a young Muslim war orphan whose family is killed in a military operation gone wrong, and the American soldier to whom his fate, and survival, is bound.

Jonas is fifteen when his family is killed during an errant U.S. military operation in an unnamed Muslim country. With the help of an international relief organization, he is sent to America, where he struggles to assimilate-foster family, school, a first love. Eventually, he tells a court-mandated counselor and therapist about a U.S. soldier, Christopher Henderson, responsible for saving his life on the tragic night in question. Christopher's mother, Rose, has dedicated her life to finding out what really happened to her son, who disappeared after the raid in which Jonas' village was destroyed. When Jonas meets Rose, a shocking and painful secret gradually surfaces from the past, and builds to a shattering conclusion that haunts long after the final page. Told in spare, evocative prose, The Book of Jonas is about memory, about the terrible choices made during war, and about what happens when foreign disaster appears at our own doorstep. It is a rare and virtuosic novel from an exciting new writer to watch.

"Rich with symbolism, marvelously descriptive in language...Dau's novel offers deeply resonating truths about war and culture, about family and loss that only art can reveal. A literary tour de force." -- Kirkus (starred review)

"The toll that war exacts has seldom been demonstrated more vividly in fiction than in this tale... An essential addition to the literature of war." -- Booklist  (starred review)

The only novel ever to win the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards and the first book in Ann Leckie's New York Times bestselling trilogy.

On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.

Once, she was the Justice of Toren - a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.

Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.

"If you don't know the Ancillary series by now, you probably should. Ann Leckie's sociopolitical space opera almost singlehandedly breathed new cool into the stereotype of spaceships trundling through far-off systems amid laser battles. ... [Ancillary Mercy] earns the credit it's received: As a capstone to a series that shook genre expectations, as our closing installment of an immersively realized world, and as the poignant story of a ship that learned to sing."―NPR Books on Ancillary Mercy

"Powerful."―The New York Times on Ancillary Sword

"Unexpected, compelling and very cool. Ann Leckie nails it...I've never met a heroine like Breq before. I consider this a very good thing indeed."―John Scalzi

"Ancillary Justice is the mind-blowing space opera you've been needing...This is a novel that will thrill you like the page-turner it is, but stick with you for a long time afterward."―i09.com (included in 'This Fall's Must-Read Science Fiction and Fantasy Books')

"It's not every day a debut novel by an author you'd never heard of before derails your entire afternoon with its brilliance. But when my review copy of Ancillary Justicearrived, that's exactly what it did. In fact, it arrowed upward to reach a pretty high position on my list of best space opera novels ever."―Liz Bourke, Tor.com

"Establishes Leckie as an heir to Banks and Cherryh."―Elizabeth Bear

Ann Leckie has worked as a waitress, a receptionist, a rodman on a land-surveying crew, a lunch lady, and a recording engineer. The author of many published short stories, and former secretary of the Science Fiction Writers of America, she lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with her husband, children, and cats.

The sequel to Ancillary Justice, the only novel to ever win the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards and the second book in Ann Leckie's New York Times bestselling series.

Breq is a soldier who used to be a warship. Once a weapon of conquest controlling thousands of minds, now she has only a single body and serves the emperor.

With a new ship and a troublesome crew, Breq is ordered to go to the only place in the galaxy she would agree to go: to Athoek Station to protect the family of a lieutenant she once knew - a lieutenant she murdered in cold blood.

"If you don't know the Ancillary series by now, you probably should. Ann Leckie's sociopolitical space opera almost singlehandedly breathed new cool into the stereotype of spaceships trundling through far-off systems amid laser battles. ... [Ancillary Mercy] earns the credit it's received: As a capstone to a series that shook genre expectations, as our closing installment of an immersively realized world, and as the poignant story of a ship that learned to sing."―NPR Books on Ancillary Mercy

"Powerful."―The New York Times on Ancillary Sword

"The sort of space opera audiences have been waiting for."―NPR Books on Ancillary Sword

"Fans of space operas will feast on its richly textured, gorgeously rendered world-building."―Entertainment Weekly on Ancillary Sword

"Breq's struggle for meaningful justice in a society designed to favor the strong is as engaging as ever. Readers new to the author will be enthralled, and those familiar with the first book will find that the faith it inspired has not been misplaced."―Publishers Weekly on Ancillary Sword

"Leckie proves she's no mere flash in the pan with this follow-up to her multiple-award-winning debut space opera, Ancillary Justice."―Kirkus on Ancillary Sword

"This follow-up builds on the world and characters that the author introduced in the first book and takes the story in new directions. There is much more to explore in Leckie's universe, one of the most original in SF today."―Library Journal (starred review) on Ancillary Sword

"An ambitious space opera that proves that Justice was no fluke.... a book every serious reader of science fiction should pick up."―RT Book Reviews on Ancillary Sword

"Superb... Sword proves that [Leckie]'s not a one-hit wonder. I look forward to the rest of Breg's tale."―St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Ancillary Sword

"A gripping read, with top-notch world building and a set of rich subtexts about human rights, colonialism -- and (yes) hive mind sex."―io9 on Ancillary Sword

"Leckie investigates what it means to be human, to be an individual and to live in a civilized society."―Scientific American on Ancillary Sword

"Unexpected, compelling and very cool. Ann Leckie nails it...I've never met a heroine like Breq before. I consider this a very good thing indeed."―John Scalzi on Ancillary Justice 

"Ancillary Justice is the mind-blowing space opera you've been needing...This is a novel that will thrill you like the page-turner it is, but stick with you for a long time afterward."―io9 (included in 'This Fall's Must-Read Science Fiction and Fantasy Books')

"It's not every day a debut novel by an author you'd never heard of before derails your entire afternoon with its brilliance. But when my review copy of Ancillary Justicearrived, that's exactly what it did. In fact, it arrowed upward to reach a pretty high position on my list of best space opera novels ever."―Liz Bourke, Tor.com

"Establishes Leckie as an heir to Banks and Cherryh."―Elizabeth Bear on Ancillary Justice 

"A double-threaded narrative proves seductive, drawing the reader into the naive but determined protagonist's efforts to transform an unjust universe. Leckie uses...an expansionist galaxy-spinning empire [and] a protagonist on a single-minded quest for justice to transcend space-opera conventions in innovative ways. This impressive debut succeeds in making Breq a protagonist readers will invest in, and establishes Leckie as a talent to watch."―Publishers Weekly on Ancillary Justice

"Using the format of SF military adventure blended with hints of space opera, Leckie explores the expanded meaning of human nature and the uneasy balance between individuality and membership in a group identity. Leckie is a newcomer to watch as she expands on the history and future of her new and exciting universe."―Library Journal on Ancillary Justice 

"A sharply written space opera with a richly imagined sense of detail and place, this debut novel from Ann Leckie works as both an evocative science fiction tale and an involving character study...it's also a strongly female-driven piece, tackling ideas about politics and gender in a way that's both engaging and provocative...Ancillary Justice is a gripping read that's well worth a look."―SFX (UK) on Ancillary Justice

"It engages, it excites, and it challenges the way the reader views our world. Leckie may be a former Secretary of the Science Fiction Writers of America, but she's the President of this year's crop of debut novelists. Ancillary Justice might be the best science fiction novel of this very young decade."―Justin Landon, Staffer's Book Review on Ancillary Justice

"Total gamechanger. Get it, read it, wish to hell you'd written it. Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice may well be the most important book Orbit has published in ages."―Paul Graham Raven on Ancillary Justice

"The sort of book that the Clarke Award wishes it had last year ... be prepared to see Ancillary Justice bandied around a lot come awards season. (As it should be)."―Jared Shurin, Pornokitsch

For centuries, the Asians (Chinese, Indians, Muslims, and others) have been bystanders in world history. Now they are ready to become co-drivers.

Asians have finally understood, absorbed, and implemented Western best practices in many areas: from free-market economics to modern science and technology, from meritocracy to rule of law. They have also become innovative in their own way, creating new patterns of cooperation not seen in the West.

Will the West resist the rise of Asia? The good news is that Asia wants to replicate, not dominate, the West. For a happy outcome to emerge, the West must gracefully give up its domination of global institutions, from the IMF to the World Bank, from the G7 to the UN Security Council.

History teaches that tensions and conflicts are more likely when new powers emerge. This, too, may happen. But they can be avoided if the world accepts the key principles for a new global partnership spelled out in The New Asian Hemisphere.

In America is a kaleidoscopic portrait of America on the cusp of modernity. As she did in her enormously popular novel The Volcano Lover, Susan Sontag casts a story located in the past in a fresh, provocative light to create a fictional world full of contemporary resonance.

In 1876 a group of Poles led by Maryna Zalezowska, Poland's greatest actress, emigrate to the United States and travel to California to found a "utopian commune." When the commune fails, Maryna stays, learns English, and―as Marina Zalenska―forges a new, even more triumphant career on the American stage, becoming a diva on par with Sara Bernhardt.

In America is about many things: a woman's search for self-transformation; the fate of idealism; a life in the theater; the many varieties of love; and, not least of all, stories and storytelling itself. Operatic in the scope and intensity of the emotions it depicts, richly detailed and visionary in its account of America, and peopled with unforgettable characters.

In America is the winner of the 2000 National Book Award for Fiction.

Remote viewing is not simply using psychic ability to obtain information. It is using scientific protocol to develop and extend that ability, so that ordinary people can learn to do what "psychics" do.

This book teaches you how to teach yourself.

Joseph McMoneagle learned remote viewing in the U.S. Army--he was Remote Viewer #001 in the Army's Stargate program--and was awarded the Legion of Merit for his contribution to various intelligence operations. In Remote Viewing Secrets, the author of Mind Trek and The Ultimate Time Machine uses examples, exercises, and anecdotes to share what he learned and how he learned it, and gives you everything you need to begin developing your own abilities.

Remote Viewing Secrets is easily the most complete, authentic, and informative guide to remote viewing published to date.

In M. John Harrison’s dangerously illuminating new novel, three quantum outlaws face a universe of their own creation, a universe where you make up the rules as you go along and break them just as fast, where there’s only one thing more mysterious than darkness.

In contemporary London, Michael Kearney is a serial killer on the run from the entity that drives him to kill. He is seeking escape in a future that doesn’ t yet exist—a quantum world that he and his physicist partner hope to access through a breach of time and space itself. In this future, Seria Mau Genlicher has already sacrificed her body to merge into the systems of her starship, the White Cat. But the “inhuman” K-ship captain has gone rogue, pirating the galaxy while playing cat and mouse with the authorities who made her what she is. In this future, Ed Chianese, a drifter and adventurer, has ridden dynaflow ships, run old alien mazes, surfed stellar envelopes. He “went deep”—and lived to tell about it. Once crazy for life, he’s now just a twink on New Venusport, addicted to the bizarre alternate realities found in the tanks—and in debt to all the wrong people.

Haunting them all through this maze of menace and mystery is the shadowy presence of the Shrander—and three enigmatic clues left on the barren surface of an asteroid under an ocean of light known as the Kefahuchi Tract: a deserted spaceship, a pair of bone dice, and a human skeleton.

From Publishers Weekly

Harrison's talent for brilliant, reality-bending SF is on display yet again with this three-tiered tale, published (and highly praised) in the U.K. in 2002. It's 1999, and British scientist Michael Kearney and his American partner, Brian Tate, are studying laboratory quantum physics; unbeknownst to them, they'll become the fathers of interplanetary travel. Kearney nervously holds a pair of predictive dice he's stolen from a frightening specter called the Shrander, whom he keeps at bay by committing random murders. Four hundred years in the future, K-ship captain Seria Mau Genlicher has gravely erred in splicing herself with a hijacked spacecraft called the White Cat—and now she wants out. There's also Ed Chianese, a burned-out interstellar surfer now spending his life within a reality simulation machine. His problem? Monetary debt to the nasty Cray sisters. As Kearney continues to narrowly evade the Shrander, he discovers that company CEO Gordon Meadows has sold the lab to Sony. All three story lines converge and find heavenly closure at the cosmological wonder known as the Kefahuchi Tract, a wormhole with alien origins bordered by a vast, astral "beach" where time and space are braided and interchangeable. This is space opera for the intelligentsia, as Harrison (Things That Never Happen) tweaks aspects of astrophysics, fantasy and humanism to hum right along with the blinking holograms in a welcome and long overdue return.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Reviewers call Light “complex,” yet seemed more than willing to forgive the complexity—as well as the shortage of sympathetic major characters—because of the award-winning author’s style and sheer intelligence. They also lauded the ending, deemed “suitably transformational” and “connection-rich” (Guardian). Harrison brings a far deeper wisdom and maturity to science fiction than other writers typically do, and poses important questions that reach far beyond the old conceits of the genre. Most intriguing of these: “By what moral calculus is [Harrison’s] mad scientist any madder than the legions of researchers who kiss their families goodbye each morning and spend their workdays developing weapons of mass destruction?” (New York Times). It’s an eternal mystery.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

The Awakening and Selected Short Fiction, by Kate Chopin, is part of the

Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:

• New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars
• Biographies of the authors
• Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events
• Footnotes and endnotes
• Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work
• Comments by other famous authors
• Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations
• Bibliographies for further reading
• Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate

All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.

When it first appeared in 1899, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening was greeted with cries of outrage. The novel’s frank portrayal of a woman’s emotional, intellectual, and sexual awakening shocked the sensibilities of the time and destroyed the author’s reputation and career. Many years passed before this short, pioneering work was recognized as a major achievement in American literature.

Set in and around New Orleans, The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a young wife and mother who, determined to control her own life, flouts convention by moving out of her husband’s house, having an adulterous affair, and becoming an artist.

Beautifully written, with sensuous imagery and vivid local descriptions, The Awakening has lost none of its power to provoke and inspire. Additionally, this edition includes thirteen of Kate Chopin’s magnificent short stories.

Stories Included in the Volume:
The Awakening
Emancipation: A Life Fable
A Shameful Affair
At the ‘Cadian Ball
Désirée’s Baby
A Gentleman of Bayou Têche
A Respectable Woman
The Story of an Hour
Athénaïse
A Pair of Silk Stockings
Elizabeth Stock’s One Story
The Storm
The Godmother
A Little Country Girl

Rachel Adams teaches nineteenth and twentieth-century American literature at Columbia University.