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    Violent crime has become a global epidemic, nowhere more so than in the United States. Everything from the death penalty to liberal reforms has failed. Nothing has been effective. Until now.Project Conscience promises to be the solution. It is a bold attempt by a powerful group of scientists, politicians and senior law-enforcement personnel to use gene therapy to treat male criminals and cure violent crime. But among their number are those with a more sinister agenda, who would go further and turn the dream of Project Conscience into the nightmare of Crime Zero.Luke Decker, a criminal psychologist disillusioned with the growing dependence on genetic science, is on the verge of resigning from the FBI when a death-row killer's whispered revelation threatens everything he believes in and catapults him into the heart of the conspiracy. Decker's only ally is Dr Kathy Kerr, an old flame and ideological adversary, and the geneticist behind the original Project Conscience.Together they must put aside their differences to fight against a scheme so ruthless in intent and so vast in scope that it will irrevocably change the evolution of mankind itself.Crime Zero is a terrifyingly credible thriller based on technological developments that are already with us. At its core is the story of one man's desperate fight for self-determination and free will in a world where such qualities are in danger of imminent extinction . . .

    Her first return to novel writing has resulted in an unrestrained picture of grief that feels at times, uncomfortably intimate ... this is not a book for the fragile (Melissa Katsoulis, Times Sat. 25 April 2009).

    Not a good home, but at least there she can find food and shelter for her sisters, Lily and Tory.To the powerful Making Perfect corporation, however, the Slump is a gold mine, a source of unending test subjects. Once a month, squads of company officials invade the ruins to capture orphans for their facilities. What happens to the kids they take is unclear—none of them ever return.Then Summer herself is taken.Forced into a series of grueling experiments, she soon discovers that Making Perfect’s ultimate goal is far darker than anything she imagined. As she fights to get back to the Slump and her now-defenseless sisters, she begins to understand why once you enter Making Perfect, you never get out.

    . . or Destroy It!GURPS Powers is the ultimate book for the ultimate characters in the new Fourth Edition of GURPS! Here's everything you need to create every kind of amazing, off-the-chart superhero you can imagine . . . as well as amazing wizards, wuxia fighters, shamans who command spirits . . . even gods!Written by GURPS Line Editor and Fourth Edition co-author Sean Punch, GURPS Powers introduces some new rules, but it is mostly about using the rules that are already in the GURPS Basic Set to cover superpowered characters, megawizards, and earth-shattering psionics. GURPS Powers also include guidelines for "special effects" and several different ways to vary a power on the fly—two crucial concepts for comic-book superheroics.GURPS Powers is a Fourth Edition GURPS book that completely replaces the Third Edition books GURPS Supers and GURPS Psionics. Like our other Fourth Edition supplements, it's a gorgeous 240-page, full-color hardcover. If you've got a high-powered campaign—or high-powered players—you want GURPS Powers!

    You've spent ten years on a spaceship learning how to be human, and now the end of your journey is in sight ...All you have to do is land safely, convince the earthlings that you're a real teenager, and start your new life on Earth. No problem. Except that the killer alien responsible for wiping out your people has hitched a lift. And it's just a matter of time before it starts on the human race ...

    Ghost of the Gods was the #1 hottest new bestselling techno-thriller on Amazon March 2014.Publisher's Weekly STARRED review: In this sequel to Bohacz's Immortality, two years after the devastation of mass human extinctions in kill zones, mankind is still grasping for survival. An oppressive union of government and big business controls an exhausted America, which is divided between walled-in Protectorates and the unpoliced Outlands. Against this chaotic backdrop, paleobiologist and genetic researcher Mark Freedman and policewoman Sarah Mayfair continue their evolution into transhumance - nanotech hybrids with a connection to the god machine, the artificial intelligence that caused the recent massacres, in an effort to derail the destruction of the Earth's biosphere. Bohacz provides mind-bending portrayals of factions vying for power and reflections on the essence and fragility of humanity. But philosophical concerns never obtrude on the fast-paced plot, as authorities investigate communes of hybrids, and Freedman and Mayfair must choose between absorption into a collective mind or fidelity to their remaining humanity. The question of who can be trusted impels the reader to keep turning the pages of this highly satisfying and dynamic techno-thriller.

    Bushido’s staunch and unyielding code of conduct binds samurai to duty, strengthening their character and defining their choices. While some samurai serve the greater good, others use the strictures of Bushido to manipulate the lower ranks and advance their own power.Eight Great Clans form the heart of Rokugan’s culture. Each is defined by its own principles, values, and agendas. Each sees the Code of Bushido in its own way. Each seeks to serve the Emperor with its own unique talents. Take up the soul of your ancestors — the samurai’s daisho — and fight for the glory and honor of your family and Clan. Now is the time for heroes, in a world where Honor is a force more powerful than Steel.The Fourth Edition of L5R is the ultimate edition of the award-winning role-playing game. Inside this tome, you will find:• A game unlike any you’ve played elsewhere. Honor and service are valued more than magic swords taken from wandering ogres. Prepare for the glorious life of the samurai!• A unique Character Sheet. Legend of the Five Rings rules have never been more easy to learn and to play. No more need to flip through pages of rules while fighting your enemies!• A toolbox approach to role-playing in Rokugan. Fourth Edition encourages gamemasters of Legend of the Five Rings to customize their game, adding or removing from their campaigns as they see fit, customizing the game to fit their story lines and players.• A broad history of the Emerald Empire and the beliefs of all the Great Clans, with play options not only the major clans but also for outlying groups such as Imperials, Minor Clans, and the infamous Spider Clan.Draw your blade and join the fight for Rokugan.

    Are you with us? Enter the next original YA novel for Overwatch, the worldwide gaming sensation from Blizzard Entertainment!In the years after the Omnic Crisis, the American Southwest is ruled by vultures looking to profit off the chaos. The West is ripe for the taking, and Elizabeth Caledonia Ashe intends to write her name across it.When Ashe is arrested yet again on the morning of her high school graduation, her aloof, old-money parents decide to disinherit her from the family fortune. To steal back what's rightfully hers, Ashe teams up with her omnic butler, B.O.B., and local ruffian Jesse McCree for a series of heists, catapulting the trio into a game of fast money and dangerous alliances. Along the way, Ashe discovers that family isn't just about blood. It's about the people who've got your back when your back's against the wall.Full of high-octane chases and action-packed stand-offs, the second novel for Overwatch explores the founding of the Deadlock Gang and the origins of fan-favorite heroes Ashe and McCree. Don't miss this incredible, original story straight from the Overwatch game team and critically acclaimed author Lyndsay Ely.

    But this time, the nation to beat is China, and the goal is Mars.Far behind steady advances in Chinese aerospace engineering and even lunar colonization, a team of American scientists, engineers, and astronauts struggles to integrate decades-old technologies, untested prototypes, and some very out-of-the-box thinking to give their nation a shot at one of the most important achievements in human history. Nothing goes as planned while pursuing what appears to be the impossible, but the ultimate surprise lies in the mission's conclusion.This quirky and intelligent novella by Christian Cantrell is both humorous and unpredictable as it explores an unfamiliar, but not entirely unimaginable, post-superpower United States.

    The amazing illustrations come from a variety of renowned illustrators, including Jean-Sébastien Rossbach, Leonid Kozienko, Benjamin Carré, Isaac Hannaford, and 343's internal art team, too.For the first time ever, the timeline of the Halo universe is available in one place, charting humanity's battles against alien forces of the Covenant, Forerunners, and the Flood--making this book an absolute must-have for Halo fans.

    Their objective is classified, marked only by coordinates leading them into a deserted city at the heart of the fighting. From the beginning, everything possible goes wrong. A missile strike rocks the carrier mid-launch, and only a fraction of the unit reaches the surface alive.Outmanned, outgunned, and scattered, with a hard deadline to orbital bombardment looming, it is up to Drop Commander Tyco Hale to rally his troops and reach their objective. But what they find, hidden deep in the tunneled passages under the city, will change everything about what he fights for and what he believes in. With the unit in tatters and loyalties divided, the choice he makes in the dark will seal all of their fates - and much more besides.

    That is, until she meets an old man who entrusts her with a package containing a mysterious item that has unbelievable powers. It is a meeting that will change her life.

    But climate change accelerates out of control. As her old world disintegrates, Dee teams up to help build a new one."Climate change. Government surveillance. Societal breakdown. Sounds like a real downer, right? It's not, thanks to its determined, witty narrator. She's instantly relatable." - Amazon reviewBook 1: End GameAs the U.S. unravels, media and corporation offer a shining grail of salvation: to be one of the select few to secure safety in an ark. Dee Baker's Fortune 100 media job promises her an ark berth, and for backup she's dating fun and wealthy ark-itect Adam. But fellow gardener and neighbor Zack plans to make his stand outside the arks. Dee needs to choose whether to protect herself, or risk it all to help others. Trying to have it both ways could be the riskiest gambit of all.Book 2: Project ReunionWhen Ebola strikes, the Calm Act surrounds New York City with armed borders. That assumes the rest of the Northeast is OK with letting millions die, in order to save themselves. Dee Baker and partner set out to prove otherwise and mobilize the Northeast to save New York, though the doing may tear them apart.Book 3: Martial LawlessWhen a martial law leader is murdered in Pittsburgh, Dee Baker and partner are dispatched to investigate. Plagued by tornados, and isolated under the Calm Act, Pittsburgh has gone rogue, its religious factions out of control, and it's up to Dee and crew what to do about it. But the forces afoot are darker than they imagined. And Dee's about to fall into their trap.If you enjoy vivid characters, compelling world-building, and page-turning action, you'll love Ginger Booth's day-after-tomorrow Calm Act series.

    Decades ago, the United States of America fell apart after four brutal years of civil war, and the fragments coalesced into new nations divided by economic and political rivalries. Most of the post-US America is wracked by poverty and civil strife, with high-tech skyscrapers rising above crowded, starving slums—but one of the new nations, the Lakeland Republic of the upper Midwest, has gone its own way, isolated from the rest by closed frontiers and trade embargoes. Now Peter Carr, an emissary from the newly elected administration in the Atlantic Republic, boards a train to cross the recently reopened border into Lakeland territory on a mission that could decide the fate of his nation. Ahead of him lies a cascade of experiences that will challenge his most basic assumptions about economics, politics, and the direction history is moving. Alone among the post-USA republics of North America, the Lakeland Republic has achieved prosperity and internal peace, and it’s done so by modeling its future… …on the past.