But when she finds herself in debt to the Ursa Minor Mafia, she decides to bet everything on one more score: the theft of the Emerald of Sobalt Prime, the most valuable gem in the galaxy. To pull off the heist, Pepper has to recruit some very unusual allies--as well as outwit local law enforcement and the Mob. It's a delicate and dangerous balancing act, and when Pepper learns the truth about the Emerald, she realizes she's only a pawn in a game far beyond her understanding....

    Almost, but not quite. Three thousand souls aboard a cruise ship visiting the north pole are spared by a freak of nature.The ship’s First Officer, Jake Noah, was looking forward to getting back to dry land once and for all. But then the world ended, and now he finds himself reluctantly in charge of the last handful of survivors of the human race.The limited resources on board mean that just staying alive will be a struggle. With the threat of mutiny ever present, can Jake rise to the challenge and lead his crew and their passengers on a quest for safety, or will he take the easy option and leave anarchy and chaos to prevail?

     Retired stage magician turned professional mystic debunker, John Barker, finds his sceptical beliefs under fire when he encounters a strange man who claims to be Merlin. After several unsuccessful attempts to rid himself of his increasingly unpredictable companion, John finally relents and agrees to assist in the man’s crazy mission, to find the true grave of the mythical King Arthur. Following a hidden code contained within the text of a soft porn novel, they gather a growing entourage of hippies, mystic seekers and alien hunters as they leave a trail of chaos across the south west of England. When the group comes to the attention of a TV Reality Show producer looking to make a fast profit out of harmless eccentrics and fading celebrities, John decides it’s time to take charge and prove one way or the other, the identity of this mysterious person who claims to be a fictional wizard. “Whose reality is this anyway?” is a warm-hearted tale of what it means to be an individual and to follow one’s dreams. With his trademark cast of oddball characters and absurd situations, David Luddington once more transports us into a world where who you are is more important than what you are. “David Luddington epitomizes the elusive quality of writing that he perpetuates - the British Comedy.” – Grady Harp

    His only out is to undergo a complete physical makeover, get a rank and name change, and agree to take over a new platoon in the Segnal Space Marine Corps (SSMC). Mission 2: Angry Robots A group of antiquated robots have decided that they've had enough of being treated like second-class citizens. Working together, they take over the sewage plant on Segnal Prime and start pumping the sludge back up into the buildings. Mission 3: The SSMC Voyeur A space probe that was sent out 500 years ago has returned...sort of. It's actually a copy of the original model of The SSMC Voyeur, which begs the question: What happened to the original craft? The crew of The SSMC Reluctant is dispatched to learn about the originating planet that sent this cloned vehicle. And, if Rear Admiral Conster gets his way, they're also to blow the entire planet that it came from to smithereens. Mission 4: Earthlings After their last mission, the Segnal Space Marine Corps (SSMC) saw the value of the GONE Drive. The ability to move through space in a blink of an eye would be highly appealing to any military body, but specifically to Rear Admiral Parfait who has a bit of a thing for military bodies. Parfait sets a mission in place where The SSMC Reluctant must go to one of the planets that they briefly landed on during their last mission: Earth. Parfait sees the opportunity to...probe another society of human-like creatures and possibly build relations with them. Furthermore, and much to Captain Don Harr's chagrin, Parfait has put in for a title change to Senior Diplomat so that he can join the crew! Mission 5: Synthetic DNA After a close call in the year 2440 at the planet called "Earth," the crew of The SSMC Reluctant makes a quick escape back to their home of Segnal. However, Geezer didn't have time to set the clock on the GONE Drive to return them back to their own era, and things have changed greatly in the Segnal System over the past 500 years. The system is ruled by Synthetic Lifeforms now, and they find humans and standard robots an affront to their intellectual capacity. From their perspective, only Synthetic Lifeforms should be allowed to live.

    If their Deviant abilities are discovered, they’ll be expunged—kicked out of the dome to be tortured and killed by the Shredders. Glory would give anything to get rid of her unique ability to kill with her emotions, especially when Cal, the boy she’s always liked, becomes a spy for the authorities. But when her brother is discovered, and she learns their father, who was expunged for killing their mother, is still alive, she must escape the domed city that’s been her entire world.Outside in the ruins, they’re pursued by the authorities and by sadistic, scab-covered Shredders who are addicted to the lethal-to-humans dust now covering the planet. Glory’s quests to transport herself and her brother to safety make up the thrilling and fascinating first volume of The Dust Chronicles.

    Our world is a violent place. Murder, terrorism, racism and social inequality, these are some of the forces that attempt to destroy our society while the State is forced to increase its response to these actions. Our own annihilation is barely held at bay by the belief that we’ve somehow evolved beyond our ancestors’ base desires. From this cesspool of emotions emerges a madman, intent on leading the world into anarchy. When his group of computer hackers infiltrate the Department of Defense network, they initiate a nuclear war that will irrevocably alter our world. Aeric Gaines and his roommate Tyler Nordgren survive the devastation of the war, only to find that the quaint, politically correct world where they’d been raised was a lie. All humans have basic needs such as food, water and shelter…and we haven’t forgotten how to fight for what we desire. A Path of Ashes is the first book in an exciting new series about life in post-apocalyptic America, a nation devoid of leadership, electricity and human rights. The world as we know it may have burned, but humanity found a way to survive and this is their story.

    Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in time—from the actor's early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future, when a theater troupe known as the Traveling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains—this suspenseful, elegiac, spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor's first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony, caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet.

    So begins the story of Sonia MacTaggert. An engineer by education with dreams of actually earning a living as one, she is stuck in a dead-end maintenance job servicing the engines of starships that put into port at Tammuz. When she finally lands an engineering position on the starship Night Searcher, she finds herself thrust into the unfamiliar world of interstellar exploration on a ship with a classified mission. Has her quest for a new life and career gotten Sonia more than she bargained for? The voyage of the Night Searcher tests not only the technical savvy of the fledgling engineer, but her character and leadership, as she's faced with challenges she could never have seen coming.

    Mord once prowled the corridors of the biotech organization known as the Company, which lies at the outskirts of the city, until he was experimented on, grew large, learned to fly and broke free. Driven insane by his torture at the Company, Mord terrorizes the city even as he provides sustenance for scavengers like Rachel.At first, Borne looks like nothing at all—just a green lump that might be a Company discard. The Company, although severely damaged, is rumoured to still make creatures and send them to distant places that have not yet suffered Collapse.Borne somehow reminds Rachel of the island nation of her birth, now long lost to rising seas. She feels an attachment she resents; attachments are traps, and in this world any weakness can kill you. Yet when she takes Borne to her subterranean sanctuary, the Balcony Cliffs, Rachel convinces her lover, Wick, not to render Borne down to raw genetic material for the drugs he sells—she cannot break that bond.Wick is a special kind of supplier, because the drug dealers in the city don’t sell the usual things. They sell tiny creatures that can be swallowed or stuck in the ear, and that release powerful memories of other people’s happier times or pull out forgotten memories from the user’s own mind—or just produce beautiful visions that provide escape from the barren, craterous landscapes of the city.Against his better judgment, out of affection for Rachel or perhaps some other impulse, Wick respects her decision. Rachel, meanwhile, despite her loyalty to Wick, knows he has kept secrets from her. Searching his apartment, she finds a burnt, unreadable journal titled “Mord,” a cryptic reference to the Magician (a rival drug dealer) and evidence that Wick has planned the layout of the Balcony Cliffs to match the blueprint of the Company building. What is he hiding? Why won’t he tell her about what happened when he worked for the Company?

    Secret Service agent Ethan Burke arrives in search of two missing federal agents, yet soon is facing much more than he bargained for. After a violent accident lands him in the hospital, Ethan comes to with no ID and no cell phone. The medical staff seems friendly enough, but sometimes feels...off. As days pass, Ethan's investigation into his colleagues' disappearance turns up more questions than answersWHY CAN'T HE MAKE CONTACT WITH HIS FAMILY IN THE OUTSIDE WORLD? WHY DOESN'T ANYONE BELIEVE HE IS WHO HE SAYS HE IS? AND WHAT'S THE PURPOSE OF THE ELECTRIFIED FENCES ENCIRCLING THE TOWN? ARE THEY KEEPING THE RESIDENTS IN? OR SOMETHING ELSE OUT?Each step toward the truth takes Ethan further from the world he knows, until he must face a horrifying fact—he may never get out of Wayward Pines alive.....

    Graham, the head of IT, has done many unsavory things in his life but everyone has a line they won't cross. He just found his. With only his best friend, Wallis and a dying electrician, Grace, to stand by him, he is left with one clear and final choice. Does he do what is right or what the rules say he should? It is a race against time for the trio against the impersonal might of Silo One. Their only choice? Going Dark.

    Jericho, a brilliant scientist riddled with guilt, attempts to recreate his deceased wife and child, only to wind up in a drug-fueled haze in Caligatha. When the two meet and form a rocky relationship, they start to suspect something is not quite right about their reality. Meanwhile, in another timeline, survivors of the worldwide plague attempt to understand how it all went wrong, and survive in a near-future wasteland of high technology and chaos. The evidence they find brings them all together in a shocking conclusion. A thrilling exploration of the dark fringes of a derailed-singularity world: nanotechnology, genetic engineering, and artificial intelligence alter the rules of human existence. But human drives and motives remain unchanged at their best——and at their most terrifying.

    They founded the global business Supercute Enterprises as teenagers, armed only with a phone, a collection of their favourite cuddly toys and a love of all things kawaii. Thanks to them, the Supercute aesthetic is now a way of life.In a world dominated by massive conglomerates, Supercute has continued to grow bigger and more powerful, morphing from an entertainment company to a ruthless organisation fighting for their right to the world's water.Now Mox and Mitsu face a choice. In a world that is tearing itself apart, who will win in the battle for ultimate control - and where will Supercute draw the line . . .

    103 pages of summaries and analysis on Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.This comprehensive study guide includes the following sections written by BookRags.com: Plot Summary, Chapter Summaries & Analysis, Characters, Objects/Places, Themes, Style, and Topics for Discussion.

    The endless surface of the water extends to the horizon, whichever way I look.Our world is small. We’re on our own, and we only have ourselves to depend on. We rely on the Force deep within us as taught to us by our forefathers.If I were to walk westward from here, I’d come across a barrier - the Wall. Behind it, there are Fools. At least, that's what everyone says. I’ve never seen one.'Leia lives on an island where children leave their parents to take care of themselves when they’re just ten years old. Across the island runs a Wall that no one has ever crossed. The Fools living behind it should be shunned because they believe in salvation from across the sea. That's what The Book says, the only thing left to the Eastern Islanders by their ancestors.But when a strange man washes ashore and Leia meets a Fool face to face, her life will never be the same again. Walt, the boy from the other side of the Wall, isn’t as foolish as she was always led to believe. And as Leia and Walt set out to bring the truth about both their societies to light, all the things they once took for granted fall by the wayside.Their island world is about to change... for better or for worse.