-How Delovoa became so intelligent -How Delovoa first joined the military as a scientist -Early experiments with artificial intelligence -Where ZR3 came from -Meeting the Ontakians -Delovoa's advanced work with mutations -Delovoa's exile as a criminal -Early life on Belvaille and his unique, and pervasive, impact on the city -Why Hank came to Belvaille -Hank's first job -Where Hank got his plasma pistol -Hank's first murder -Introduction of glocken -Where the Gentleman's Club and Athletic Club came from -Hank's first love -How and why Belvaille changed and became what it is today NOTE: while the stories are stand-alone, it contains many references to characters and events in Hard Luck Hank novels.

    . . especially when Ira Breitling is handed a divine gift---an interstellar engine that can lift humanity into the heavens. Crow---awash in riches, commanding nations, supremely powerful---swears eternal vengeance on Breitling and his Fellowship of the Faithful . . . and on all humankind.The reign of Lucifer---prophesized as a thousand years of darkness---is about to begin. With the world falling fast under Crow's violent sway, Breitling's Fellowship---having only one choice---seizes their divine gift, their faster-than-light flight, and flees the earth. Their journey takes them beyond the distant stars to a perfect planet uncorrupted by Crow and his Kingdom of Darkness.But even as Manuel Crow razes and racks the Earth, Revelations' scourge is not yet sated. Crows eyes the heavens, fixed on the Faithful.Ira Breitling and the Fellowship must defend not only themselves but the soul of all humanity: A Kingdom of Light against the Forces of Darkness. Will the Fellowship prevail . . . or fall under Revelations' reign?Let the battle begin.

    Seconds later it's gone, and no one knows what happened. Normal life resumes. BBQs continue, and kids play in backyards. No one notices the screams coming from one backyard.Everyone believes it to be a fluke. But it doesn't just happen in Carthage, it happens all over.While delayed, the after effects of the event are brutal to all those who were exposed to the flash, and horrifying to behold.Those not exposed, like Alana Cross, are helpless to do anything. All they can do is witness humanity self-destructing right in front of their eyes.

    Description:- The Three-Body Problem: 1967: Ye Wenjie witnesses Red Guards beat her father to death during China's Cultural Revolution. This singular event will shape not only the rest of her life but also the future of mankind. The Dark Forest: Imagine the universe as a forest, patrolled by numberless and nameless predators. In this forest, stealth is survival any civilisation that reveals its location is prey.Earth has. Now the predators are coming.Death's End: Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay. Earth enjoys unprecedented prosperity due to the infusion of Trisolaran knowledge. The Wandering Earth: Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay.Earth enjoys unprecedented prosperity due to the infusion of Trisolaran knowledge and, with human science advancing and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations can co-exist peacefully as equals without the terrible threat of mutually assured annihilation.

    In the days that follow, a doctor performs miraculous surgery on Keeley, who wakes up to find that everything about his world has changed. He seems to sense things before they happen, and he thinks he’s capable of feats that are clearly impossible. It’s a strange and compelling new world for him, one he quickly realizes is also incredibly dangerous.Meanwhile at a $12 billion facility in hardscrabble North Texas, a super collider lies two hundred feet beneath the Earth’s surface. Leading a team of scientists, Mike McNair, a brilliant physicist, works to uncover one of the universe’s greatest secrets–a theoretical particle that binds the universe together, often called The God Particle. When his efforts are undermined by the man who has poured his own vast fortune into the project, McNair begins to suspect that something in his research has gone very, very wrong.Now, these two men are about to come together, battling mysteries of science and of the soul–and venturing to a realm beyond reason, beyond faith, perhaps even beyond life and death.

    A genre-bending thriller for the Netflix generation, for fans of Altered Carbon, Dark and Mindhunter.She's the only one who can access the truth...Fourteen years ago, the police caged a notorious serial killer who abducted and butchered two victims every February. He was safe behind bars. Wasn't he?But then another body is discovered, and soon enough, the race is on to catch the real killer. Neuropsychologist Kyra Sullivan fights to use a new technology that accesses the minds of the witnesses, working with the police to uncover the truth. Will Kyra discover the person behind the murders, and if so, at what cost? And how far will she go to ensure justice is served?An addictive futuristic thriller, perfect for fans of Stranger Things.

    THEY UNCOVERED A THREAT TO EVERY PERSON ON THE PLANET. NOW AN INVISIBLE ENEMY IS HUNTING THEM DOWN. What would you do if you started to see something lurking in the shadows of our everyday world? That's the reality that Jake Stevens has been pitched into and now he’s questioning his sanity.Jake’s been an outsider in his hometown Stoneham, England, ever since his life was shattered when his father's experiment into dark energy exploded, killing himself and many others.When Jake witnesses a satellite crash-landing, and starts to receive garbled messages that hint at a conspiracy, a chain of events is unleashed that will threaten the very existence of all life on Earth in a dystopian nightmare.Can Jake, and the best friend that he froze out of his life, Chloe Haze, a coding genius who’s heavily entrenched with the underground hacking network, figure out the connections of the mystery that link all the events before it’s too late?Fractured Light is the first volume in the Fractured Light trilogy, and is also part of the Multiverse Chronicles, an epic series of interlinked stories that follows the struggle of humanity to survive across parallel universes. If you love books by Michael Grant and Robert J Crane, or adore series like Stranger Things and Fringe, then this page-turning smart sci-fi thriller, is for you.

    As he blows out the candles on his cake, he makes a token wish. Three days later, to his utter astonishment, that wish comes true.All his problems solved, Kyle is busy counting his blessings when a gaunt pensioner turns up at his door unannounced. The stranger then confounds Kyle by claiming credit for his recent good fortune, followed by a bizarre declaration … when Edmund Wishkin grants a wish, there’s always a price to pay.Whether he believes the old man or not, Kyle is about to discover the true cost of a wish fulfilled.

    But when you’re a living ringer for one of the country’s best-loved historical figures, privacy is hard to come by—especially when your face is on money. Across town, Norma Greenberg, one of the world’s many Marilyn Monroe clones, is struggling with identity issues of a different sort. It’s not easy going through life as a copy of the beautiful Norma Jeane Baker! When Abe is taken away by government agents eager to discover the secrets of his illustrious ancestor, Norma could be Abe’s last hope of escape—or, thanks to her kleptomania, his worst chance of recapture. With only their wits, a cigarette lighter, a bottle of perfume, and the disembodied arm of Richard Nixon, can Abe and Norma make it back to safety and anonymity? Advance Praise: “A gorgeous, funny romp along the seam between reality and artifice, fame and obscurity, history and Disney, Roufa has a deft, hilarious touch. This is a wry, gleeful take on the choice between destiny, authenticity, love, and the eternal call of the stovepipe hat.” – Dahlia Lithwick, Senior Editor, Slate “A perfect gem with terrifically simple and funny twists.” – Josh Kilmer-Purcell, New York Times bestselling author of I Am Not Myself These Days and The Bucolic Plague

    Imprisoned for mass-murder, he escapes with the help of two strange men and a mysterious benefactor. Unfortunately for Drake, they don’t just want a piece of the action. They want it all. Gift Horse: Mutilated by rival convicts, Marco Vance is brought back from the brink of death. Outfitted with the latest cybernetic enhancements, he returns to the Regional Atlanta Metroplex as the conquering criminal kingpin. But, his savior demands that he deliver a message to repay his debt. A message that no one will forget.Money Is Everything: Street gangs hunt a deposed crime boss carrying a case of cash. Pursued and friendless, he can trust no one. Except someone he can buy. Luckily, Noose the genetically engineered dwarf mercenary is always for hire. But, what is his price?Total length about 15,000 words.Includes a free 8000 word excerpt of the full-length novel DEAD DWARVES DON'T DANCE.

    Then, suddenly, a force field surrounds the town, through which no-one can pass, and the population is completely cut off from the outside world by an unknown force.

    Chaos rules the final days of the Forerunner empire. The Flood—a horrifying, shape-changing, and unstoppable parasite—has arrived in force, aided by unexpected allies, and internal strife has desperately weakened Forerunner defenses. Facing the imminent collapse of their civilization, the Forerunners known as the Ur-Didact and the Librarian reveal what they know about the relationship between the long-vanished race of the Precursors and the Flood. While the Precursors created many technological species, including those of the Forerunners and humanity itself, the roots of the Flood may be found in an act of enormous barbarity, carried out beyond our galaxy ten million years before. Because of that savagery, a greater evil looms. Only the Ur-Didact and the Librarian—husband and wife pushed into desperate conflict—hold the keys to a solution. As they face the consequences of a mythic tragedy, one of them must now commit the greatest atrocity of all time—a shocking act designed to prevent an insane abomination from dominating the entire galaxy…

    He had experienced a complete physical transformation in a remarkably short period of time. Just three weeks ago no one would have looked twice at someone like Daniel, but a revolutionary procedure had helped to transform him into something spectacular. He was now beyond human, he was better.He had once believed that the day Jordan moved to Chicago would be the greatest of his life, but it had proven otherwise. Daniel could not compete with Gordon Demers, one of Chicago’s wealthiest and most powerful up-and-comers. Demers had been the true reason for Jordan’s relocation, and all of his money and influence brought with it a physical attraction that Jordan could not resist – even if it meant breaking Daniel’s heart.Daniel had soon after lost his job, and with it his ability to remain in Chicago. He knew then that he had no choice but to accept the offer given to him by an ex-CIA agent and his eccentric partner. The experimental brain surgery he had to undergo held incredible risk – yes, but it had been his only option.The operation had been a success. Daniel was now capable of controlling every single function in his entire body, even those previously out of reach from his conscious mind. It was time for him to put Jordan aside. He was now working for the most elite personal security force on the planet, and would soon be hired to protect high profile individuals from the world’s deadliest assassins.First he would need to establish himself. He needed to train to become the top ranked agent at Elite Personal Security Force and prove himself to be the superior being the revolutionary procedure had turned him into. Anything less would be considered failure.

    But when a terrified woman falls through his bathroom ceiling, he's forced back into a life of gunfights, double agents and paranormal research. The secret he's been keeping for nearly four decades might reunite him with his lost love, or kill millions.This new short story by John August falls into the genre of paranoid "spy-fi" popularized by writers like Jorge Luis Borges and shows like The Prisoner and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.== What Others Say =="I really dug the story. Gave it a glance just to see, got totally hooked, and blazed on through to the end."-- Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The Yiddish Policemen's Union) "The Variant" is both a good, fun, smart story and an interesting experiment in indie self-publishing for fiction."-- John Gruber, daringfireball.net== About the Author ==An excerpt of The Variant is available at johnaugust.com/variant About the AuthorJohn August is the screenwriter of eight feature films, including Go, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride. He wrote and directed the 2007 movie The Nines.He can be found on Twitter, @johnaugust

    Fearing for his life and fighting to prove his own innocence, Max goes on the run with no one to trust and too many unanswered questions.Max must dust off his own hacking skills and maneuver the dangerous labyrinth of underground hacktivist networks, ever-shifting alliances, and virtual identities — all while hoping to find the truth behind the “Silence of Six” before it’s too late.