Gladiators, as they are better known, are genetically modified human champions who meet Klethos d’relle in the combat ring when the Klethos issue a challenge for a human world. Win, and the planet stays in human possession; lose, and not only do they lose their lives, but the world as well. With the Klethos much more advanced and militarily powerful, able to defeat humanity in an all-out war, the challenge ring is the only way to retain at least some of the worlds of man. While life as a gladiator is full of celebrity status and the gratitude of humanity, it comes with a heavy price. Not only is there the real risk of death in the ring, if a gladiator survives that, the “Brick,” or Boosted Regeneration Cancer, will claim her life within a few years. Lance Corporal Veal, who has found a home in the Marines, has to decide whether to accept the nomination. She would have to leave her brothers and sisters in the Corps, be assigned to the combined human gladiator course, and undergo extreme genetic modification that will leave her almost unrecognizable from the woman she was before. Becoming a gladiator will enable her to serve humanity to a far greater extent than anything else she could do as a Marine grunt, but at a tremendous personal cost. Author’s note: For those readers familiar with my other Marine-related books, this one is a little different in that there is far less combat action, particularly from a Marine unit standpoint. This novel, which is the first of three planned books that follow three different women serving as United Federation Marines or as a Navy corpsman, is more about duty, sacrifice, and what it means to serve in defense of others.

    All of that changes, though, when Lee leads a team of old friends to virtual glory as the first-ever group to beat Mako Assault, a revolutionary new game that has emerged from nowhere to take the Internet by storm. As a reward for their achievement, the group is flown to meet the game’s mysterious designer and assist in developing the follow-on game Mako 2.0. But what they find when they get there is more than they’d expected…much more. Mako’s intent was never to entertain its players. It was to train them.An epic sci-fi thrill-ride of action, suspense, laughter, and romance, Mako is the story of five ordinary people who will have to rise to the challenge of extraordinary events, driven only by their faith in each other. If they can’t, the game will become very real to more than just themselves—the Earth itself may ultimately be at stake.

     Britain – and the European Union – is struggling to remain civilised. Unemployment is high, ethnic and religious tensions are rising sharply, crime is skyrocketing, the value of money is falling and the whole system is on the verge of collapse. Across the continent, united only in name, countless individuals struggle to keep themselves afloat and survive for a few more days. But weakness invites attack and covetous eyes set their sights on the remains of Europe’s industry and trained population. As a military juggernaut descends on an unprepared continent, the remains of Britain’s once-proud military must fight to defend their country ... or watch helplessly as Britain falls into darkness. [As always, my books are DRM-free. Samples of this title (and others) can be downloaded from my website: www.chrishanger.net. Reviews and comments are always welcome.]

    The a body with two holes in its neck and no blood left turned up at his back door, and he found himself dealing with the kind of information that can get a man killed, or worse, much worse.Being chased by things out of myth and nightmare, Jason has only two weapons: his best friend, and his won quick wits.In a battle against darkness, the brightest weapon is the light of reason.

    And now that the war was won, powerful forces in the government had no intention of relinquishing those powers. As in 1860, the country was on the verge of civil war. And as in 1860, a leader arose to save the country-but it was not the President this time. Instead, the Governor of Texas was the woman of destiny. . . .

    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.

    He succeeds beyond anyone's wildest expectations, becoming not just a pirate, but the deadliest do-gooder in the galaxy.Gateway to Elsewhere - Suppose that in another dimension, the world of the Arabian Nights is real, including very powerful and very dangerous djinns, who are nothing like Aladdin's big blue pal. A man from our world wouldn't have a chance against them ... or, would he?The Duplicators - A planet with a machine which can duplicate anything would be the wealthiest world in the galaxy, right? Wrong. And unless the hapless voyager who's trapped on the planet can find a solution to its problem, he isn't going to live to leave again. Plus three short stories, including "A Logic Named Joe," an uncannily prophetic story of home computers and the internet - written in 1946.

     The dark forces of the Neo Hegemony strike, sweeping across the worlds of the Arcadian sector and crushing all in their path. One system stands against the onslaught, the Kingdom of New Avalon. But the men and women of their expeditionary forces are trapped behind enemy lines on a besieged planet. Losing those troops will lose the war. Their only hope? A last-ditch rescue mission led by Captain Hal Cutter and his battleship, Achilles. Beset on all sides by lethal enemy warships, he must lead a rag-tag fleet of naval and civilian vessels across Hegemony-held space to save the beleaguered Kingdom soldiers. In the skies and orbit, Lieutenant Jason ‘Rick’ Richards and the untested pilots of Viper squadron clash in a furious battle for supremacy against elite enemy fighters. And on the ground, Private Patrick ‘Wink’ Goble and his platoon must hold the line against a ruthless commander and her overwhelming force of battle-tested mechs until salvation arrives. All will play their part in this desperate struggle for survival against impossible odds. The Great War has begun… Read the epic new military science fiction series from Ralph Kern, the best-selling author of the Locus series.

    Genellan -- the sole refuge for a ship's crew and a detachment of spacer marines, abandoned by a fleet fleeing from alien attackers. Now winter is coming, and the savage bear people are returning, bent on destroying every human -- but not before stealing the secret of hyperlight drive, the key to interstellar flight . . . .

    From two time Shamus Award winner Brendan DuBois comes a terrifying and original tale of a world populated mostly by teens, who are fighting to save their lives . . . and the future of planet Earth.A decade ago, the alien Creepers came to Earth, dropping asteroids to drown our coastal cities, detonating nuclear weapons overhead to destroy our communications, power and computer systems, and to set up their network of killer stealth satellites to kill anything on our planet that used modern technology. In a matter of days, Earth was driven back to a nineteenth century existence. Then the war really began, as the Creepers descended and set up domed bases that were impervious to everything save a nuclear bomb.For ten years then, the battered and surviving members of humanity have fought against the Creepers and their mechanized exoskeletons, until something unexpected has happened: a chance for victory. Sixteen-year-old Randy Knox has the usual problems of a teenage boy: getting along with his father, dating his sweetheart, and trying not to fail his junior year of high school. But Randy also has other demands on his time, as a sergeant in the N.H. National Guard, attached to the U.S. Army, and fighting the invading Creepers. Randy has dim memories of a time of electric lights, laptop computers, television screens and above all, plenty of food at every meal. On his twelfth birthday, he enlisted in the Army to carry on the fight, since most of the world’s adults have been killed off and it’s up to the younger generations to serve. But now, as a veteran of the Creeper war and with his K-9 partner Thor, Randy has learned to focus on the essentials: the best way to kill a Creeper, scrounge through abandoned buildings for old canned goods, and to avoid being turned into “barbecue bait.” He has earned the Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts, and the Combat Infantryman Badge. Endless war is all he knows. But now change has drastically come to his life. The current President of the United States has announced that scattered remnants of the Air Force have destroyed the Creeper’s Orbital Base, ensuring victory over the alien invaders. Those surviving Creepers on the Earth’s surface will be hunted down and exterminated, as a weary and wary population celebrates victory. Yet Randy is assigned a new mission: to escort a secret representative from the Governor of New Hampshire to the nation’s capital, to meet with the President. And at the last moment, a fellow teen soldier—the beautiful Serena Coulson and her mute younger brother Buddy—are assigned to join Randy. This secretive mission proves to be the most dangerous assignment of his life, as Randy tries to protect his charges from rampaging Creepers and criminal humans. And as he fights to reach the capitol with a vital mission, Randy learns that all of his skills in combating aliens may not be enough to survive the dark conspiracies of his fellow humans.

    For reasons Max barely understands, the Vaaach decide that they have an obligation to train him to be a Vaaach warrior, or at least as close as a puny, fruit-eating human can come.     Max finds himself on a strange, unknown world, under the tutelage of a nine-foot tall, carnivorous Vaaach drill instructor, learning an alien way of fighting, and stalking and making war. Not only is the training like nothing Max has ever imagined, there's the small matter of the final exam: a real mission involving real combat against real Krag with the life or death of an entire Union naval task force hanging in the balance. Max is going to have to find resources of cunning, creativity, strength, endurance, and courage far beyond his years if he's going to survive and save thousands of his comrades who--unknown to them--are depending on the slender thread of the young officer's abilities for their very survival.      The Hunters of Vermin is a short novel (just over 62,500 words, slightly longer than such classic novels as Lord of the Flies and All Quiet on the Western Front), that can be read as a stand-alone adventure or as a part of the longer series of Max Robichaux space tales. Readers who have never met Max Robichaux or encountered Honsinger's fiction before will find a thrilling, self-contained adventure. Fans of Honsinger's other books will gain interesting insight into the events that helped make Max Robichaux the officer we meet in the "Man of War" series, as this novel covers events immediately after the conclusion of the novella Deadly Nightshade and twelve years before the beginning of the "Man of War" Series.     This novel packs everything Honsinger's readers expect--realistically staged combat, deep character development, believable aliens, and the thrill of deep space adventure--into a compact package. The Hunters of Vermin is a military coming-of-age story in the vein of the early Horatio Hornblower books, but set centuries in the future against the backdrop of an interstellar war that threatens the survival of the human race.

    Reprint.

    A face-off with killers in order to guard a secret that could change humanity forever.  LIVE FOREVER—OR DIE TRYING When the world’s richest man is the victim of a car bomb and literally blown off the Golden Gate Bridge the attack is attributed to terrorists and the world moves on. But some still wonder. Was Manuel Colibri targeted because, as Silicon Valley rumor has it, he was about to make the dream that people alive today can live to be one thousand come true? Two people are pursuing the truth. Tech journalist Kate Boyle and recovering Iraq war veteran Ben Shepard race through the Bay Area chasing the only clues the reclusive Colibri left behind. They discover not only each other but a cosmic secret that can change human history—and may cost them their lives. Praise for The Golden Gate: "Futuristic and imaginative, The Golden Gate by Robert Buettner sweeps across continents and centuries in a thrilling chase for the truth about longevity.  The science is fascinating, and the suspense never lets up.  Readers will revel in this terrific roller-coaster ride."—Gayle Lynds, New York Times bestselling author of The Assassins ". . . reverberates with echoes of current concerns over biomedical ethics, religion, and political machinations . . . interesting ideas about life extension and the implications of technological advances . . . and . . . the underlying mystery and unpredictability keep the pages turning."—Publishers Weekly About Robert Buettner's Balance Point: "Buettner . . . conducts his thriller action with suspense and plausibility. All the separate threads balance neatly, as if in homage to the book's themes of balance between antagonistic polities . . . and [Balance Point] carries forward nobly the kind of core SF tale pioneered by writers such as Anderson, Gordon Dickson, Christopher Anvil, James Schmitz, and C. J. Cherryh, offering entertainment aplenty with thoughtful meditations on how humanity can get along with itself or not!"—Locus About Robert Buettner and the Orphan's Legacy Series: “Buettner goes well beyond . . . military science fiction . . . he understands . . . living as a soldier—the boredom punctuated by terror, the constant anxiety and self-doubt, the random chaos that battle always is, and the emotional glue that holds together people who may have nothing in common except absolute responsibility for one another's lives.” —Joe Haldeman, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author “[O]nce in a while . . . a contemporary author penetrates to the heart of Heinlein's vision . . . to replicate the master's effects. . . . [O]ne such book [is] Robert Buettner's Orphanage.” —The Washington Post “Entertaining. Buettner shows the Heinlein touch.” —Denver Post

    This time they’re treasure hunting in a dimension that combines the Wild West with the vampire-curse hills of Transylvania—where gold is common as dirt and danger lurks behind every sagebrush.Something M.Y.T.H. Inc.…Revolution is in the air. The king’s court sorcerer is being eyed with suspicion. Not for dabbling in black arts… not for consorting with a demon… not for having a dragon as a pet… not even for being mobbed up. But for the greatest crime of all: raising taxes.Who is this terrible Tyrant? None other than Skeeve the Great.Oh, how the mighty have fallen…

    Now Shiva V has entered the Solar System and there's only one way to defeat it: get inside and kill it. An intriguing look at what the world wide web may become.--Vernor Vinge.