Anyone wanting to know what it was like to live there, only had to read a small wooden sign on the outskirts of town: “Welcome to Killen…a little piece of Heaven.” Those words rang true for most of Killen’s first 200 years. But there was one exception. It was the time that Killen lived up to its name and a little piece of heaven...became...a little piece of hell. When Thomas Dalton was 13-years-old, a string of murders in a North Georgia received unwanted national attention. With the passing of time, facts got distorted, turning Killen into a macabre tourist destination. But for Thomas, it became personal when his own parents, suddenly disappeared and were subsequently declared dead. He goes to school to become an investigative reporter and gets a job at a national cable television station. Thomas then is assigned to a national case tracking down a serial killer. What Thomas doesn’t realize is the serial killer he is looking for, will not only solve a national mystery it will also solve his own mystery. Throughout Thomas’s journey he is driven to find out who killed his parents. But he also desperately wants to restore the reputation of Killen and rebuild the family business.The only question that remains is…can he make Killen a little piece of heaven once again?

    How? We don't know. But it changes everything: war, crime, daily life.Tony Valdez is a Dispatcher - a licensed, bonded professional whose job is to humanely dispatch those whose circumstances put them in death's crosshairs, so they can have a second chance to avoid the reaper. But when a fellow Dispatcher and former friend is apparently kidnapped, Tony learns that there are some things that are worse than death and that some people are ready to do almost anything to avenge a supposed wrong.It's a race against time for Valdez to find his friend before it's too late...before not even a Dispatcher can save him.___Zachary Quinto - best known for his role as the Nimoy-approved Spock in the recent Star Trek reboot and the menacing, power-stealing serial killer, Sylar, in Heroes - brings his well-earned sci-fi credentials and simmering intensity to this audio-exclusive novella from master storyteller John Scalzi.

    A new social networking site bursts onto the scene. Private Life promises total privacy, with freebies and financial incentives for all. Across the world, a record number of users sign up.A deadly virus is discovered in a little known African province, and it's spreading—fast. The UK announces a countrywide vaccination programme. Members of underground group Unicorn believe the disease to be man-made, and that the people are being fed lies driven by a vast conspiracy.Vicky Keating's boyfriend, Dex, is working for Unicorn over two hundred miles away when the first UK outbreak is detected in her home town of Shipden, on the Norfolk coast. The town is placed under military controlled quarantine and, despite official assurances that there is no need for panic, within days the virus is unstoppable. In London, Travis begins to question the nature of the top secret data analysis project he is working on, while in Newcastle there are scores to be settled...

    . . and it promises to be a publication to remember.An ex-corporate enforcer, Hakan Veil, is forced to bodyguard Madison Madekwe, part of a colonial audit team investigating a disappeared lottery winner on Mars. But when Madekwe is abducted, and Hakan nearly killed, the investigation takes him farther and deeper than he had ever expected. And soon Hakan discovers the heavy price he may have to pay to learn the truth.

    That's what fifteen-year-old Aubrey VanHouten learns when he stumbles onto a post-apocalyptic paradise where the few remaining humans live on the run from deadly drones controlled by a mysterious Park Service. Torn between loyalty to his new best friend and trusting the girl of his dreams, Aubrey must learn to survive in a world he never dreamed existed while searching for answers to why everything he was taught is a lie. Beautifully written with challenging moral dilemmas and heart-melting friendships, The Park Service trilogy is an epic coming-of-age-story that will inspire and delight readers young and old.

    Richard has to make the transformation from bookish nerd to street-smart warrior to survive, when he jumps the Food Train to the disintegrating wasteland that was once suburbia in a desperate search for Danny and his dog, Zonk.Branded a criminal by a community of outcasts and condemned to death, Richard is rescued by streetwise Carrie, who joins in his search. As they trek across the remnants of civilization, facing criminal gangs, renegade militias, and the hardships of the road, their friendship evolves into something more.The trail finally unwinds at a deserted complex in the remotest corner of the sprawling suburbs. The incredible secret they uncover there will alter their lives and their world forever.

    Professionally edited and proofed..Swallow the Sky embodies the essence of classic science fiction: real science, adventure, high spirits, and above all, a sense of wonder.Galactic culture is still reverberating from the nanotech disaster that destroyed Earth. But this is ancient history to Carson, an inter-stellar mailman and a collector of antique technology, until he learns of the secret location of Earth’s lost treasures. Carson is not alone in his discovery and becomes embroiled with a wealthy megalomaniac determined to capture the bounty for himself. As their race across the galaxy accelerates it becomes chillingly clear that far more is at stake than ancient artifacts, leading to the protagonists’ final confrontation in the ruined kingdom of Sol."Somewhere, EE Smith, Gene Roddenberry, and Iain Banks are sitting around wishing they'd written a Space Opera as entertaining as Swallow the Sky. Intelligent world-building, strong characterization, and settings that are just rip-roaring good fun! It tells a tale the old-fashioned way - brilliantly!"Chris Garcia, Hugo award-winning editor“This book is fun, filled with machines who have sassy personalities, leviathans who enjoy a good-natured game of hide-and-seek, and sentient insects who trust that someday, humans will evolve... Carson really is a unique antique himself, and an adorable good-guy to spend time with as a reader.”Yvette Keller, Science Fiction in San Francisco Magazine

    Only one man could prevent the accident. An ex-NASA scientist reluctantly joins the crew of re-commissioned space shuttle Discovery on a daring rescue mission to recover the satellite. Orbiting Earth, they are about to experience something out of this world.

    This edition features exclusive content from Veronica Roth and beautiful reimagined cover art from award-winning illustrator Victo Ngai.Readers first encountered Tobias as "Four" in Divergent and will find more of this charismatic character's backstory told from his own perspective in Four: A Divergent Collection. When read together, these long narrative pieces illuminate the defining moments in Tobias's life, from his transfer from Abnegation to Dauntless, his initiation, and the decisions of loyalty—and love—that Tobias makes in the weeks after he meets Tris Prior.“The same mix of tension, uncertainty, and hope that made the original stories irresistible. A welcome trip down memory lane.” —Publishers Weekly“Fans of Divergent who can’t get enough—and maybe even the rare reader who missed the first rush—will snap up this story collection told. It will fly off the shelves and for good reason.” —ALA Booklist

    As twelve-year-olds struggling to survive in two very different worlds within the Republic’s stronghold, June was starting her first day of school at Drake University as the youngest cadet ever admitted, and Day was fighting for food on the streets of the Lake sector. LIFE BEFORE LEGEND contains two original stories written by Marie Lu that give readers a sneak peek into the lives of their favorite characters in a thrilling new context.

    Before long Russ discovers he's developed incredible superpowers, and he’s not the only one. Three other young people—beautiful Mallory, arrogant Jameson, and mysterious Nadia—have had the same experience and all of them now have powers of their own. Mallory can control peoples’ minds, Jameson moves objects with his thoughts, and Nadia has empathic abilities.At first the four relish their newfound gifts, but things become serious when they learn they are being hunted by an organization that wants them for its own nefarious purposes. When Russ’s family is threatened, he’s forced into action. What transpires will change all of them in ways they never imagined.

     Spartan is a living legend, a veteran of the Alliance Marine Corps, victor of a multitude of military campaigns including the horrific Biomech War. He is both loved and reviled by friend and foe alike, and now lives out on the fringes of the Alliance. He has fought for money, for his people and for the very survival of his species, and lost everything in the process. But when two of his closest friends are captured supplying weapons to the desperate Byotai settlers of Karnak, the fight becomes personal. The Great Biomech War left millions dead, colonies burned, and cities turned to ash. Millions more continue to endure in the harshest of conditions. The Alliance attempts to restore order, yet already new enemies have begun to strike at will, encouraged by their weakness. Border planets succumb to the raids of warlords, and many doubt how long the peace will last, after it was won at such cost. Since the end of this war, Spartan and his friends have worked to create an elite fighting force based at Taxxu, for use by the Alliance. Using the latest high-energy weapons, armoured fighting suits and a prototype Confederate-class warship, it will be a force unlike any the Alliance has seen before. Spartan will use this and every other asset at his disposal to save his friends. Nothing, not even the entire might of the invading Anicinàbe clans and their fearsome clan leaders, can stop him, even if it means starting his own private war. Lords of War is a futuristic military sci-fi adventure that continues to expand the vast universe of the Star Crusades series that includes Star Crusades: Uprising and Star Crusades: Nexus. Essential and unmissable reading for enthusiasts of the Military sci-fi genre.

    Archaeologist Verity Auger specializes in the exploration of its surviving landscape. Now, her expertise is required for a far greater purpose.Something astonishing has been discovered at the far end of a wormhole: mid-twentieth century Earth, preserved like a fly in amber. Somewhere on this alternate planet is a device capable of destroying both worlds at either end of the wormhole. And Verity must find the device, and the man who plans to activate it, before it is too late—for the past and the future of two worlds…

    One of their own is dead, strangled in her car by a professional killer, and it's up to me, telepath consultant extraordinaire, to pull the rabbit out of my hat and solve the case. Only this time I'm not so sure I can.Homicide Detective Isabella Cherabino is breathing down my neck. The dead cop's partner is too. And now, the worst--there was a five-year-old kid in the car, a kid no one can find.Note from the author: "Rabbit Trick" takes place before the events of Clean, so the hero intentionally remains nameless.

    The futuristic theories, conspiracies, political maneuvering, and characters within these visionary tales will stay with you long after you finish.In the Great Commonwealth of Beimeni, a subterranean civilization in North America, expansion long ago gave way to peace and prosperity in the face of the history's most devastating plague. Immortality is the reward for service and loyalty in Beimeni, a place where the physical blends with the metaphysical and power consolidates in the hands of those with a genetic edge. The fissures first spread slowly, then swiftly, until now the Great Commonwealth finds itself on the brink of economic devastation, challenged by forces from within that know its secrets and its crimes.At the center of the conflict lie the Selendias of Piscator, founders of the resistance with an uncanny connection to the zeropoint field; and the Barão Strike Team, three researchers tasked with finding a cure to the Reassortment Strain, the plague that nearly wiped humanity from the Earth. Traveling from the uninhabitable but pristine surface to the habitable but inhospitable underground, this is a story about dedication to dreams, battle for survival, discovery and connection, song and celebration, undoing past misdeeds, and sacrifice for the greater good.