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.

     Critical Dawn Some mysteries should stay buried. A centuries old plan unfolds. Archaeologists Pippa Quinn and Charlie Jackson find advanced technology in undisturbed 16th Century graves. A portent, the discovery precedes thousands of giant sinkholes opening up across the globe as extreme weather threatens the population. Charlie suspects the two are related. Pippa, Charlie, and the rest of humanity will have to fight for survival, sacrificing the life they’ve known to protect Earth from an ancient and previously dormant enemy. Even that might not be enough as this new enemy exacts a plan that will change the course of humankind forever. Critical Dawn is an apocalyptic ride to the very edge of human existence. Factions will battle for control of the Earth—if they can avoid the threat of extinction. Critical Path Destroying the croatoan’s seat of power has grave consequences. Earth faces destruction, unless bitter enemies can work together. Earth is recovering after Denver and his group managed to stamp out the immediate alien threat. Now, Denver and his team, stationed in a liberated croatoan farm, plan to restore humanity as the dominant force. But when shocking information comes to light, they set off on an immediate mission north. The team encounter a hybrid city, where humans and croatoans live and work together. It’s here in this strange new civilisation that Denver discovers there’s a bigger threat to the planet than the aliens already on the surface: something far more terrible is coming. It’ll be a race against the clock to defeat this new threat and Denver will need all the help he can get. Critical Strike A fight for survival in an alien world. Revenge is planned against Unity. Denver, Charlie and Layla are trapped in the middle of a galactic conflict which has spanned across many millennia. With no immediate allies on either side, they must use all of their skill and strength to stay alive and find a way back to Earth—if there is one. An old enemy of Unity is intent of making them pay for his humiliating treatment. He's gathering forces to the south with vengeance in mind. Mike and Mae must work together with the citizens of Unity to find a way of repelling Augustus' force, or face extinction at the hands of the old emperor. Critical Strike is the exciting third and final instalment of the Critical series.

    As a former Spec-Ops warrior, Spartan has found that the skills given to him by the Coalition government are well suited to his new occupation. After retrieving a lucrative bounty, Spartan returns to Terran space and finds that one of his oldest friends has been murdered. Vowing to track down the killer, he soon becomes the unwilling pawn in an interstellar power struggle between two old rivals, his former Omega Squadron Commander and the President of the Coalition. When Spartan is forced to kill his mentor in self-defense, he is arrested by Galactic Marshals and detained. But when the Marshals kill a Federal Agent and pin the murder on him, he is forced to flee Earth with a small group of friends. Now the hunter becomes the hunted. Spartan finds that having a bounty placed on his head to be troublesome as he evades the authorities, tracks down his old commander and struggles to clear his name. Unknown to all, an ancient evil has awakened and has plans of its own for mankind and they include death, destruction and chaos. Are the skills Iaido ‘Achilles’ Spartan gained over the years enough to save the day and clear his name?The Last Spartan: Different Paths is the first book in a Sci Fi adventure novel series following a genetically engineered super-soldier on his quest for redemption and discovery of his purpose since leaving the service. Typically a loner, Iaido ‘Achilles’ Spartan learns the bittersweet truth that that no man is an island and nothing is more valuable than friendship. He might have been designed to be nothing more than a killer but in the end, he chooses to walk a different path. Carpe diem.

    A possession of Sakkin Industries, she is being honed into a surgical weapon, trained to infiltrate and exterminate. Slowly, day-by-day, they try to erode her humanity and replace it with blind obedience and determination. For operative Eight Two, Sakkin is a second chance at life. Rescued from a massacred village, she's given a new home among their deadly trainees at the Institute. But as she's indoctrinated, the brutal training reveals she’s not like them. Conflicted, she’s torn between graduating to join Sakkin's elite ranks or lashing out against the injustice they bring to the world. Part 1 in a new series, 2055 - Escape follows on from the PRIMAL books of hard-hitting global vigilantes. It gives a glimpse into a not so distant future where security conglomerates protect the privileged few, Lascar has evolved into a sophisticated humanitarian aid outfit, and a shadow war is looming.

    Her own survival soon becomes doubtful when the band’s leader threatens to cast her out onto the steppe for what he sees as dangerous willfulness. Raven feels an unexpected empathy for the mysterious Neanderthal. But while trying to preserve his life and health, will she go so far as to commit what could be the worst error of her own life? Mark Hayek will never find out that Raven faced a frightening dilemma. But if he did know, he would understand that the present reality exists because of choices made in the past. As meticulously researched as Jean Auel’s Earth Children series but with the benefit of recent discoveries, this novella is an updated story revealing how contact between Neanderthals and Early Humans had surprising results.

     The catastrophic Abunga virus has wiped out everyone on Earth except for a few scattered souls with natural immunity. Other humans escaped this Apocalypse by fleeing to other parts of the Solar System, populating and exploiting its moons and planets. A thousand years on, those now living on these distant outposts still can't return but secretly confine and observe the survivors as a combination of social experiment and nostalgic entertainment. Their former home is now a ‘holopark’, a new Eden, a Heaven on Earth. It’s a chance for the human race to start all over again. There, Gibbous Moon, a 70-year-old tribal story-teller and seer, is leaving his settlement on a solitary Last Walk Out. Except that he is not alone. Reluctantly he has to accept animal company in the shape of a determined dog he names Yellow. And then his daughter-in-law Paintbrush and her baby Skyman suddenly appear after their clan is brutally massacred by rivals on the reservation. Could it be possible that this small renegade band could now form an unlikely alliance, the basis of a real New Beginning? Praise for David Helton: "The Last Walk Out is a story that satisfies on many levels – compelling and adventurous, with engaging characters including strong and individualistic women, it investigates the wisdom and contradictions mankind has confronted across history." - Amazon Review David Helton was born in San Francisco, graduated from the University of Texas and has spent most of his working mainly as a freelance journalist and documentary scriptwriter. He has won or been nominated for several international awards and has written one other novel, King Jude. He now lives in England.

    His confusion is intensified when he realizes that the girl, Alta, has crossed over from another time and place. And the only way to reunite her with her family is to cross back with her. Accompanied by a few friends, Joe crosses into Alta's world only to find her home destroyed by a savage war chief. Then the gate closes behind them. Stranded in the Eleventh Century, on the present day Susquehanna River, Joe and his band fight to create a safe home for the refugee they've gathered. And to prepare for future European contact.

    Knowing that for their ultimate survival they must increase their gene pool, two members of the New Zealand branch of the family embark on a perilous journey in a small yacht. The community they find in England is a very different one, based on the rule of fear. Not only does it look impossible to take anyone back to New Zealand, but it may also be impossible for them to escape themselves… A dazzling debut, sharp, gripping and plausibly scary.

    Earth-Mars relations couldn’t be worse, and her brother is captured during the raid. Breaking rules of secrecy and no contact, Jess finds an ally in Pavel, nephew to a government official, but their friendship only makes more agonizing the choice before her: Save her brother or save her planet?

    Gamers think that they are beta testing the world's first true Virtual Reality fantasy game, but are they? Or is the magical world of Preu Treya as real as our own? A daring experience filled with swords, sorcery, and adventure .

    For almost three years, the Federation and the Klingon Empire, allied under the Khitomer Accords, have contended with the nascent coalition on a predominantly cold-war footing. But as Starfleet rebuilds itself, factions within the Typhon Pact grow restive, concerned about their own inability to develop a quantum slipstream drive to match that of the Federation. Will leaders such as UFP President Bacco and RSE Praetor Kamemor bring about a lasting peace across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, or will the cold war between the two alliances deepen, and perhaps even lead to an all-out shooting war? Raise the Dawn After the disastrous events in the Bajoran system, Captain Benjamin Sisko must confront the consequences of the recent choices he has made in his life. At the same time, the United Federation of Planets and its Khitomer Accords allies have come to the brink of war with the Typhon Pact. While factions within the Pact unsuccessfully used the recent gestures of goodwill—the opening of borders and a joint Federation-Romulan exploratory mission—to develop quantum-slipstream drive, they have not given up their goals. Employing a broad range of assets, from Romulus to Cardassia, from Ab-Tzenketh to Bajor, they embark on a dangerous new plan to acquire the technology they need to take control of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. While UFP President Bacco and Romulan Praetor Kamemor work feverishly to reestablish peace, Captains Sisko, Jean-Luc Picard, and Ro Laren stand on the front lines of the conflict...even as a new danger threatens the Bajoran wormhole as it once more becomes a flashpoint of galactic history. Brinkmanship The Venette Convention has always remained independent, but it is about to become the flashpoint for a tense military standoff between the two power blocs now dominating interstellar space—the United Federation of Planets and the recently formed Typhon Pact. The Venetan government turns to the Typhon Pact’s Tzenkethi Coalition for protection in the new order, and has agreed to allow three of their supply bases for Tzenkethi use. But these bases—if militarized—would put Tzenkethi weapons unacceptably close to Federation, Cardassian, and Ferengi space. While Captain Ezri Dax and the crew of the U.S.S. Aventine are sent to investigate exactly what is happening at one of the Venette bases, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the U.S.S. Enterprise are assigned to a diplomatic mission sent to the Venette homeworld in order to broker a mutually acceptable resolution. But the Cardassian delegates don’t seem particularly keen on using diplomacy to resolve the situation, which soon spirals out of control toward all-out war. . .

    Bryce, has always believed to himself that he was just a typical teenage boy, until one day he is attacked in the school court yard and his attacker wants to kidnap him. Bryce's world is turn upside down when he is told that he may be the key to opening up another world. A world that he didn't knew existed...

    The struggles span all possibilities: face-offs with knives and clubs, skirmishes as Roman legionaries, pitched WW1 trench warfare, duels with ultra-modern hypersonic weapons, and everything in between. The combatants who live are rewarded with another battle until they reach the unreachable score of ten sigmas. Those who die are expunged from the system, gone forever. The methods, so harsh they go beyond anything possible in the real world, are necessary for the end goal: violent evolution to produce the greatest warriors in all of human history.Who would choose such a fate?Those with no hope.On a wintry night, a government representative presents Mary, who is dying of incurable cancer, with the offer: a second chance at life and for those completing the requirements, a return to the real world in a fresh, healthy body. To save her family from bankrupting medical bills, she accepts.After her consciousness is transferred into the virtual universe of the program, her essence is ripped apart and her memories shattered. She’s reassembled as the perfect killer.As the life-and-death contests begin, she discovers the true nature of what lies ahead. But, she won’t surrender to the impossible and grimly embarks on the journey to return to her family while trying to save her soul.Mature readers only: intense combat, graphic violence, horror elements, some sex, some language.

    Only Tekla cares enough to search for her over the years. As Ka Li survives fierce predators and scarce resources she leaves behind a series of signal cairns to help Tekla find her.Skipping forward 60,000 years, Helen Ryland, a mid-twentieth century archaeologist, unearths one of Ka Li's surviving signal cairns and realizes she has found trace of people who populated the Americas even before the Clovis culture. Helen's detective work tracking Ka Li's timeless signals across the Alaskan wilderness now intertwines with Ka Li's story. As Helen solves the puzzle of the signal cairns she finds universal fame and suffers devastating misfortune. In the end Helen discovers that science in isolation cannot answer all of her questions, for Tekla's devotion to Ka Li had not died even though six hundred centuries had passed.

    But as victory is within her grasp, the fight takes an unexpected turn. Void Dragons attack Earth from the depths of outer space. Amanda learns that a vast interstellar community of Magi and advanced humans already live throughout the galaxy, keeping their presence hidden from earth. Unknown to the galactic community of humans, the Archons leave Earth to travel to the stars. Forming an alliance with the Void dragons and their dread masters, the Archons are now poised to rain destruction on the entire galaxy. With the threat to humanity throughout the stars growing, Amanda joins with a renowned dragon hunter and must leave the comfort of Earth behind to continue the fight. Now, she must rally support from the disbelieving masses of humanity, and track down the Archons before they bring darkness, terror and death to the galaxy. WARNING: This book contains intimate lesbian polyamorous situations (FF & FFF). Reader discretion is advised.