Book picks similar to
5 Stars by Louise Blackwick


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Ganymede


Jason Taylor - 2019
    Manipulation of the human genome has been perfected, spurring a global arms race to produce the first human clone. When Jill finds the key to unlock this secret, the Ganymede Project shatters everything she thought was real.After confronting the unintended consequences of her discovery, Jill is cast into a bewildering maze of intrigue and deceit. The unexpected results of her research plunges the world into chaos, forcing her to face a future where humans may lose all that remains of their humanity. Haunted by her creations, she will do whatever it takes to contain the turmoil that she has unleashed. As the fate of the world hangs in the balance, Jill uncovers a shocking truth that threatens to destroy everything she has ever loved.

Watch Dogs: Dark Clouds


John Shirley - 2014
     The novel introduces Mick Wolfe, a veteran, who get caught in a dangerous game in Chicago’s hyper connected and violent underground.

The Immorality Clause


Brian Parker - 2016
     The futuristic slum in eastern New Orleans is a violent place where any vice can be satisfied--for a price. As long as the taxes are paid and tourists continue to flock to the city, businesses are allowed to operate as they see fit. Easytown has given rise to the robotic sex trade; where the robots are nearly human and always better than the real thing. Homicide detective, Zach Forrest, has never trusted the machines. When a string of grisly murders rocks the city, he must hunt down the killer responsible. With no witnesses, and no evidence, Forrest embarks on an investigation that will challenge the very scope of reality. Will Forrest find the killer before he becomes the next victim?

Continuum


G.S. Jennsen - 2020
    But space remains vast and untamed, and nothing has prepared us to face the dangers rising from the deep shadows of the void. Fourteen years after The Displacement flung humanity into a universe teeming with alien life, a tenuous alliance has taken root among humans, Anadens, and numerous other species. The wounds of war and revolution have begun to heal, peace and prosperity are within reach, and the architects of The Displacement, Alex Solovy and Caleb Marano, are enjoying an idyllic existence on the living planet of Akeso. But growing troubles fester beneath the surface of this alliance. An upstart species offers allegiance with one hand but readies weapons of mass destruction with the other, while the Anadens, leaderless and adrift for years, increasingly refuse to play by humanity’s rules. As tensions simmer, Nika Kirumase, leader of the Asterions—a splinter group of former Anadens thought aeons dead—arrives bearing a warning of a terrifying enemy advancing across the void. Known as the Rasu, the powerful race of shapeshifting metal has already killed tens of thousands of Asterions in its quest to control all of known space. Nika’s people have struck a blow against the Rasu, and now they race against time to prepare for the coming reprisal. An alliance with humanity stands to give them a fighting chance against their enemy. But for humanity, such an alliance may cost them everything, pushing the fragile peace they fought so hard to achieve to the breaking point and beyond. * In Amaranthe, where exotic alien life, AIs, wormholes, indestructible starships and the promise of immortality rule the day, no feat seems out of reach for humanity. But when the worlds of Aurora Rhapsody and Asterion Noir collide and the Rasu horde descends upon them both, more will be asked of heroes past and future. More will be given and more taken, and when the dust settles the very fabric of Amaranthe will be changed forever.

Re-Wired


Greg Dragon - 2015
    He is in love with Mika Scheider, an exotic beauty and fellow student in his Robotics class.After learning Mika has a boyfriend, Brad focuses on his own android creation, Tricia, but there's something not quite right--Tricia is just a little too real, a little too not robotic and a whole lot like a human. Brad becomes obsessed with Tricia, never realizing the Pandora's Box he's blown wide open that can destroy them all!Alternate-Cover Edition for ASIN B00RQUS36K

The Ghost in the Shell: Global Neural Network


Max GladstoneBrent Schoonover - 2018
    The infiltration of an anti-cyberization cult calls for Section 9's most "human" members to do things the old-fashioned way. A deep dive into the mind of a criminal forces Kusanagi to question the nature of imagination - and her own identity. The stories in Global Neural Network bring a 21st-century perspective to its questions of human identity and the border between mind and machine that made The Ghost in the Shell one of the most revered manga of all time, and unleash top Western comics artists on eye-popping action scenes starring Kusanagi, Batou, Togusa, Aramaki, and all the members of Section 9!Original stories by: * Alex de Campi (Twisted Romance) & Giannis Milonogiannis (Prophet) * Brenden Fletcher (Gotham Academy, Motor Crush) & LRNZ (Golem) * Max Gladstone (the Craft Sequence) & David López (All-New Wolverine) * Genevieve Valentine (Mechanique, Icon), & Brent Schoovoner (The Astonishing Ant-Man)

Technogenesis


Syne Mitchell - 2002
    And only Jaz can stop it from controlling the world.

Doomed Infinity Marine


J.A. Cipriano - 2017
    Bang All WomenWhen Mark Ryder's latest mission turns into a bloodbath, he'll find himself alone on the shores of an alien moon hunted by insects the size of skyscrapers.Now, if he wants to get off this rock alive, he'll have to cut a bloody swathe through the bug queen's elite army, rendezvous with the all-female Artemis squad, and blow the whole thing to Kingdom Come without getting killed. WARNING: THIS DUDE HAS LOTS OF HOT SEX WITH MULTIPLE WOMEN AND KICKS LOTS OF ALIEN BUG ASS

Mindjammer


Sarah Newton - 2011
    It's a time of turmoil, of clashing cultures, as civilizations shudder and collapse before the might of a benevolent empire ten millennia old.In the Solenine Cluster, things are going from bad to worse, as hyper-advanced technologies destabilise a world in chaos. Thaddeus Clay and his special ops team from the Security and Cultural Integrity Instrumentality are on the trail of the Transmigration Heresy. But what they find is something beyond even their imagining - something which could tear the whole Commonality apart!

Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present


Cory Doctorow - 2007
    "Anda's Game" is a spin on the bizarre new phenomenon of "cyber sweatshops," in which people are paid very low wages to play online games all day in order to generate in-game wealth, which can be converted into actual money. Another tale tells of the heroic exploits of "sysadmins" — systems administrators — as they defend the cyber-world, and hence the world at large, from worms and bioweapons. And yes, there is a story about zombies, too.

Overdose


Glen Apseloff - 2013
    Emily Morrison undertakes a controversial drug study over protests from fringe groups and even some colleagues. Soon she’s facing death threats and a letter bomb that maims her secretary. Then a young coed suddenly dies after taking the experimental medication. Emily figures out what killed the girl—not the study drug but DIFP, a toxic chemical from her lab. A diabetic, Emily discovers the same toxin in her insulin. But when the police find a bottle of DIFP in Emily’s office, she suddenly changes from victim to suspect.Then a professional killer comes after her, and he eliminates anyone who gets in the way. Emily knows she must confront this stalker on her terms, but she’ll have to do it without help, using only the element of surprise. And that’s just her first step in uncovering the truth – she needs to find out who hired the killer before someone else tries to finish what he started."An intriguing thriller set against a backdrop of clinical drug tests and medical research." — Kirkus Reviews

M.O.D.


J.C. Allen - 2011
    Scott Carver is asked to make this decision when "M.O.D." asks him to help plan a revolution.

Yarn


Jon Armstrong - 2010
    When an ex-lover, on the run from the authorities, asks him to create a garment from the dangerous and illegal Xi yarn—a psychedelic opiage—to ease her final hours, Tane’s world is torn apart.Armed with just his yarn pulls, scissors, Mini-Air-Juki handheld sewing machine, and his wits, Tane journeys through the shadowy underworld where he must untangle the deadly mysteries and machinations of decades of deceit.

Velvet Dogma


Weston Ochse - 2011
    Called Personal Ocular Devices, or PODS, the interface fits over the eye feeding information directly along the optic nerve into the brain, allowing minds and computers to become one. But not for Rebecca Mines who has been held in solitary confinement for the last 20 years. Arrested under the 2002 Patriot Act as a cyber-terrorist for unleashing a program called Velvet Dogma, her parole restricts access to all computers and all but the simplest of machines. Although the government is still fearful that she'll resume her previous profession, Rebecca wants nothing more than to find a place to exist in peace. She has a life to live, and twenty years of personal stagnation from which to recover. But she discovers that things have changed dramatically since she’s been in prison. Not only is organ theft sanctioned, but all of her organs have already been levied to the highest bidder. No sooner does she promise the judge that she’ll be a law-abiding citizen, then she finds herself on the run from not only Chinese Black Hearts, eager to confiscate her organs, but the authorities who realize that they’ve let her out too soon.Praise for Weston Ochse“Weston Ochse is one of the best authors of our generation.” - Brian Keene, Author of Ghoul and The Rising “Weston Ochse is a mercurial writer, one of those depressingly talented people who are good at whatever they turn their hand to”-Conrad Williams, August Derleth and International Horror Guild Award Winner“Weston Ochse is perhaps the fiercest and most direct of the latest generation of dark fiction writers.” Rocky Wood , author of Stephen King: A Literary Companion.“Weston Ochse is to horror what Bradbury is to science fiction -- an artist whose craft, stories and voice are so distinct and mesmerizing that you can't help but be enthralled.” - Dani Kollin, Prometheus Award-winning author of The Unincorporated Man“Brilliantly rendered. What was so impressive about the piece was that I did not doubt the incredible heroism of the protagonist... nor his motivation. - Andrew Vachss on “Family Man”“Ochse succeeds in creating a complex plot that casts a brutal overwhelming spell.”- International Thriller Award winner Tom Piccirilli on Scarecrow Gods

Map Runners


Arthur Byrne - 2015
    Three years into a twenty year mission to a new solar system, the colony ship Magellan and its ten million residents sent their last pulse message… "Peace with the Navereen is at an end." Trapped in Cargo Bay 37, fighter pilot Fristion Nash and twelve hundred others lived through the Magellan apocalypse. They have survived for a decade under Frank Block's exacting leadership. Now survival isn’t enough. Nash wants answers. Frank Block wants only control and obedience.Praise for Map Runners: “I found the book funny and exciting. I can't wait for the rest of them to come out.”