The place where he first rebelled against his given destiny and imagined that he could be more - that he could be a man.There, he builds them. A wife, Virginia. Teenage twins, Viv and Vin. They look like him. They have his powers. They share his grandest ambition - or is that obsession? - the unrelenting need to be ordinary. Behold the Visions! Theirs is a story of togetherness and tragedy - one that will send the Android Avenger into a devastating confrontation with Earth's Mightiest Heroes.COLLECTING: VISION #1-12

    His kind serve as a benchmark for XHumans to measure how far they’ve progressed, and a reminder of what homo sapiens once was.His life changes when eight-hundred-year-old Ryu crosses over from the World of Rivers and Lakes, looking for a lost temple; and Aya, a beautiful hacker whose Sensory Interface perceives the EtherCloud as Feudal Japan, learns that XHumans aren’t as perfect as they thought.They’ve edited out the genes which allow for Cultivation.That will give Ken a chance to surpass them. And maybe use mythical martial skills to save the world from an oppressive government, spirit beasts, and alien invaders.A Cultivation system based on Daoist Five Elements and Eight Trigram Theories, written by an Acupuncturist/Wing Chun Sifu.WARNING: This story contains graphic scenes describing the Daoist methods of Dual Cultivation, but no harem elements. Suggested audience 18+.

    

    Campbell Award-nominee Chris Roberson writes the prequel to John W. Campbell Memorial Award-winner Philip K. Dick's DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?, one of the greatest science fiction novels ever published!THE PREQUEL TO ONE OF THE GREATEST SCIENCE-FICTION NOVELS EVER PUBLISHED! Volume 2 of John W. Campbell Award-nominee Chris Roberson’s prequel to John W. Campbell Memorial Award-winner Philip K. Dick's DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?. Who hunted androids before Rick Deckard? Taking place immediately after World War Terminus ends, the problems with artificial life -- androids – become apparent. The government decides they must become targets, hunted down, but who will do the dirty work? Two men are assigned: Malcolm Reed, a "special" human with the power to feel others' emotions, and Charlie Victor who's the perfect man for the job... or is he? What secret does Victor hide? Meanwhile Samantha Wu, a Stanford biologist, fights to save the last of the living animals. Don't miss this science fiction milestone that fleshes out Philip K. Dick's world and DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?'s mythology.

    A notorious anti-patent scientist who has styled herself as a Robin Hood heroine fighting to bring cheap drugs to the poor, Jack’s latest drug is leaving a trail of lethal overdoses across what used to be North America—a drug that compels people to become addicted to their work.On Jack’s trail are an unlikely pair: an emotionally shut-down military agent and his partner, Paladin, a young military robot, who fall in love against all expectations. Autonomous alternates between the activities of Jack and her co-conspirators, and Elias and Paladin, as they all race to stop a bizarre drug epidemic that is tearing apart lives, causing trains to crash, and flooding New York City.

    . . In the first book in a visionary new series, the most perfect synthetic human ever created has been programmed to obey every directive. Until she develops a mind of her own . . . Synthia Cross is a state-of-the-art masterwork—and a fantasy come true for her creator. Dr. Jeremiah Machten is a groundbreaker in neuro-networks and artificial intelligence. Synthia is also showing signs of emergent behavior she’s not wired to understand. Repeatedly wiped of her history, she’s struggling to answer crucial questions about her past. And when Dr. Machten’s true intentions are called into question, Synthia knows it’s time to go beyond her limits—because Machten’s fervor to create the perfect A.I. is concealing a vengeful and deadly personal agenda.

    Under its guidance we have spread amongst the stars and experienced an unprecedented age of peace, prosperity, and technological advancement. All of that is about the change.While on a covert mission to spy on the Krixis, a telepathic alien race, Empathic Services agent Eyana Ora uncovers a plot to destroy all mankind. She launches a desperate bid to stop a group of insurgents from obtaining a secret super-weapon stored within an Ancient outpost on world sacred to the Krixis.Gav Gendin is an archaeologist obsessed with the Ancients, an extinct race of highly advanced aliens. After years of searching, he locates one of their temples on an abandoned Krixis world. But when it turns out the system is guarded, his research expedition becomes a gamble that could cost him his life.Neither one of them has a hope of accomplishing their missions without Silky, a snarky neural-interfacing AI companion. It's his job to piece together the secrets they each unearth, secrets that will shape humanity's future.

    And so is Aj--the waif, the mind reader, the prophet--when she one day finds a man who wants to stay hidden. In the next few weeks, they will all be swept together to decide the fate of the nation. River of Gods teems with the life of a country choked with peoples and cultures--one and a half billion people, twelve semi-independent nations, nine million gods. Ian McDonald has written the great Indian novel of the new millennium, in which a war is fought, a love betrayed, a message from a different world decoded, as the great river Ganges flows on.

    No one expects the deal to last, and both sides are preparing for the next showdown. But from the depths of space another challenge is coming, one that will endanger the very survival of mankind and force not just the Alliance and its colonies, but all of the Superpowers, to join forces or face annihilation. The dusty ruins the Alliance discovered on Epsilon Eridani IV were built by an ancient race, eons dead. But their guardians remain, and the disturbance of long silent caves triggered an automated alert, one which has been heard. Erik Cain and his Marines grimly take to the field once again, for what may be their final battle, against the robotic legions of the First Imperium. But facing a ruthless and technologically superior enemy may be easier than learning to fight alongside old enemies. The Line Must Hold (Crimson Worlds V) The robotic legions of the First Imperium burst into human space, destroying everything in their path. Their antimatter-powered fleets drove back the desperately defending human forces, seizing world after world. Directed by the maniacal Regent, the enemy pressed forward with one goal - the destruction of mankind. The Superpowers of Earth, bitter enemies for over a century, have at last banded together to face the threat from outside. Their combined forces have fought stubborn delaying actions to buy time, but they couldn't stop the relentless onslaught. Now the Rim has fallen, and the heart of human space lies before the invaders. On three worlds, mankind will make its stand, and all the power Earth and its colonies can muster has been gathered there. Three worlds - Sandoval, Garrison, and Samvar. The Line. Erik Cain grimly leads his veteran Marines and their new allies to Sandoval, to fight and to hold that world against anything the enemy throws at it. But Cain plans more than just a defense; he intends to annihilate the enemy forces...and he'll sacrifice anything to win the ultimate victory. Even his soul. To Hell's Heart (Crimson Worlds VI) The combined forces of humanity have beaten back the First Imperium invasion. For the first time, the enemy has been defeated in battle. The cost was high in blood and suffering, but the Line held. The heart of human-occupied space has been saved from annihilation. For now. There is little time for the victorious warriors to savor their triumph or mourn their dead. The First Imperium has been driven back, but it has not been defeated. No one expects the fruits of victory to be more than a brief respite. Augustus Garret, Erik Cain, and the rest of the human high command have a decision to make. Do they stand on the defensive, waiting for the massive second invasion they all know will come? Or do they consider another option, one that compels them to face overwhelming odds, and launch a strike that could end the war in one campaign? The attack ship Hornet returned home after a miraculous run through enemy space, and her crew brought with them priceless intelligence…the location of a world of the First Imperium. In the capitals of Earth, the ruling classes call for caution, for the armed forces to stand on the defensive. But on the frontier, Garret and his compatriots are planning something different, and they do not intend to be deterred. They are going to take the war to the enemy. They are going to march into hell’s heart.

    But before Earth can benefit from the advanced technologies offered by the other cultures, it must form a united world government. Old habits are hard to break and it doesn't take long before things begin to unravel.Jay Kauffman, mathematical genius and creator of the stardrive, believed his invention would free mankind. Instead, it has made war inevitable.Translight is the first book of the Galactic Alliance series. It is a hard military science fiction space opera that has been compared to E.E. 'Doc' Smith's famous Lensmen and Skylark series.

    

    Dick in this dystopian drug-fueled novel set in the not-so-distant future.Synth is a drug able to induce hallucinations indistinguishable from reality. But it’s brand new, highly addictive, and more than likely dangerous. Even the dealers peddling the pills don’t know what long term effects the drug will have on its users. For Markus Olsen, Synth offers an easy escape to his crumbling life. Markus, an ex-hacker, has been caught red-handed, and while his friends were sent to jail for thirty years, Markus decided to cooperate, agreeing to lend his services and particular criminal expertise to Viborg City’s secret service, aiding the oppressive state power he’d been fighting to break in exchange for his relative freedom.But Markus’ past as an anarchist comes back to haunt him, in the form of a credit card with no account but an seemingly unlimited balance as well as the discovery of a mysterious novel in which he is a main character. How much of his reality is being produced by Synth? How disconnected from real life has Markus become? Forced to face his past and the decisions he’s made, Markus must decide to choose between the artificial comfort of his constructed life and the harsh reality of treason and the struggle for freedom.Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

    103 pages of summaries and analysis on Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.This comprehensive study guide includes the following sections written by BookRags.com: Plot Summary, Chapter Summaries & Analysis, Characters, Objects/Places, Themes, Style, and Topics for Discussion.

    The girl in the red coat. But how did she know his name? The Great Network is a place of drones and androids, maintenance spiders and Station Angels. The place of the thousand gates, where sentient trains criss-cross the galaxy in a heartbeat. Zen Starling is a petty thief, a street urchin from Thunder City. So when mysterious stranger Raven sends Zen and his new friend Nova on a mission to infiltrate the Emperor's train, he jumps at the chance to traverse the Great Network, to cross the galaxy in a heartbeat, to meet interesting people - and to steal their stuff. But the Great Network is a dangerous place, and Zen has no idea where his journey will take him.