The only the thing is, it usually happens when I’ve been drinking… and I’d been dry for the better part of two years. I’m Commodore Jeremy David Riker… my friends call me JD or just plain “Dog.” I have the dubious honor of running a starship boneyard in the middle of nowhere.

    Depicting international intrigue and a view of the near future that is simultaneously hopeful and chilling, it is well worth reading. The near-future setting allows for easy extrapolation of current technological and commercial practice, as well as political alignments, making the context of the novel more easily accessible. John Sandford and Ctein’s novel details the accidental discovery of extra-solar space travelers in orbit around Saturn and the responses of major world governments – those of the United States and China – thereto. The two powers deploy their full spacefaring resources to meet and learn from the travelers, each hoping to secure advantage over the rest of the world thereby. The United States ultimately triumphs, although not without cost, and not without ramifications for future generations in the Sol system and beyond. The novel offers its readers an enjoyable romp through the near future of Earth. While it may at times seem to drag against minutiae or against open philosophizing, it also contains much action and intrigue, offering a vision of what may be to come. This companion includes the following: • Book Review • Story Setting Analysis • Story elements you may have missed as we decipher the novel • Summary of the text, with some analytical comments interspersed • Thought Provoking /or Discussion Questions for both Readers & Book Clubs • Discussion & Analysis of Themes, Symbols… • And Much More! This Analysis fills the gap, making you understand more while enhancing your reading experience.

     After the unfortunate events that took place in Britain, Jacob Hunter is no longer certain of many things, but this ill-fated truth is one he understands implicitly. Having spent months battling his addiction to the all-powerful blue orb, a device capable of traveling through time but equally adept at breaking a man’s mind, Jacob has finally succumbed to it. Once aided by loyal companions and the woman he loves, Jacob has abandoned everyone he has ever trusted, his mind warped by the orb’s influence. However, recently given new clues concerning the orb’s potential, Jacob departs for Rome, where he now knows a second orb lay hidden, waiting to be reunited with the orb he already possesses. Accompanied only by Rome’s manipulative empress, Agrippina the Younger, the pair journey to Rome where they hope to discover the secret to the orb’s power, but a destructive truth lies behind what they seek, one he may not be fully prepared to combat… But Jacob is not the only one about to embark on a daring quest. Having been abandoned and left without direction in the hinterlands of ancient Britain, Jacob’s sister, Diana, must find it in herself to rally Jacob’s jilted friends and corral an enraged Helena, the woman he loves, who carries her own mysterious secret after her life was miraculously saved at the brink of death. Unprepared for the responsibility suddenly thrust on her by Jacob's disappearance, Diana understands that she and her friends must find him before it's too late. Clouded and perverted though his mind may be, she knows her brother all too well. Jacob, tormented and driven beyond rationality, is prepared to sacrifice everything to find the lost orb. Including his life...

    You know the names: Columbus, Cortez, Montezuma, and Ponce de León. You were taught the how and why of their actions in school, but did the history books get it right? History, after all, is written by the victor.Come explore the Age of Discovery as you’ve never seen it before, through the eyes of Hastelloy and his crew. The Origins universe breaks new ground with the addition of the Lazarus crew’s collective chronicles of our history.

    The grand opening of the Roman Colosseum. A British attack on Boston in 1776 that wasn’t supposed to happen.Doctor John Campbell, an archaeology professor at a community college, has led an ordinary life, a boring life, until the purchase of an old desk at a local flea market turns out to be an extraordinary find. A desk that once belonged to one of the most brilliant and frightening minds in the history of science. Hidden inside is a device that no one except the long dead scientist has ever seen. This discovery sparks a chain of events that sends Campbell on an amazing adventure that spans centuries, but Campbell’s journey quickly becomes more than he bargained for and the consequences could have dire effects on time itself.

    When she awakens aboard a ship in the nineteenth century, she assumes she's dreaming. Even the handsome ship's doctor can't convince her that she must have traveled through time. Dr. Daniel Hawthorne doesn't know what to do with the odd woman who keeps materializing out of thin air and then vanishing from his cabin. How long can he hide her from the captain, the crew, the other passengers? But hiding his time traveler hardly seems to matter when the ship flounders during a storm somewhere in the South Pacific. Can Maggie travel back through time to save herself? Would she leave Daniel if she could?

     To who, Michael 'Ward' Miller isn't exactly sure. Whoever killed his partner was a pro. She was shot at an impossible distance, by a weapon that isn't supposed to exist. But Sadler wasn't just his partner, she was the best person he knew. Now she's dead, and Ward won't rest until he finds out who was responsible. But on Mars, 2342 AD, anyone could be the killer. The Solar System is awash with spies, mercenaries and powerful, unaccountable corporations. After powerful aliens arrived a hundred years before, colonizing the red planet, our system was thrown into chaos. The Martians were stronger, more advanced, and remorseless. They could have wiped us out. Instead we struck a fragile, uneasy truce. And now someone wants to blow the whole thing up. And maybe, take humanity with it. Ward was supposed to be out of the espionage business. Now he has seven days to uncover the conspiracy that killed his partner. Or let the entire system go up in flames...

    Just over 350,000 words) Outbreak Ruin Infested The Ark Noah’s Story Red’s Story Betty and Lennie’s Story Doctor Lazaro’s Story Echo’s Story Coco’s Story The Black Spores False Hope The Pods The Long Road No Turning Back A Friend in Need All Aboard New Hope Keep Running and The Seven Seeds of the Gods – Ancient Egypt Mankind is no longer at the top of the food chain. THE SIXTH EXTINCTION (Books 1 to 4) The Sixth Extinction is an apocalyptic tale about a pandemic that sweeps the globe, decimating the human race, leaving humanity struggling to survive. Within three weeks everything has changed. Social structure has collapsed. The police are non-existent, and the army concentrates on the cities. Gangs of yobs rule the streets. It becomes everyone for themselves. The story follows three main characters, Noah, Red and Doctor Melanie Lazaro, as well as Betty and her simpleminded grandson, and a Squad of military personnel. It follows all their journeys of self-discovery through the changing world. Noah Morgan is just an average twenty-one-year-old. He has no aspirations in life, no girlfriend, few friends, and a dead-end job. Red is a nineteen-year-old female runaway, with a sad past and a disturbing secret. Together they leave behind everything they have ever known, looking for a safe haven. Betty and her grandson Lennie are just trying to stay alive, and find somewhere safe to hide while they try to make sense of all the madness around them. The Squad is a small group of military personnel who are trying to get back to the safety of their large base – a base that holds a secret. Doctor Melanie Lazaro is working around the clock, under military supervision, in Exeter University’s Biomedical Sciences Department, trying to create a cure for the new pandemic that is turning humans back to their primordial roots, creating mindless killing machines with only one purpose − to eat. The four-part series is a fast-paced story, all set within a twenty-four-hour time frame. THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: THE FIRST THREE WEEKS (Books 1 to 4) The four part series is a prelude to The Sixth Extinction series. We get to see what happened within the first three weeks of the outbreak from the point of view of the five main characters, set out in four new books. THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: THE SQUADS FIRST THREE WEEKS (Books 1 and 2) The Sixth Extinction continues with two short prelude stories about the main military characters. We get to follow Echo and Coco as they find themselves thrown into the pandemic that is sweeping the globe. THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: AMERICA (Books 1 to 9) We cross the ocean to America to see how they are coping with the infection on the other side of the world. The Story follows a group of fourteen strangers, who lived in an apartment building in the Fordham Heights area of New York City; they decide to band together, seeking shelter in a shipping container, on the back of a truck heading towards Pennsylvania. Along the way they run into other groups who will do anything to survive. There is a group of military misfits who run a small town that forces other survivors into slavery.

     Now get Books 4, 5 & 6 all in one Volume! Athena Lee has had a very difficult couple of years. After surviving years alone lost in a distant galaxy she joined a new Navy and has been reassigned to her home planet. At first her family is happy to see her. Interstellar politics intrude upon her happy visit. Revolution is in the air, in more ways than one. Pirates return to threaten her planet. A hidden conspiracy emerges that threatens the galaxy. What can one lone Engineer do against all of that?

    The future lies where genetics, A.I. and time collide. You don’t want to miss the conclusion of the Field Series main arc! Complete your journey with one small step,The future has arrived. Now.

    An examination of Le Guin's career, from her obscure beginnings in the science fiction magazines to her rapid rise to the top in the 1970's.

    A team of fossil hunters... A desperate fight to survive.... In book 5, Hannah and the other survivors arrive in the ice world of the Pleistocene, bare of trees and with almost no animal life. Starving, with no other game to hunt, they must take on the mighty Mammoth and his wicked tusks. Can they survive the freeze long enough to jump back to modern times?

    The slaves stole an ore carrier and escaped, and after failing at trade, desperation and hatred drove them to piracy. John was a hugely successful pirate, until forced to confront the horrors committed by his men. He grabs a ship and a bag of gems, and runs away, determined to regain his self-respect. Pursued by his former colleagues, he flees across man-settled space. Along the way, he learns that his ship is much more than a simple yacht, deals with a stowaway girl, almost accidentally buys an orbital scrap yard, finds himself responsible for a beautiful young woman, fights off a pirate attack, falls in love, makes a friend, and learns that his refuge has been invaded by another planet. John, now Cale, and his friends plan to use derelicts from his scrap yard to free his sanctuary planet. But can a bunch of resurrected hulks really defeat a planetary fleet? And just what IS a Privateer, anyway?

    They are unsure of what happened in space or how they crashed into an uncharted planet. Upon exploration of the new world, they soon realize their destination: The Triassic, the first chapter of the Mesozoic Era. A plan is formulated to escape this terrifying landscape plagued with dinosaurs and prehistoric beasts. The survivors soon discover that there may be an even larger threat looming under the trees than just the dinosaurs, threatening to cut their mission short and trap them all forever in the primitive depths of the Triassic.

    Billionaire genius Byron Gaines is accused of murdering his wife and her lover, but he swears he didn't do it. This couldn't have come at a worse moment: he is so close to a breakthrough in his research. He's about to invent a device that will change the world forever. The irony is, if only he had a little more time, he'd be able to make his legal problems disappear--along with himself. Travel to the near future with unforgettable characters and evocative depictions of imminent technologies. See how society could evolve in both utopian and dystopian ways.