But Talon's not hunting alone. Someone else wants the artifact too -- someone very powerful. And Talon and his team must outwit Germany's most potent megacorporation if they're to have any chance of returning the treasure or any chance of returning at all...

    His choices? Save them, betray them, or die with them."Shetterly is a genuinely witty writer." —West Coast Review of Books"A funny, exciting adventure story that delighted me from beginning to end." —Orson Scott Card, Worlds of IfThe story of Rifkin Outcast, Last Master of Castle Gromandiel:When I was a boy in the western fishing village of Loh, I was chosen by the wandering priests of the Warrior Saint to master her Art. Though no one would think me a priest or a saint, I learned my lessons well. I've had half the assassins of Moon Isle on my trail, and still I survive.After all these years, the art of war runs in my blood. And now—without warning—the art of magic as well...

    Reanimated ahead of schedule, Adam Hassler, former Delta Force officer, leads the first expedition out of David Pilcher's mountain superstructure. His mission is simple. Guide and protect a team of surveyors and scientists, while they study the surrounding area and collect data for the reconstruction of Wayward Pines. A few hours into the trek, Hassler suspects that the operation has been compromised--by the very people that ordered it.With daylight fading, Hassler's team faces an unknown threat, on unfamiliar ground--in front of an impatient audience.The GENESIS connection to Blake Crouch's bestselling Wayward Pines series:David Pilcher predicted mankind's fall. The world as he knew it would be gone when his "volunteers" emerged from suspension--and they would rebuild it.He'd reboot humanity in Wayward Pines, Idaho--a cozy, idyllic town situated deep inside a sheltered mountain valley. The residents of Wayward Pines would be protected: isolated from the dangers of the new world.Only one obstacle stood in the way. An enemy far deadlier than Pilcher ever imagined possible. A powerful, uncompromising adversary--immune to fear and devoid of mercy. Humankind's worst nightmare.With the odds overwhelmingly stacked against his project, and time running out, Pilcher takes a wild chance on an unpredictable member of his team. Adam Hassler, former Delta Force officer, is woken from suspension ahead of schedule and ordered to explore the valley. The task sounds simple to Hassler, but there's a catch. He is unaware of the danger lurking in the forest beyond the hatch--and nobody plans to warn him.The vicious struggle to build Wayward Pines unfolds in the definitive prequel to The Wayward Pines series.This ebook was published through an agreement with the author of Wayward Pines, Blake Crouch. Mr. Crouch has not necessarily read or endorsed this story.

     Carl Ramsey is the head of his own criminal Syndicate. With a hundred men and women and the resources of a tiny jungle moon at his disposal, life should have gotten easier, not harder. Infighting, politics, and a lack of income to pay everyone begin to tear the syndicate apart from the inside. And the last thing Carl needs is his father stepping in to try to help. Mission 9: Adventure Capital Carl sets out with some new recruits to earn some startup funds for his new syndicate. But when he discovers that his criminal enterprise doesn't have enough criminals to run it, he goes to recruit some old friends. Mission 10: Collusion Course While Carl and the Mobius are stranded, dead in space, Chuck Ramsey steps in to handle the day-to-day operations of the syndicate. Can Carl get his ship repaired and get home while he still has a syndicate left? Mission 11: You, Robot Wizards are all convinced that any thinking robot would be a threat to life as we know it. Robots are paranoid that wizards are out to get them. When the Mobius comes across a robot claiming to be a wizard, they don't know quite what to do with him. But there's a wizard who does, and he's not planning to play nice. Mission 12: Stowaway to Heaven With the aid of some inside information, the Mobius crew are ready to take on an old nemesis. Their goal: to infiltrate and hijack the Harmony Bay ship Bradbury. Bonus Short Story: Voice of Reason With Carl off being treated like a VIP, a job comes in for the Mobius. Roddy, Archie, and Yomin take on the assignment, but they have to manufacture a convincing impostor of Carl to do it.

    Fighting alongside the Raven Guard Legion, Marcus Valerius of the Therion Cohort has long scorned those who seek to deify the Emperor, but a flash of inspiration leads him to question whether or not there are greater forces at work in the universe...

    Her assignment is to eliminate the destructive patriarchal regime of the Hierolath. But shortly after her arrival, Vali finds herself betrayed by her mission partner, who is not the man he seems. Frey, once Vali's lover, has undergone a genetic transformation to disguise himself and has his own agenda for travelling to Nhem. After Vali's escape from the clutches of the Hierolath's militia she goes in search of Frey in order to discover the reasons for his betrayal. Her journey takes Vali to Darkland, where sinister forces known as the vitki wreak havoc...Praise for Liz Williams and her novel BANNER OF SOULS:'A vivid adventure . . . that lingers long after the last page is turned' K. J. Bishop'A gothic feast for the imagination that places Liz Williams in the first rank of visionary science fiction writers' Charles Stross'Liz Williams is this generation's answer to Margaret Atwood and Sheri Tepper' Chris Moriarty

    But the governments and power structures didn't yet control space, where bold new techniques could freely be applied and the vast resources of the solar system could be utilized by such courageous men and women as: • Aneas MacKenzie—he had believed in the man he had helped to reach the office of the presidency of the United States, and had tirelessly rooted out corruption wherever he found it, until the trail led straight back to the White House. After that, no place on Earth was safe for him. • Laurie Jo Hansen—she controlled a multi-national corporation more powerful than many governments. Unlike those governments, she wanted to see Earth’s problems solved and reaching the high frontier was the only way to do that. • Kevin Senecal—he had made the mistake of fighting back against a juvenile gang, and accidentally killing one of them while escaping. Both the gang and the law were after him, and on all of Earth there was no place to hide. • Ellen MacMillan—a young employee of the Hansen Corporation who fascinated Kevin, she was on a secret mission, and the biggest secret was her real name.   Two complete novels—High Justice and Exiles to Glory—in one volume by a New York Times best-selling author, telling of an Earth sinking into a morass of corruption, red tape, and failure of nerve, while a dedicated few dare to reach for the stars.

    In this breathtaking volume by "the King of Comics, " Jimmy Olsen's highly popular adventures from the early 1970s are beautifully reprinted. Showcasing his creative genius, Kirby used these monumental stories of Superman and Jimmy Olsen to introduce his Fourth World mythological epic. Featuring the first appearance of Darkseid, these groundbreaking tales forever revolutionized the art of storytelling across all genres.

    Then the enemies are forced to become allies when everyone becomes lost in an unfamiliar region of the galaxy and must fight their way back through primative planets and against alien fleets. As always with Smith, romance and action are equally mixed. The Seaton is forced back into action to stop a menace that threatens every civilized planet in the galaxy, but to do it he must create the greatest starship ever conceived. Finally read Triplanetary, the story that helped launch the Lensmen series. A brainy man and heroic woman fight against ruthless space pirates for life and love.

    With influences that range from Star Trek to Kung Fu, from the Marquis de Sade to Sam Peckinpah, Farren has created a bizarre universe populated with pre-teen dictators, huge twin-brained domestic lizards, and growing bio-computers tended by martial arts-practising monks. Farren let his imagination run wild and the results are awesome. Expect fanciful weapons, medieval jails, public hangings, Albert Speer architecture, gunfights, stiletto heels and femmes fatales in tight clothing, orgies, orgasms, and undefined monsters called Disruptors that suck up all life and logic. The Quest of the DNA Cowboys: Striding out of the small township of Pleasant Gap - reproduction pistols in their hands, portable generators at their belt - come Billy and Reave, the DNA Cowboys. They hit the long and winding trail through the molecular dissolution of the Nothings, teetering on the edge of non-existence, to Graveyard and beyond...Synaptic Manhunt: Brother Jeb Stuart Ho's mission will take him out into the sick, post-cataclysmic world, to the pleasure city of Litz, with its Sex-O-Mats, its Torture-Parlours, its genetically-bred courtesans, where Billy and Reave, the DNA Cowboys, have found their private hells.The Neural Atrocity: The all-knowing, all-providing computer at Stuff Central has made a critical error that could mean the end of human life. Against all its programming, the cloning plant at Stuff Central has supplied A.A. Catto - sadistic child-woman ruler of Quahal - with enough genetically-engineered soldiers to realise her dream of world conquest. The Brotherhood orders Jeb Stuart Ho to stop her.

    Dick award and was optioned by Hollywood. He followed this up with two further novels continuing the adventures of Takeshi Kovacs - BROKEN ANGELS and WOKEN FURIES. He also wrote two further standalone SF novels, MARKET FORCES and BLACK MAN (which won the Arthur C. Clarke award).All five of these novels are collected here as the perfect introduction to Richard's work, or a welcome reminder of his power as a writer. Richard has also written two computer games (CRYSIS 2 and SYNDICATE), comics for MARVEL and is currently working on a fantasy trilogy comprising OF THE STEEL REMAINS, THE COLD COMMANDS, THE DARK DEFILES.

    A Zone Implant can turn such a person into a zombie, to protect his shipmates, but it's highly illegal.Ensign Morn Hyland works for the United Mining Company, which is in charge of law enforcement throughout known space. She lives aboard a police ship, together with most of her family; their job is to chase down pirates and other illegals who prey on the weak, or smuggle goods into forbidden space. Her life is nothing out of the ordinary - until she falls in with the pirate Captain Nick Succorso. All of a sudden, the young, strong, beautiful police officer appears to be falling in love - well, lust at least - with the murdering pirate, or so it appears to the folk at the space station's bar.But the real story was quite different ...

    But it never occurred to them that anyone lived there... Includes "Flip-A-Mation" art inside each book!

    Imprisoned for mass-murder, he escapes with the help of two strange men and a mysterious benefactor. Unfortunately for Drake, they don’t just want a piece of the action. They want it all. Gift Horse: Mutilated by rival convicts, Marco Vance is brought back from the brink of death. Outfitted with the latest cybernetic enhancements, he returns to the Regional Atlanta Metroplex as the conquering criminal kingpin. But, his savior demands that he deliver a message to repay his debt. A message that no one will forget.Money Is Everything: Street gangs hunt a deposed crime boss carrying a case of cash. Pursued and friendless, he can trust no one. Except someone he can buy. Luckily, Noose the genetically engineered dwarf mercenary is always for hire. But, what is his price?Total length about 15,000 words.Includes a free 8000 word excerpt of the full-length novel DEAD DWARVES DON'T DANCE.

    His life has been filled with music, and having only songs for companions, he develops a voice that is unlike any heard before. Ansset's voice is both a blessing and a curse, for the young Songbird can reflect all the hopes and fears his auidence feels and, by magnifying their emotions, use his voice to heal--or to destroy. When it is discovered that his is the voice that the Emperor has waited decades for, Ansset is summoned to the Imperial Palace on Old Earth. Many fates rest in Ansset's hands, and his songs will soon be put to the test: either to salve the troubled conscience of a conqueror, or drive him, and the universe, into mad chaos.Songmaster is a haunting story of power and love--the tale of the man who would destroy everything he loves to preserve humanity's peace, and the boy who might just sing the world away.